The French Resistance is the name given to the resistance movements that fought against Nazi Germany's occupation of France during World War II. They operated both as urban guerrillas and as the rural Maquis, with illegal broadcasts and publications being spread to the French people by the resistance to encourage their revolt against the German occupation. The resistance was far from organized, as there were rival Gaullist and communist factions that had very different ideas about a postwar France, and there were conflicts between the two groups at times; the resistance would ultimately follow a cell structure, operating in independent, small groups. In 1940, the year of the French Communist Party's neutrality (as it called for fraternization with German soldiers and immediate peace due to Germany's alliance with the Soviet Union), the Resistance had a conservative nationalist tinge, starting with De Gaulle himself. It was not until after Operation Barbarossa in 1941 that the Communist Party's resistance was activated, shifting the profile of the Resistance toward workers and intellectuals.
From 1940 to 1944, the Resistance waged guerrilla war against the occupying Axis Powers forces with material assistance from the Allied Powers. In many cases, the Resistance worked alongside the British SOE, which sent supply drops (including weapons and medicine) and intelligence to the Resistance in exchange for the Resistance taking part in its covert operations. The Resistance was involved with assassinating German officers, ambushing German troops, bombing German fuel depots, blowing up bridges, and destroying German armored vehicles, among other sabotage activities. On 30 August 1944, the resistance ceased to exist when Paris was liberated from the Germans by the Allies during the Liberation of France. Afterwards, many resistance fighters returned to their daily lives, while some of them went on to serve with the French Army in the final push against the Germans in 1945. In October 1944, the resistance had 400,000 fighters, and by May 1945 the French had a total of 1,200,000 troops, the fourth-largest army in Europe at the end of the war.
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