22-622: The Milice française ( French Militia ), generally called la Milice ( lit. ' the militia ' ; French pronunciation: [milis] ), 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 . The Milice's formal head was Vichy France's Prime Minister Pierre Laval (in office 1942 to 1944), although its chief of operations and de facto leader
44-699: A milicien in Marseille . By late November, Combat reported that 25 miliciens had been killed and 27 wounded in Resistance attacks. The most prominent person killed by the Resistance was Philippe Henriot , the Vichy regime's Minister of Information and Propaganda, who was known as "the French Goebbels ". He was killed in his apartment in the Ministry of Information on the rue Solferino in
66-705: A fascist single-party political movement for the French State . Milice members frequently used torture to extract information or confessions from those whom they interrogated. The French Resistance considered the Milice more dangerous than the Gestapo or SS because its staff were native Frenchmen who understood local dialects fluently, had extensive knowledge of the towns and countryside, and knew local people and informants. Early Milice volunteers included members of France's pre-war far-right parties, such as
88-744: A section for full-time members, the Franc-Garde , who were permanently mobilized and lived in barracks. The Milice also had youth sections for boys and girls, called the Avant-Garde . The chosen emblem for the Milice carried the Greek letter γ ( gamma ), the symbol of the Aries astrological sign in the Zodiac , ostensibly representing rejuvenation, and replenishment of energy. The color scheme chosen
110-923: Is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Though a paramilitary is, by definition, not a military , it is usually equivalent to a light infantry or special forces in terms of strength, firepower, and organizational structure. Paramilitaries use combat-capable kit/equipment (such as internal security / SWAT vehicles ), or even actual military equipment (such as long guns and armored personnel carriers ; usually military surplus resources), skills (such as battlefield medicine and bomb disposal ), and tactics (such as urban warfare and close-quarters combat ) that are compatible with their purpose, often combining them with skills from other relevant fields such as law enforcement , coast guard , or search and rescue . A paramilitary may fall under
132-774: The Action Française , and working-class men convinced of the benefits of the Vichy government's politics. In addition to ideology, incentives for joining the Milice included employment, regular pay and rations, the latter of which became particularly important as the war continued and civilian rations dwindled to near-starvation levels. Some joined because members of their families had been killed or injured in Allied bombing raids or had been threatened, extorted or attacked by French Resistance groups. Still others joined for more mundane reasons: petty criminals were recruited by being told their sentences would be commuted if they joined
154-482: The Franc-Garde suppressed a revolt started by prisoners at Paris prison La Santé , killing 34 prisoners. The legal standing of the Milice was never clarified by the Vichy government; it operated parallel to (but separate from) the Groupe mobile de réserve and other Vichy French police forces . The Milice operated outside civilian law, and its actions were not subject to judicial review or control. In August 1944, as
176-458: The article wizard to submit a draft for review, or request a new article . Search for " Francis Bout de l'An " in existing articles. Look for pages within Misplaced Pages that link to this title . Other reasons this message may be displayed: If a page was recently created here, it may not be visible yet because of a delay in updating the database; wait a few minutes or try
198-460: The Allied advance in the west. During a period of unofficial reprisals immediately following on the German retreat, large numbers of miliciens were executed, either individually or in groups. Milice offices throughout France were ransacked, with agents often being brutally beaten and then thrown from office windows or into rivers before being taken to prison. At Le Grand-Bornand , French Forces of
220-860: The Interior executed 76 captured members of the Milice on 24 August 1944. Those Frenchmen who managed to escape to Germany and were serving in the German Navy , the National Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK), the Organisation Todt and the Milice security police became part of a new unit known as the Waffen Grenadier Brigade of the SS Charlemagne ( Waffen-Grenadier-Brigade der SS Charlemagne ). The unit also included some remaining personnel from
242-441: The command of a military , train alongside them, or have permission to use their resources, despite not actually being part of them. Under the law of war , a state may incorporate a paramilitary organization or armed agency (such as a law enforcement agency or a private volunteer militia ) into its combatant armed forces. Some countries' constitutions prohibit paramilitary organizations outside government use . Depending on
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#1732779823939264-1028: The definition adopted, "paramilitaries" may include: Francis Bout de l%27An Look for Francis Bout de l'An on one of Misplaced Pages's sister projects : [REDACTED] Wiktionary (dictionary) [REDACTED] Wikibooks (textbooks) [REDACTED] Wikiquote (quotations) [REDACTED] Wikisource (library) [REDACTED] Wikiversity (learning resources) [REDACTED] Commons (media) [REDACTED] Wikivoyage (travel guide) [REDACTED] Wikinews (news source) [REDACTED] Wikidata (linked database) [REDACTED] Wikispecies (species directory) Misplaced Pages does not have an article with this exact name. Please search for Francis Bout de l'An in Misplaced Pages to check for alternative titles or spellings. You need to log in or create an account and be autoconfirmed to create new articles. Alternatively, you can use
286-921: The disbanded Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism (LVF) and the SS-Volunteer Sturmbrigade France (SS-Freiwilligen Sturmbrigade "Frankreich"). Later in February 1945, the unit was renamed the Charlemagne Division of the Waffen-SS . At this time it had a strength of 7,340 men: 1,200 men from the LVF, 1,000 from the Sturmbrigade , 2,500 from the Milice, 2,000 from the NSKK, and 640 who were former Kriegsmarine and naval police. Some of its surviving members were among
308-562: The last defenders of Hitler's bunker, fighting suicidally to the end in the ruins of Berlin. An unknown number of miliciens managed to escape prison or execution, either by going underground or fleeing abroad. A few were later prosecuted. The most notable of these was Paul Touvier , the former commander of the Milice in Lyon . In 1994, he was convicted of ordering the retaliatory execution of seven Jews at Rillieux-la-Pape . He died in prison two years later. Paramilitary A paramilitary
330-400: The organization, and Milice volunteers were exempt from transportation to Germany as forced labour. Official figures are difficult to obtain, but several historians including Julian T. Jackson estimate that the Milice's membership reached 25,000–30,000 by 1944. The majority of members were not full-time militiamen, but devoted only a few hours per week to their Milice activities. The Milice had
352-426: The predawn hours of 28 June 1944 by résistants dressed as miliciens. His wife, who was in the same room, was spared. The Milice retaliated for this by killing several well-known anti-Nazi politicians and intellectuals (such as Victor Basch ) and prewar conservative leader Georges Mandel . The Milice initially operated in the former Zone libre of France under the control of the Vichy regime. In January 1944,
374-454: The radicalized Milice moved into what had been the zone occupée of France (including Paris). They established their headquarters in the old Communist Party headquarters at 44 rue Le Peletier and at 61 rue Monceau. (The house was formerly owned by the Menier family , makers of France's best-known chocolates.) The Lycée Louis-Le-Grand was occupied as a barracks, and an officer candidate school
396-486: The tide of war was shifting and fearing he would be held accountable for the operations of the Milice, Marshal Philippe Pétain sought to distance himself from the organization by writing a harsh letter rebuking Darnand for the organization's "excesses." Darnand's response suggested that Pétain ought to have voiced his objections sooner. After the Allied Liberation of France , French collaborators began fleeing
418-470: Was Secretary General Joseph Darnand . The Milice participated in summary executions and assassinations , helping to round up Jews and résistants in France for deportation. It was the successor to Darnand's Service d'ordre légionnaire (SOL) militia (founded in 1941). The Milice was the Vichy régime's most extreme manifestation of fascism . Ultimately, Darnand envisaged the Milice as
440-627: Was established in the Auteuil synagogue. Perhaps the largest and best-known operation undertaken by the Milice was the Battle of Glières , its attempt in March 1944 to suppress the Resistance in the département of Haute-Savoie (in southeastern France, near the Swiss border). The Milice could not overcome the Resistance, and called in German troops to complete the operation. On Bastille Day, 14 July 1944,
462-417: Was silver in blue background within a red circle for ordinary miliciens , white in black background for the arm-carrying militants, and white in red background for the active combatants. Their march was Le Chant des Cohortes . Milice troops (known as miliciens ) wore a blue uniform jacket and trousers, a brown shirt and a wide blue beret . (During active paramilitary-style operations, an Adrian helmet
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#1732779823939484-702: Was used, which commonly featured the emblem, either painted on or as a badge) Its newspaper was Combats (not to be confused with the underground Resistance newspaper, Combat ). The Milice's armed forces were officially known as the Franc-Garde . Contemporary photographs show the Milice armed with a variety of weapons captured from Allied forces. ( Joseph Darnand ) ( Francis Bout de l'An [ fr ] ) ( Max Knipping [ fr ] ) The Resistance targeted individual miliciens for assassination, often in public areas such as cafés and streets. On 24 April 1943 they shot and killed Paul de Gassovski,
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