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Old 06-05-19, 10:30 PM
  #15  
elcraft
elcraft
 
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The Maquis did make significant contributions to D-Day invasion. They befuddled German communications by sabotaging telephone lines, they damaged rail turnouts and signaling equipment and, removed or confused road markings/ directional signage to purposely cause havoc to hamper the Nazi troop movement. While the afore mentioned other partisan and resistant groups were heroically confronting the German troops in guerilla warfare, the French weren't exactly sitting on their hands, either.
According to "The Body Guard of Lies" ( superb history of the secret parts of WW II), the British coordinated most of the resistance movements. They preferred the more "pest like" interference rather than put the Germans on into a more panicked mode, in the run up to D-Day. The British started with more pitched battles in the Balkans and other areas to deliberately encourage the Germans to move troops and assets away from France and the Normandy beaches.
Every occupied nation had its own collaborators and resistance movements. There were plenty of Poles, Ukrainians and others who gleefully availed themselves of opportunities to collaborate with the Nazis- and many who resisted. No one nation should be so judged.
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