Maquis (World War II) MP 40 submachine gun being very common. It was standard practice among the Maquis to identify members by wearing a Basque beret because it was common enough not to arouse suspicion but distinctive enough to be effective. Maquis (World War II) The Maquis () were rural guerrilla bands of French Resistance fighters, called "maquisards", during the Nazi Occupation of France in World War II. Initially, they were composed of men and women who had escaped into the mountains to avoid conscription into Vichy France's "Service du travail obligatoire" ("Compulsory Work Service" or "STO") to provide forced labor for Germany. To
Maquis (World War II) scrub growth called maquis shrubland. Although strictly speaking it means thicket, "maquis" could be roughly translated as "the bush". Historians have not established how this Corsican term arrived on the mainland of France; nevertheless, the Italian-derived word ‘"maquis"’ is commonly used to describe woods and scrubland on the island, and evokes an all-encompassing image of woods and mountains, whereas the more limited word ‘"garrigue"’ used in the south of France indicated [...] an inhospitable terrain, and the words ‘"bois"’ (wood), ‘"foret"’ (forest) and ‘"montagne"’ (mountain) were too bland. The term maquis signified both the fighters and their rural location. Members