Milice.

This is coolbert:


Militia the French way!

From that previous blog entry Bert asks the question:

"the use of convicts released from prison and criminal elements in an organized and institutionalized fashion as a quasi-military force by a despotic regime perhaps UNIQUE to the Islamic world?"

And Bert with a little thought and investigation is able to determine that the use of criminals and released convicts in a quasi-military role is NOT confined to the Islamic world. Janjaweed and bashi bazook are not a purely Islamic phenomenon.

Such too was the French milice of the Second World War [WW2].

Criminal elements and released convicts [?] incorporated into the ranks of the French pro-Vichy and pro-Nazi anti-resistance militia called Milice.

That Milice consisting of right-wing French adherents, outright fascists, Vichy sympathisers AND to include criminals described as petty released from prison, their sentences expunged:

I would suppose the key word is petty. Normally serious crime at least in the United States is defined as murder, rape, or armed robbery. Perhaps it is the same in France or generally so? Murderous psychopaths were not included in the ranks of the milice?

Persons described as petty criminals getting an "out" and a chance to further bully and abuse society at large, to a much greater extent those elements seen as in opposition to the Nazi and Vichy.

Petty criminals becoming in their own eyes "big men" with authority over society and possessing a lot of attitude I would assume.

NOT a good combination - - miscreants NOT in any sense ordinarily making for good soldiers, undisciplined in their personnel life, not subjecting themselves in a measured and agreed upon manner to authority of any sort.

Quite often using their new found authority to take advantage of a situation to the detriment of everyone. And in a big way too I would assume in some instances taking advantage of one and all in their path. Just another opportunity to continue their criminal ways but EVEN MORE SO AND WITH A DEGREE OF GRUDGING ACQUIESCENCE OF THE AUTHORITIES.

As has been the topic of a number of previous blog entries, criminals of whatever stripe generally make poor soldiers, the infamous Kray brothers perhaps being the archetype in this regard..

Milice too working undercover were what the allied planners had in mind when those troops embarking on the Normandy invasion were told [according to DE] to NOT GET SO CLOSE AND CHUMMY WITH THE FRENCH CIVILIAN POPULACE? Could very well be.

coolbert.