Maquis (World War II) Normandy, the Maquis and other groups played some role in delaying the German mobilization. The French Resistance (FFI "Forces Françaises de l'Interieur" for "French Forces of the Interior") blew up railroad tracks and repeatedly attacked German Army equipment and garrison trains on their way to the Atlantic coast. Thanks to coded messages transmitted over the BBC radio, each Maquis group was alerted of the impending D-Day by listening for seemingly meaningless messages such as "the crow will sing three times in the morning" or any other pre-arranged messages read in a continuous flow over the British airwaves. As Allied troops
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