DD346 FF1 Gendarme

After the Fall of France in 1940 most French policemen became a tool of collaboration between Marshal Petain’s Vichy regime and the Germans. Until the end of 1942 the French Gendarmerie were used to suppress, capture and imprison Communists and Foreigners and basically do most of the Germans’ ‘dirty work’. By mid 1943 however many policemen were seeing the ‘way the wind was blowing’ and began to change sides and perhaps belatedly recognize their own patriotic feelings. Some began to join the resistance and even take part in clandestine operations against the hated ‘Boche’.

Following the Normandy Invasion and the liberation of towns and village it was now time to put on the F.F.I. (French Forces of the Interior) armband, grab your rifle and go out and round up some German prisoners!