PATRIOT ARMIES

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 119, 15 February 1944, Page 5

PATRIOT ARMIES

Will Fight Without Mercy

LONDON, February 13. Patriot armies in occupied Europe will not take any prisoners when the second front is launched. They have orders to give the enemy no quarter and to treat

Germans and quislings without mercy. Their role in the second front campaign will be to strike at the enemy from the rear. These armies are known as the “V” armies of liberation, but to them “V” means vengeance as well as victory. A “Daily Telegraph” correspondent saw a copy of the oath now being taken by recruits to “franc-tireur” detachments. The recruits swear “to fight without mercy or respite till the last Fascist barbarian is dead or driven from my country.” A special organization is reported to have been created by the supreme Allied command to co-ordinate the “V” armies’ activities when the battle opens in Europe.

FRENCH PARTISANS Vichy Reports Punitive Measures

LONDON, February 13. In the past 10 days exclusively French forces have been conducting an intensive' campaign in the Haute Savoie region, where men of the Maquis (pro-Allied French partisans) have been surrounded, says Paris radio. Police are questioning 5000 persons a day and arresting several hundreds a day. Police battalions are pushing on into the mountains to mop up pockets of resistance. The radio added: “The Haute Savoie will be the first French department to be freed of terrorism. Soon this campaign will be directed to other provinces. .The Allied High Command has clearly aimed at creating chaos and a state of civil war in France before actual invasion is launched.” 1

M. Darnand, leader of the punitive forces, was recently appointed Vichy Secretary for the Maintenance of Order. He was one of the Cagoulard leaders arrested in 1038, and it is stated that he is rapidly ousting M. Laval as the Nazi favourite.