On June 22, 1940 the French surrendered to Germany. Many people resented the Germans and the Vichy government so they formed underground Resistance groups. Vichy France was a non occupied region of France. Some Resistance groups called maquis were violent Resistance groups aiming to hurt or to kill Germans. Some groups …show more content…
They helped by gathering information that might be useful to the Allies and helping Jews escape. They also helped downed airmen escape. Although they didn’t blow up bridges and things like that they still played a role in defeating the Germans. Although doctors were required to join the German doctors guild many refused and many teachers refused to submit their papers for approval. After the fall of France a fighting force was improvised to fight the Germans behind enemy lines. The SOEs job was to sabotage and launch guerrilla warfare. Hired scientists came up with a single-shot cigarette pistol. One example of the SOEs work is the heavy water plant they destroyed, ending the nazi atomic bomb programme. The SOEs job was a dangerous one, the life expectancy of a SOE wireless operator in France was just six weeks. The SOE caused a lot of problems for the nazis and by June 6, 1944 the SOE was a feared network. The nazis were ruthless occupiers. Although the Allies defeated the nazis they couldn't have done that without the help of underground resistance. The resistance did a lot of different things to slow down the "Nazi War Machine". They did everything from hiding Jews to blowing up factories and derailing trains. The underground resistance and the SOE did a lot to help the Allied forces defeat the