Paris Agents de Police and a "civilian" resistant on guard, probably at the Préfecture de Police, Isle de la Cité, Paris, during the 1944 Paris Resistance uprising.  In the weeks prior to the uprising, the Communist Resistance showed considerable ingenuity in targeting the Paris Police Force for recruitment, recruiting an improbably large number of new "comrades" from the Force.  These Policiers were a valuable addition to the Paris Resistance overall, since they were at this time generally armed with pistols and, in many cases, rifles, and had access to Police arsenals containing more.  When the uprising broke out, policemen were more likely to support it than to try to put it down.  A great  number of the newly-Commie cops occupied the impressive Court of Justice complex on the Isle de la Cité, which included the forbidding stone-built Préfecture de Police.  This was a major location for the somewhat scattered and (from the Germans' viewpoint) rather half-hearted fighting that took place across Paris during the uprising.  At one point, the Préfecture was subject to attack by the Germans' menagerie of obsolete captured French tanks but, since the attackers lacked infantry support and even high-explosive ammunition, and the defenders lacked antitank weapons, this incident ended in a pretty bloodless draw.  Best regards, JR.

A fair cop - Paris, 1944.

General Alphonse Juin (later Marshal of France), commander of the Free French Expeditionary Corps within the US Fifth Army, along with General (later Field Marshal) Sir Harold Alexander, Commander, 15th Army Group, and US General Mark Clark, commander, US 5th Army, inspect French Colonial troops in the course of the Bastille Day Parade, Siena, Italy, 1944.

Juin's French Expeditionary Force played a huge part in the Allies' successful operations in central and northern Italy in the first half of 1944.  This was in no small measure due to the skills, courage and determination of troops from French North Africa, including the (very) irregular Goumiers.  It is alleged - and unfortunately well-attested - that Juin "promoted" the morale of his North African troops, both regular and irregular, by declaring to them, prior to Monte Cassino, that they would be entitled to what amounted to five days' "rapine rights" to be visited on local populations in the event of victory.  This promise was not acceptable under relevant international law at least since the first decade of the 20th century, and would not have been "customary" for about a century before that.  Furthermore, it could not be justified as communal punishment, something still justifiable under international law of the time - there is no evidence that local populations were positively opposing the Allies and, indeed, they were no longer even the "enemy" since Italy had changed over to the Allied side.  And, apart from that, this declaration was hugely inhumane.  While the evidence is conflicting, there is sufficient evidence that victorious French Colonial troops (principally the wild Goumiers) indulged in something of an orgy of rape, murder, theft and general rapine following battles in central and northern Italy, that seem to have gone well beyond the pretty standard bad behavior of less disciplined "conquering" troops on all sides in WW2.  It might have happened anyway but, to the extent that it was encouraged by Juin - it was without doubt a disgrace to French arms.

No doubt to their surprise, some of the direct offenders ended up being executed by their comrades, either formally or informally.  For Juin, there were no adverse consequences.  He went on to become a Marshal of France (1952), and to a number of top-level French and NATO appointments.  After all, he won.  C'est la Guerre ...  Best regards, JR.

General Juin inspects the FEC, Bastille Day, 1944.

Paris Resistance member welcomes one of General Leclerc's liberating tankers with a glass that cheers.  While the AFP caption suggests that this is "a glass of wine", close inspection indicates that the treat is, actually, a good shot of Martell cognac.  Best regards, JR.