Secrets of War Season 1, Ep 13: The French Resistance

next on secrets of war 1940 Nazi Germany invaded France inflicting the worst humiliation the French had ever known brave individuals risking torture and death took it upon themselves to reclaim the honor of their country and carried on a secret merciless guerrilla campaign the unseen face of the French Resistance is next on secrets of war [Music] as the phoney war of 1940 exploded into blitzkrieg Nazi troops poured into France the impregnable Maginot Line there em and and Dunkirk quickly fell at each test the French military failed the government was impotent wracked by political crisis the relentless Nazi drive took thousands of prisoners from towns and villages in its path the bodies of 100,000 victims littered the earth in panic tens of thousands of French clogged the roads heading southward fleeing the Nazi advance the Luftwaffe attacked Paris [Music] the government fled West barely one month after the start of the blitzkrieg on June 4th the Vermont marched into the Capitol [Music] the Nazis took the jewel of France for the speed of a ruthless thief the population was stupefied and disorganized you have all that trauma going on so the shock is one which is both instant and devastating people cannot imagine what has happened to their lives at the top of the Eiffel Tower the Nazis unfurled the swastika German troops paraded down the Sean's alizée but the streets were deserted half the Parisian population had fled and a bright light of midsummer those who stayed cowered indoors shrouded by the blackness of defeat individual acts of resistance for suicidal any overt actions brought immediate execution the British frantically demanded that their French allies stand fast against Hitler but to no avail in Bordeaux marshal Philippe it down the aged hero of World War one became Prime Minister instead of mounting an offensive he offered surrender history will later tell what you have been saved from Hitler accepted victims request for an armistice under the most humiliating circumstances possible the Fuhrer demanded that it be signed in the same railroad car where a crippled Germany had capitulated to France in 1918 at the end of World War one the denigration was only beginning the Armistice divided France in two German military authority is governed in an occupied zone in the north the south the so-called unoccupied zone was governed from the spa town of mission by the collaborator marshal played on across France pitar was the respected savior of the louvre or one many placed their trust in him hoping he would play a double game resisting the occupiers but pit da immediately eliminated progressive leaders from local government jobs the Republican ideas of Liberty fraternity and equality were replaced by work family and fatherland these values suspiciously resembled the fascist ideology of Nazi Germany in the occupied north after the debacle of the first days there was an air of unreal calm the population was awed by the occupiers the troops were on their best behavior [Music] we were all impressed by the virility the beauty the youth parents had taken on a new face German soldiers began to frequent book stores and cafes at major avenues signs were posted in German yet in the daytime there was a sense of normalcy the Nazis wore a velvet glove over their iron fist all that was oppressive but it was in some way normal and then at night there was this sort of dark fearful night which was the night of the knock on the door the gestapo coming around the Germans beginning to start imposing their will upon people the Reich's propaganda experts installed a ministry in Paris bed richer film and radio spewed out Nazi ideology all opposition press was shut down progress about the war and about Vichy government failures were known only by word-of-mouth connections were the political opposition were difficult to make food shortages developed rationing was imposed all the while Germans continued to buy whatever pleased them with the complicity of the Vichy government manufacturing sectors were redirected to supply the Nazi war effort the weight of German demands increased rural areas quickly became the object of requisitions brave individuals stood up a 19 year old boy both they cut the communication cables in a German air base he was caught and immediately executed the Nazis were quick to make an example of anyone who resisted in spite of the danger individuals discreetly began to defy the new authority rail workers switched trains on the wrong track simply changed signs to misdirect engineers but most people were isolated paralyzed by fear Churchill saw the malaise in France he realized that Great Britain now stood alone against the Nazi aggressor not content to leave his country's defense to traditional military forces he ordered the creation of the Special Operations Executive the SOE Germany had won the war all over the continents of the earth of Germany what at that moment there were very few resistance in France and SOE job was to Goa go and get it started each task was to to create resistance well it didn't exist when stimulated when it did their clandestine agents penetrated occupied France to perform acts of sabotage gather intelligence and make contacts with potential resistors it was a long slow road in 1940 according to SOE estimates only one French civilian and a hundred was ready to resist but the SOE was not the only group interested in opposing the Nazis outside France an unknown general had escaped to London with some little resources he made an appeal over the BBC to the French population not to let the flame of resistance die few heard the broadcast that was not clear what this military man could do from London his name was Charles DeGaulle as the population of Paris adjusted to Nazi rule individuals began to contemplate action but what could they do the army was demobilized the forces of repression were everywhere and a collaborationist French government was in place resistance started informally while most of the population tried to adapt others formed small groups they operated in a vacuum often without clear objectives long term strategy was non-existent one of the first groups that formed in Paris was located at the musee de long the museum of man the intellectuals that worked there found the nazi idea of Aryan superiority who repugnant they resist as people of culture they're defending against barbarism the anti culture the culture of the fascist ideology which is which is not cultural at all that that's an assets culture it's it's a devalued depraved culture the staff began to produce and he Nazi pamphlets and developed networks throughout France they established safe houses in Spain for escaped soldiers their numbers grew and they made connections with the SOE in London one of the news agents penetrated a submarine base if saunas are built by the German Navy he found detailed plans of its design the tragedy struck the musée de l'homme had been infiltrated the Nazis arrested fifteen members fortunately the plans for the submarine base made it to London and the RAF the British bombed some bizarre but not before the execution of the leaders of the musee de rome network and they all the largest city in the unoccupied zone things were different it was an important rail center an industrial zone that fed the German war machine but it was not yet fully under Nazi control it was relatively freer than Paris with a long history of political activity people from all over France masked their clandestine presses churned out newspapers in journals hoping to rouse the population to resistance they are trying to insist that there is another identity to France apart from the France which was defeated in the Third Republic there are German newspapers everywhere there are collaborationist newspapers everywhere loads of collaborations newspapers being churned out you've got to have some voice against them these early resistors often hid in the trouble in Lyon an ancient maze-like structure that allowed them to escape detection by disappearing without a trace all refrain a an ex-military man was one of the first to realize something had to be done when the Nazis attacked in May 1940 he was a captain defending the Maginot Line first trusting marshal Pickton's called for an armistice frenay quickly had second thoughts he couldn't understand how a great man could capitulate so unconditionally leaving an empire out of combat he circulated his doubts in a small paper to his colleagues he soon developed excellent links with disaffected military men across France these links proved vital in forming direct action and intelligence groups frenay realized the need for arms and made contact for the Americans in Switzerland he supplied them with information in exchange for support as his newspaper grew into an important daily publication so did his organization both assumed the name combat [Music] across France workers had traditionally been organized in unions and were known for their militancy a colorful aristocrat a man well dusty a started a simple paper called Liberace on to appeal to their interests [Music] his paper quickly turned into the foremost Democratic Workers Organization in France from their workplaces liberation members collected mining explosives weapons and intelligence another resistance organizer into the always on Pierre Levine the young Jewish lawyer and war veteran had read mine Kampf for him Patton's capitulation in the face of Hitler's demonic designs was unacceptable he published a call to action entitled from terror to the irregular well established in professional and governmental circles Levy brought the middle class into a movement which spread across France from terror agents developed superb sources of intelligence in the telephone and postal systems a fascist militia of French thugs the me niece took notice of these groups [Music] working with the Gestapo they arrested tortured and killed resistance members [Music] in London the goal was cut off from the day-to-day struggles inside France but he was sure of one thing if the resistance was to be effective it had to be unified he charged Jean along with the task mala was already a legendary leader at the beginning of the war he was arrested and tortured when as a government official he refused to sign a false document rather than betray his compatriots he attempted suicide by slashing his throat with a piece of glass he later escaped to London and joined the Gulf he always wore a scarf to cover the wound when Milan returned to France in 1941 the goal was not well liked by the British or the Chiefs of French resistance Milan convinced him that despite their differing political views de Gaulle often the best hope for unity he was also a source for arms and money one group was conspicuously absent from the fray the French Communist Party they were large and well-organized they understood better than any other group the nature of clandestine struggle however the Russo German non-aggression pact made Germany and Russia uneasy allies Moscow ordered the French Communist Party to the sidelines in Paris many communist party members and sympathizers were ready to act with or without the party often they were immigrants who were your de France by the beacon of liberty equality and fraternity Vichy and German authorities had imposed harsh laws on them they had nowhere to go one such family was the Elex the parents arrived from Hungary with their two sons and a daughter they were determined to make a better life for themselves they had no illusions about the occupation she did that for quite beyond Eid I was still a child but I remember a guy coming to our door to show us a picture several naked men were being run down by an SS Mercedes was the first time that I felt without their mother's knowledge better than 12 and his older brother Thomas began to act on fabric in mending it called the Papillon we started making fliers on our own and we pasted them up in the street whom we almost wet our pants because there was a curfew and we were not supposed to be out at night miss French and even more so as Jews good father a couple more but things were quickly moving from bad divorce in early 1941 arrests became more frequent one of Bella's friends a German boy of 13 was deported then in an early morning sweep by French police thousands of Jews and immigrants were arrested for the young brothers writing graffiti was not enough [Music] Thomas now 16 sent his younger brother to the libary leave gauche the largest Nazi bookstore in Paris and told him to draw a map today the building houses a clothing store welcome Jada since I was a little boy and I was inconspicuous I carefully studied the place memorize the layout then I left just as I had come in at home Thomas had hollowed out the centre of one of his father's books Das Kapital he'd constructed a bomb the next day my brother came in and placed the bomb which he had hidden in the book right there several moments later the plate glass window exploded into shards and the bookstore was engulfed in flame the Gestapo and the melis arrived the bombing sent shockwaves through the underground in Paris the action put collaborators and occupiers on notice Thomas was recruited into the mo I the MA every air emigres the immigrant workforce this group of young foreigners would soon play an important role in the urban resistance but the resistance was still weak in France England was still fighting alone in 1941 Hitler took a step which would have serious consequences for the Reich his troops stormed across the steppes of Russia shattering the Russo German friendship pact [Music] the war would now be fought on two fronts and England had a new ally in France the Communist Party no longer ideologically hindered by a Russian German agreement swung into furious action in Paris on the 19th of August 1941 on a subway platform a German naval officer was shot dead his killing announced the arrival of a new combat organization the assailant Colonel Fabiana was a member of the FTP Fonterra a partisan the military wing of the Communist Party the FTP moved immediately to join the battle the armed struggle in the streets began German soldiers became targets for attacks but the FGP had joined with the mo AI the war that Paris had escaped in 1940 was now being fought by an army of irregular partisans German response was swift 10 Frenchmen they announced would be killed for every German killed the ver macht started with Jews and communists lay on long Deenie fought with the mo I music John tus absolutely monk Ave we were all absolutely convinced that we were changing the world it was probably idealistic but a man without ideals has no future we had such faith in our ideals that dying for our beliefs seemed a small price to pay in paris the ftp and the mo i became among the nazis most feared adversaries after the bookstore action thomas enok quickly rose in the ranks of the mo AI he became a lieutenant in the unit that specialized in train derailments and attacks on German personnel the FTP and the mo I perfected a system of guerrilla warfare in groups of three they would search out their targets one would lead and scout the second would hold up the rear cover and distract and the third would attack for security reasons the members of the resistance never carried arms on the way to their missions they would meet at a predetermined spot several minutes before and after an attack a child or young mother would deliver and pick up weapons Bela Alec did this many times she been wet have you know donated it when I was 12 I had a violin case and I would carry grenades revolvers automatic rifles with my short pants and my curly hair I look totally innocent I was a kid I was never suspected in fact when there were round ups the police told me to get out of the way despite strict security sections of the mo I would later be infiltrated Thomas and twenty of his comrades were arrested a show trial was held yeah go on boys are pushing there was a big propaganda campaign it took advantage of the fact that they were Romanians Hungarians Italians Spaniards and Jews to say to the public see that's the French Resistance Jews and foreigners they cut off from Thomas Bella and his family went into hiding they feared for their lives all over France posters appeared born with the clip in Heber film it was horrible everyone talked about it everywhere it was all over the streets to tell Fabian Eve it was absolutely horrible the German propaganda campaign had the opposite effect there was an upswell of support for the mo i prisoners but the a Lex understood what the posters meant ten days after the trial Thomas and his comrades were executed their deaths disturbed and inspired Frenchmen for years to come [Music] outside France Allied forces invaded Algeria on November 8th 1942 it was their strategy to encircle the Nazis in Europe a few days later the Nazis marched into the free zone they feared an Allied invasion from the southern coast of France the Vichy government looked more and more like a puppet regime in lyon the response was immediate combat from terror and Liberace on took in more recruits and went further underground to avoid increased pressure from the Gestapo and Milly's systematic sabotage of factories and power stations increased as did attacks on the Nazi military the FDP mo I sent more troops into the region Lentini an Italian immigrant of 16 whose family was active against Mussolini went to Lyon very joined commander liberté an mo I group made up of immigrants and Jews lucky GTO see Bob my friend when I arrived I was picked up by my brother and another Italian the man took me aside and told me you know it's really hard here life expectancy is three months we were fighting the police the Gestapo the melis every day he said if you don't feel like you can do it we'll buy you a ticket back what do you mean I said I'll do my share you can ask my brother I'll never let you down he had come to kill he and his comrades found refuge in solitary rooms away from their friends and family they waited until the call came in the dissection lab is upon table data one of the worst actions imaginable was to go on city Patrol stress was unbearable you were walking on a sidewalk and you saw a man coming towards you he was German all right still he was a man we had such respect for human life that was our culture and then you had to kill him when you were 5 feet away you'd step aside to face him reaching for your gun you pulled the trigger we could see a small hole in the stomach a second shot third shot and when he collapsed we shot him in the head so that he wouldn't suffer after killing a German the resistor would pick up the soldiers identification and weapons walk away and disappear under the trouble the mo I had no connection with the gold or the SOE killing Germans became one of its major sources of arms the Nazis sent the infamous Klaus Barbie to root out resistance activity in Lyon he organized mass executions of any group suspected of resistance activity he was a willing participant in the final solution sending hundreds of Jewish children to death camps a sadist among sadists he became known as the butcher of Lyon to protect themselves the mo I instituted a security system based on groups of three each team was made up like a pyramid only one man the chief knew the addresses of the two below him but not those above him that way of a resistor talked he could never give information about more than two people and at no time could he reveal information about the hierarchy above the security system was so effective that the German forces had to use extreme methods of torture to pry information from resistance members still many could not be broken might be I was arrested I was tortured I had my skull fractured my vertebrae crushed I had my nose broken my testicle smashed people tell me you didn't talk you're a hero I'm not a hero fifty two of my comrades died this way and they didn't talk either if the populace had been indifferent before it now became impossible to avoid the weight of German repression resistance became a fact of life his Nazi occupiers took more and more from the French by the end of 1942 Hitler's Russian campaign left German armies bleeding the Russian winter had crushed Napoleon to survive at Hitler paid an extraordinarily high price in men and materials the war machine at home suffered the rash needed men to run the factories it turned to France false dollies in in France there were a lot of skilled factory workers French industry was the best in the world and that is why the Germans were interest to do it they wanted to use our skilled labor to make sophisticated products for the German army especially planes and heavy armaments the puppet Vichy government created the service travail obligate wha the sto a forced labor draft men would be sent to work in German plants in spite of the propaganda it was seen as slavery the Nazis placed great importance on the forced labour draft [Music] all segments of the resistance called on a population to escape the draft and many men went into hiding in Paris the mo I took a daring action in response three men a group of three as usual attacked Ritter he came out of his house ready to get in his car a man walked up pulled out a gun and killed him they struck a personal blow against Hitler mo I assassinated his personal friend and chief of the sto Julius Ritter Ritter's state funeral was held at La med long Hitler demanded to know who had done this deed he never learned that it was three immigrant Jews from the mo I occupied France however silently applauded these anonymous freedom fighters [Music] Klauss Barbies treachery came home to roost on June 21st 1943 using information gleaned from a traitor he arrests in JAMA lon the goals agent at a secret meeting he was brutally tortured for two weeks and died without revealing who he was or what he knew his death was a temporary setback for the resistance but before his arrest Munna created the CNR the National Committee of the resistance it United the non communist organizations in the north and the south they had all agreed to gather their armed sections into one secret army some of this army would come from the countryside young men who ran afoul of occupation law often hid in the forests they were called to make-- the French word for underbrush escaping a prisoner of war camp in Germany Paul Cote became one of them mysteries are there should be contact I escaped and I went to a French officer who asked me what do you want to do now I answered get the Nazis out of here we've seen enough of them haven't we he was directed into the mountains there he found German deserters and I Franco Spaniards peasants students urban resistors who were no longer safe in the cities and many young men targeted by the new forced labor law the Maquis wolf what were created from scratch just like the resistance of nineteen forty and forty one in the towns had been created from scratch and is created from below from the grassroots it's not imposed from above all over France rural groups of between 15 and 30 men sprang up in spontaneous fashion they began to organize themselves before d-day there were only small actions what we called actions of necessity when the winter came we didn't have warm shoes we learned that the enemy had ordered ski boots for the Russian front when the boots were ready we were informed and we rented a wagon that was about to leave the Maquis were often dirty and without basic necessities Vichy authorities were pricked to brand them as gangsters and thieves contact was prohibited but the peasantry considered them allies whenever possible villagers supplied them with shelter food and false papers in spite of local help the Maquis was poorly armed they had one rifle for every five men one automatic rifle for every hundred there were no match for the heavily armed Germans they resorted to hit-and-run actions that didn't involve direct combat eager to become real fighting units they contacted the Allies to arrange for arms drops let's go for the drop we got a coded message on the BBC at 1:00 p.m. the message had to be confirmed at night when we received confirmation we ran to the landing field started lighting fires and waited the British special operation executive the SOE became interested in incorporating all French groups into one resistance force SOE was anxious to help but it couldn't do a colossal lot it could provide a little food fair quantity of clothes of books and a substantial quantity of small arms in London the Allies began to plan their d-day strategy and included the Maquis and the urban movements in their deliberations soon they intensified contacts with local resistance groups and multiplied arms drops the Maquis continued to use guerrilla strategy vanishing into the woods after each attack [Music] we attack the Germans whenever possible so much so that they didn't dare go out at night and in the day they wouldn't go out with less than ten cars we didn't mind the more they were the more damage we could do the Germans were enraged they abandoned military rules and randomly killed civilians sometimes burning down entire villages but the Maquis were undeterred if anything it reinforces their sense of hatred their sense of the need for resistance to free these areas from the Germans it brings the war close to home very nastily close to home encouraged by their small victories the Maquis spirit soared the established resistance tried to bring Maquis groups into their movements these groups often became affiliated with the national organizations but almost always maintained their local independence by 1944 there were Maquis that had the look of regular troops the Allies considered using them to create liberated zones inside France for rural fighters who began as a disorganized bunch of Outlaws suddenly felt empowered by spring 1944 and liberation fever was in the air ahead of Allied orders the Maquis took initiatives to attack German Garrison's one such attempt happened in the Auvergne the Maquis seized the plateau of mow mache on May 2nd 1944 hundreds of men from villages and towns flooded to the region in the beginning of May there were about twenty seven hundred men at Mon mouche I led 16 hundred and fifty men myself and there were about 1500 hidden in reserve hoping to be the vanguard of the army for national liberation they attacked German positions inflicting serious casualties Russel 72 Germans were killed I'm certain about it because my men took their shoes we didn't have good shoes we had wooden shoes slippers so they took their shoes 72 baths the Germans withdrew only to prepare a counter-attack with heavy artillery and a second round of battle they reclaimed their positions but before they could be slaughtered the Maquis vanished into the woods their leaders awaited Allied instructions on the night of June 5th 1944 the BBC sent a coded message the read message was for the invasion it said what do you think of the sweet apple so we intensified the sabotage the Germans couldn't move anywhere anymore On June 6 Allied forces landed in Normandy within days resistance members sabotaged over 5000 miles of railroad tracks slowing the German supply of men and materiel to the front for the Allies it was vital assistance the fruition of long years of planning in the modernist verka region of southeastern France thousands of Maquis had massed many considered it a modern fortress there was rumor of an allied base on the plateau a Plan C perhaps two-goal himself would return to France at the very core the Germans attacked and were beaten back the Allies dropped machine guns and ammunition on July 14th Bastille Day French Independence Day more Allied aircraft appeared [Music] there's a massive parachute drop on the day which comes down in red white and blue flags or blue Blanc Rouge if for French and they come down in these flags and it's a moment of great of great celebration sure that it was a sign that Plan C would soon be implemented the Maquis considered the region liberated and declared the Republic of their core the BBC broadcast the news in the Maquis waited for the Allies on the terrain they'd prepared then over the mountains of gliders appeared the young troops ran out to meet them they got some juice the young boys who looked up in the sky thought that they were allied planes it happened so fast it only took 12 seconds [Music] over 500 SS troops engaged the lightly armed Maquis in battle and swiftly defeated they were the spearhead of a German attack supported by 20,000 men the remaining 3,500 Maquis were slaughtered in aver Corps villages destroyed as a standing army they were no match for the Germans the Allied planned sea planes never existed in June in July 1944 fierce battles raged in Normandy as the Allied forces moved forward the Germans tried to direct resources to the front urban and rural resistance groups harassed them at every turn Hitler ordered his elite combat unit the strike up from the south they lost critical days blocked by sabotage bridges and rail lines outside the village of oradour-sur-glane a monkey attack captured several Germans one managed to escape making his way back to the strike headquarters a unit of the division descended on the town ohad or Vivi their normal life was normal in Oradour so quiet in fact that when the Germans passed through everybody came out of their house to watch the troops tanks rolled into the village while two German soldiers politely requested that each house be emptied of its inhabitants they directed over 600 villages to the main square there they separated the women and children from the men they heard of the women in children into the church the men were pushed into a hay barn the Nazis set up a machine gun until then there hadn't been a single gunshot in the village outside vogue Marion music was blasting LaMotta and then they started firing at us [Music] comrades collapsed on me gasping then I realized that they really wanted to kill us I kept thinking but I'm not dead I'm not dead the Germans inspected the bodies closely and shot those who were still alive what about one of my friends was lying on me they shot him the bullet went through his head and penetrated my thigh their thirst for cruelty was not yet satisfied they covered the pile of corpses with hay and set it on fire in the church the women and children met a similar fate first a grenade then fired [Music] got a third time you wish yo ma when the fire reached me my arm and hair were burned I thought I should get out of there even though I was convinced that I would be shot on the spot he was lucky the Germans had left only one woman and five men survived the massacre [Music] Robert a bear escaped to the Maquis [Music] soon after d-day the goals forces landed from London to take command of the United resistance the Maquis were integrated into a national structure called the FFI the French forces of the Interior for the first time since Pickton's armistice a french general commanded french troops that engaged the Germans on French soil [Music] on August 16th 1944 the Allies launched Operation anvil invading the South of France the Maquis played an important role in the invasion the Allies had predicted it would take 90 days to reach Grenoble they arrived in just one week the saboteurs and guerrillas had done their job well the war was almost over he seized 22,000 German prisoners but they wouldn't surrender to us the Maquis we had to find an American two-sided papers in fact Germans all over the South were very pleased to surrender but they always tried to surrender to an allied soldier because this was part of the kind of rules of war they wouldn't surrender to guerrillas or freedom fighters for any kind in Paris posters began to appear telling people to prepare for the liberation but there was a debate among the resistance itself should they wait for the military support of the Allies or should they risk Massacre and rise up themselves in Warsaw several weeks earlier in uprising had been attempted the German reaction was overwhelming the city was leveled supreme Allied commander Dwight Eisenhower and the Allies wanted to bypass Paris as they moved toward the Rhine I believed the capital had little military significance and didn't want his troops bogged down in street fighting but events for getting out of hand throughout the summer that been paralyzing strikes and isolated clashes between freedom fighters in Germans all over the capital on August 19th 1944 the resistance organizations of the Paris police reclaimed their own headquarters across the sent from Notre Dame this was the first step toward violent insurrection deep in the catacombs ft PFF i colonel Ronge went to his secret command post he contacted ftp FFI units around paris fighting broke out all over paris [Music] the population that had helplessly watched the Germans march into Paris took to the barricades distributing arms amongst themselves fierce battles continued for days the insurrectionists had spirit but they lacked the heavy weaponry of the Vermont victory was not yet in sight and great losses were expected the gold finally persuaded Eisenhower to divert troops to Paris to avoid a bloodbath or perhaps a communist insurrection on August 25th 1944 the tide of war finally reached Paris tardily the french general LeClair and his 2nd Armored Division arrived in the capital soon French tanks were in place the inevitable day had arrived the Germans surrendered 20,000 were taken prisoner 2,500 were killed in Paris resistance members tracked down the last Nazis and pro-nazi French pursuing them wherever they hid in the end the FFI had lost almost a thousand men more than 500 civilians were dead but Paris was free the Americans had considered setting up a military occupation government but the goal had managed to forge a unity among all the resistance organizations he was the head of France triumphant de Gaulle paraded down the shoals Lille is a the crowd went wild he was followed by a French Army which gave him legitimacy it was made up of Patriots who had struggled clandestinely against enormous odds Eisenhower said that the resistance had made a contribution equivalent to five divisions of men it sprang from the land and from defeat and grew among those who shared a vision of France patriotic and free the Republican land of Liberty fraternity and equality as they neared the Arc de Triomphe it was the end of a long march full of humiliation suffering and agony each step in that long march brought them closer to the dignity and national pride they'd lost in 1940 France was now ready to reclaim her honour many troops from many lands fought and died to liberate the land of France but it was the resistance who liberated her spirit [Music] you

Channel: Secrets of War - Full Episodes

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Keywords: Charlton Heston, War, WWII, World War, World War II, Third Reich, Hitler, Nazi, Germany, Allies, Non-fiction, Documentary, Series, French, FilmRise

Id: -rxFz8izX7w

Length: 52min 2sec (3122 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 20 2016