Blood in the Snow, Blood on the Grass: Treachery, Torture, Murder and Massacre - France 1944

Based on original research and personal reminiscences of French and Allied participants, this story, previously unpublished in English, highlights the cynical disregard for civilian lives shown by British SOE and American OSS

Nearing D-Day, Allied intelligence used Royal Air Force airdrops to send Allied liaison officers down with supplies to the thousands of young men hiding in France's forests and hill country. Here the officers defied the two principles of guerrilla warfare: never concentrate your forces or risk a pitched battle. They assembled small armies of untrained civilians in wild country where it was believed Allied airborne forces would land and help them drive the hated occupiers out of their country. In reality they were being used as bait—to draw German forces away from the invasion beaches. They were hunted down by collaborationist French paramilitaries, Wehrmacht, and Waffen-SS troops, dying in the snows of winter through to high midsummer. Those taken prisoner were raped, tortured, and shot or deported to death camps in Germany. Many of their killers were themselves murdered after the liberation, when thousands of Frenchwomen were also publicly humiliated as sexual traitors.