Editing French Resistance (section)

===Sabotage===
[[File:B17-dropping-supplies-for-resistance.jpg|thumb|upright|[[USAAF]] [[B-17 Flying Fortress]]es dropping supplies to the [[Maquis du Vercors]] in 1944.]]

[[Sabotage]] was a form of resistance adopted by groups who wanted to go beyond just distributing clandestine press publications. Many laboratories were set up to manufacture explosives. In August 1941, the Parisian chemist [[France Bloch-Sérazin]] assembled a small laboratory in her apartment to provide explosives to communist Resistance fighters.{{Sfn|Crowdy|2007|p=45}} The lab also produced cyanide capsules to allow the fighters to evade torture if arrested.{{Sfn|Crowdy|2007|p=45}} Indeed, she herself was arrested in February 1942, tortured, and deported to [[Hamburg]] where she was beheaded by guillotine in February 1943. In the southern occupation zone, Jacques Renouvin engaged in the same activities on behalf of groups of [[francs-tireurs]].

Stealing dynamite from the Germans eventually took preference over handcrafting explosives. The British [[Special Operations Executive]] also parachuted tons of explosives to its agents in France for essential sabotage missions.{{Sfn|Marshall|2001|p=20}} The railways were a favorite target of saboteurs, who soon understood that removing bolts from the tracks was far more efficient than planting explosives.

[[Rail sabotage|Train-derailment strategies]] varied considerably in their effectiveness. The Germans managed to repair the tracks quickly in agricultural areas with level ground, since the salvage of some matériel was a relatively easy proposition in such terrain. But unbolting a connector plate on an outside rail in a mountainous area (given the higher speed of trains going downhill) could result in the derailment of an entire train with considerable amounts of front-ready matériel strewn far down the mountainside. Among the [[SNCF]] employees who joined the resistance, a subset were in [[Résistance-Fer|Resistance-Fer]] which focused on reporting the movement of German troops to the Allied forces and sabotaging the railways' rolling stock as well as their infrastructure. Following the invasions of [[Operation Overlord|Normandy]] and [[Operation Dragoon|Provence]] in 1944, the sabotage of rail transport became much more frequent and effectively prevented some German troop deployments to the front and hindered the subsequent retreat of German occupying forces.{{Sfn|Christofferson|Christofferson|2006|p=170}}

Generally, the sabotage of equipment leaving armaments factories and derailment in areas where equipment could not readily be salvaged was a more discreet form of resistance, and probably at least as effective as bombing. Sabotage by resistants freed up vulnerable and expensive aircraft for other uses rather than risk heavy losses by attacking heavily defended targets. It was also preferred since it caused less [[collateral damage]] and fewer civilian casualties than Allied bombing.{{Sfn|Crowdy|2007|p=47}}