Discredited French Resistance

HueyLong

Banned
Is there any way for the French Resistance to be ignored by the Allies in much the same way that the various German Resistance groups were ignored?
 
Well, WI there was some sorta debacle affecting the French resistance along the scale of the Venlo deception in 1939, or the ABWEHR's highly successful ENGLANDSPIEL which virtually destroyed the Dutch resistance during 1942 ? Then maybe you could also chuck in factors like a far greater degree of infighting between different political groups amongst the Resistance, pitting Gaullists against Communists etc, which'd then really marginalise the ability of the MAQUIS to function effectively and thereby undermine any recognition by the western allies ?
 

Hendryk

Banned
It's likely (though not altogether inevitable) that without De Gaulle the Communists would have gained the upper hand in the French Resistance. That would have made the whole movement much less palatable to the Americans, and in fact to much of the French population even post-liberation. Outright US occupation was considered in OTL, but De Gaulle managed to talk Roosevelt out of it; in TTL it might be considered a lesser evil, though it would lead to widespread resentment no matter what.
 

backstab

Banned
The French Resistance were useless, they killed more of their own people than Germans. Most of the Resistance were communists anyway.
 
@backstab: That's not the point. More important would be the question: Of the Frenchmen killed, how many were collaborators of the Germans, and how many were personal enemies of resistance members?
 

Alcuin

Banned
Is there any way for the French Resistance to be ignored by the Allies in much the same way that the various German Resistance groups were ignored?

The problem with marginalising the Maquis would be the Free French. As long as the Free French forces exist, then even if Britain, the Soviet Union and the USA all ignore the resistance, de Gaulle will not.

Of course, if there were no Free French forces, that would be a horse of a different colour. So... the PoD that gets the French Resistance ignored by the allies is probably to have Felix Eboue (who, as Governor of Chad, provided the catalyst that helped the Free French forces to form) die in early 1940 instead of late 1943. Without Eboue, de Gaulle himself would be much more isolated. Many high ranking officers in the US forces, particularly the Navy, did not recognise what they called "the so-called Free-French Navy" in OTL (until the USA entered the war). Without Eboue, this may well have been the Official position of not only the American but perhaps the British government as well.

I think even then though, the British and Soviets would attempt to set up some kind of resistance force, even if they did not trust the one that already existed.
 
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