Maquis (World War II) 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 avert capture and deportation to Germany, they became increasingly organized into active resistance groups. Originally the word came from the kind of terrain in which the armed resistance groups hid, high ground in southeastern France covered with
Bombing of Vienna in World War II Bombing of Vienna in World War II The city of Vienna in Austria was bombed 52 times during World War II, and 87,000 houses of the city were lost (20% of the entire city). Only 41 civilian vehicles survived the raids, more than 3,000 bomb craters were counted. and the Schwarzenberg Palace was bombed but later rebuilt. After a lone Soviet air raid conducted on 4 September 1942, Vienna was finally reached by western Allied bombers in 1944, when the Allied invasion of Italy allowed them to establish an air base at Foggia. Following the Normandy Invasion the greater part