Franc-tireur

[mordac]

Hi All:

I've been reading a book translated from German to English and published in 1918. I've come across the word"franc-tireur" half a dozen times. Does anyone know what franc-tireur means? Thanks.

Garth

[Mark Hone]

The phrase literally means 'free shooter' and was first used to describe the irregular forces who waged a guerrilla struggle against the invading Prussian/German armies in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1. It was used in the Great War to describe what in the Second World War we would call ' the Resistance'.

See http://www.firstworldwar.com/atoz/franctireur.htm for a good article on the term.

[mordac]

Hi Mark:

Thanks for the definition and the link to the firstworldwar.com web page. It fits with what I've been reading.

Garth

[Frank_East]

By WW2 during the German occupation of France by the Nazi Regime,the phrase became wholly associated with the Communist led FTP.

Francs-Tireurs were seen as Communists first and partisans second and being regarded as National Socialist's deepest ideological opponents could expect no more than a barbarous instant death at the point of capture not as though the occupying Nazi forces held any regard for any resister or dissident.

The FTP or Francs-Tireurs et Partisans was the paramilitary organisation of the Communist Front National.(De Gaulle dissolved the organisation as quick as he could after the liberation for obvious reasons)

Even through the Forces Francaises de l'Interieur,ie the FFI were organised in early 1944 and placed under the command of General Pierre Koenig bringing the whole resistance movements,left and right under one structure headed by De Gaulle,the FTP continued to act independantly throughout occupied France.Indeed the FTP nearly stole the show from De Gaulle on the fall of Paris in August 1944 when the FTP "Col Rol" tried to take the surrender of General von Choltitz the German Paris Commander instead of De Gaulle's nominee General Leclerc of the French 2nd Armoured Division.

I have a feeling that the present day left wing Paris daily "Liberation" might have had its roots in the FTP.

Regards

Frank East