Maquis de Saint-Marcel contact without forming a new maquis. Maquis de Saint-Marcel The Maquis de Saint-Marcel was a force of French resistance fighters, 3000 men with 200 Free French SAS (Special Air Service), during World War II operating in Brittany, Morbihan. It was created just before the Normandy landings with the objectives of preventing German army reinforcements from reaching the coast, thus facilitating the task of the allied landing forces. The Maquis de Saint-Marcel lasted only a very short time. It had been infiltrated by German spies, allowing the Germans to attack it in an ambush on 18 June 1944. After it was
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