I know their weapons consisted mainly of guns that they snagged from dead Germans. This is yet another game-influenced question, but did the British supply them with weapons? In MoH: Underground (yes, I know this game is historically inaccurate), Manon, the lead character, used a Sten gun to escape from Paris before meeting up with the OSS.
Some were dropped by parachute in Maqui controlled areas ( or at list with a large concentration of french guerrilas), the Sten, and other like a special 9mm variant of the Thompson SGM.
Those events take place before D-day so in teory is plausible.
Actually, the vast majority of the weapons used by the Maquis before and after DDay were acquired either from the British (and Americans) or were the few that had been hidden during the Armistice period. Some were smuggled from Spain.
Very few were German weapons because the risks involved in acquiring them were too great. It would have involved battles with the Germans and then gathering the weapons up after. Some were acquired by killing individual Germans but this was rare before DDay because the Maquis, and other resistence groups’ (like the communists) main role was secret sabotage and intelligence gathering. It was only after DDay that the FFI started facing the Germans in open battles.
Also don’t forget that until DDay, the numbers in the French resistence were very small, and the common view of it as widespread, was infact one that only existed from June 1944.
As Amrit has said, most attacks against the Germans were of the drive by variety, no time to pick up the weapons.
SOE agents that acted as liason with the French resistance groups also took weapons in with them.
In the beginning of the French resistance, their armoury consisted mostly of civilian shotguns, hunting rifles (most farmers in France go hunting and own at least a shotgun), pistols and revolvers hidden from the German forces, plus a few weapons found on battlefields or dropped by retreating troops.
Later the large amount of weapons were airfropped by the SOE and OSS, especially the STEN gun. The SOE refused to supply weapons bigger than a Bren gun or a PIAT, since it emphasized the guerilla aspect of the Maquis (where you also have to distinguish between urban and rural operations) and didn’t want them to have weapons with which they could scarper quickly if needed. Explosives were airdropped a lot, like Nobel’s PE No.8, plus blasting caps, time pencils, safety fuze, det cord and special ignition devices, like special caps, which were sited on railway track to make charges explode when a train passed them.
In one case though a SAS team operating with the maquis in rural central France ordered and received a 6Pdr AT gun plus ammo to take out some obnoxious German armoured cars, which were starting to penetrate the region where the maquis was hiding.
Jan
I read a book about the maquis this is a typical gun,used by the maquis
Mab Model D
I heared about a Sicilian kid swiping a Luger from a Officer. must ave been one stupido officer…
Another favourite of the dear french rebels
Sten MKII
Another favourite of the dear french rebels