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The Milice française (French Militia), generally called la Milice (lit. ' the militia '; French pronunciation:), was a political paramilitary organization created on 30 January 1943 by the Vichy régime (with German aid) to help fight against the French Resistance during World War II.
On 10 June 1944, four days after D-Day, the village of Oradour-sur-Glane in Haute-Vienne in Nazi-occupied France was destroyed when 643 civilians, including non-combatant men, women, and children, were massacred by a German Waffen-SS company as collective punishment for Resistance activity in the area including the capture and subsequent execution of a close friend of Waffen-SS ...
The Milice chief of Orléans and the archbishop of Bourges were able to negotiate an exchange on 23 June 1944, where the maquis released their female hostages (except for one woman who chose to join the maquis) in exchange for the Milice releasing their hostages, though the Germans refused to free any of their hostages and instead deported them ...
They relied on guerrilla tactics to harass the Milice (the Vichy militia) and German occupation troops. The Maquis also aided the escape of downed Allied airmen, Jews and others pursued by the Vichy and German authorities. Maquisards usually relied on some degree of sympathy or cooperation from the local populace.
Joseph Darnand (19 March 1897 – 10 October 1945) was a French collaborator with Nazi Germany during World War II.A decorated soldier in the French Army of World War I and early World War II, he went on to become the organizer and de facto leader of the Milice française, or French Militia, the collaborationist Vichy government's paramilitary police force.
The Milice (French paramilitary police) staged several attacks, which failed. On 23 March three battalions from the German 157th Reserve Division and two Order Police battalions , composed of more than 4,000 men, with heavy machine guns, 80 mm mortars, 75 mm mountain guns, 150 mm howitzers and armoured cars, concentrated in Haute-Savoie.
The Franc-Garde (English: Free Guard) was the armed wing of the French Milice (Militia), operating alone or alongside German forces in major battles against the Maquis from late 1943 to August 1944. History
The Germans also used the Milice (a pro-German French paramilitary militia) to suppress the growing strength of the resistance on the Vercors massif. On 15 April 1944 a column of 25 Milice vehicles attacked the village of Vassieux, burning several farms and shooting or deporting some of the inhabitants. [19]