Combattants MMA — Montagne Noire Combat Libre

French resistance groups

The Maquis were rural guerrilla bands of French and Belgian Resistance fighters, called maquisards, during World War II. Initially, they were composed of young, mostly working-class men who had escaped into the mountains and forests to resist conscription into Vichy France's Service du travail obligatoire which provided slave labor for Germany. To avoid capture and deportation to Germany, they became increasingly organized into active resistance groups.