FASCI DI COMBATTIMENTO : The earliest name of of the Fascist movement, which Benito Mussolini founded in Milan, Italy on 23 March 1919. By the following year membership had grown to 30,000. After the insurrectional strikes of the summer of 1920, the squadre, armed Fascist squads that violently opposed Left organizations, appeared.

FN: Front National: Resistance movement founded by the French Communist Party in 1941 that operated in both zones and was open to all volunteers. By 1944 several non-communists were on its executive boards. It was both a military and a political movement whose main military forces were the FTP, and that was based on the idea of direct, immediate action, including attacks on German military personnel. Its organizational links with the Communist Party continued after the Liberation.

FORCES AERIENNES FRANCAISES LIBRES  (FAFL): Created on 7 July 1940, the French Air Forces were at first commanded by Admiral Muselier until Colonel Valin took over. They had up to 3,000 members. The groupes de chasse Normandie-Niemen fighter groups and Lorraine bomber groups were among the best-known.

FORCES FRANCAISES DE L'INTERIEUR (FFI): The FFI resulted from the official merger of all the armed Resistance movements (AS, ORA and FTP) into a single military organisation under the orders of General Koenig. in late 1943, but the regional and some departmental leaders were not in place until Spring 1944. In some parts of the south, the practical and strategic merger of the Groupes Francs, maquis and FTP forces did not take place until July and August. Nevertheless, the basic units kept much of their individuality and the direction and the tactical approach. Montgomery and Eisenhower said that for the Allies the FFI were worth 10 to 15 divisions in the liberation of France.

FORCES FRANCAISES LIBRES (FFL): On 26 June 1940 General de Gaulle announced the creation of the FFL to the press. First called the Légion française, the units did not receive the name Forces françaises libres (Free French Forces) until late August. There was no rush to join and few officers rallied to the cause. The second wave of enlistments came during the Syrian campaign in 1941; the third in November 1942 after the Allied landing in North Africa. In 1943 the FFL were integrated into the army of liberation. By that time it had 60,000 members, including the air and naval forces.

FORCES NAVALES FRANCAISES LIBRES : On 29 June 1940 Admiral Muselier took control of French ships in Gibraltar that had either strayed or decided to join the Resistance. On 1 July he reached London, where he tried to build a navy. A naval academy was set up in Portsmouth, in southern England, and he sent his cadets to the schools of the Royal Navy. By the end of 1940 approximately 100 officers and 3,100 seamen from the French Navy, merchant marine and the fishing fleet, such as those of Sein Island, were fighting. In March 1942 Admiral Auboyneau succeeded Muselier. In 1943 the 7,000-strong FNFL were active in Africa and the Middle East and took part in the successive Mediterranean landings. Commander Kieffer’s marin fusiliers landed in Normandy on 6 June 1944.

FRANCE COMBATTANTE : In July 1942 France Libre (“Free France”) was renamed France combattante (“Fighting France). The expression “France combattante” appeared for the first time in a speech by General de Gaulle on 14 July 1942. On 1 August 1942, the Journal Officiel de la France Libre became the Journal Officiel de la France Combattante.

FRANCE LIBRE: “France Libre” was born on 18 June 1940, the day General de Gaulle issued his appeal on the BBC. He rejected the Armistice that Marshal Pétain requested from Germany. On 22 June, in response to the signature of the Armistice, the general asked French men and women who wanted to remain free to joined him and concluded his speech with these words: “Long live free France in honour and independence”.

FRANCISQUE: Decoration created by Marshal Pétain in October 1941 to reward those who had shown active commitment to the marshal’s work and person since the start of the war. When they received the decoration they had to swear an oath to him. The order was abolished in 1945. The High Court of Justice drew up a list of 2,626 member at the Liberation.

FRANQUISTS: Name given to the partisans of General Franco. After the Spanish Republicans won the legislative elections in February 1936, Spanish military officers led by General Franco staged an uprising in Morocco. The insurgents, who were joined by other military officers in Spain, plunged the country into a bloody civil war. In January 1939 the rebels took Barcelona, sealing the Republicans’ fate and prompting them to flee Spain. On 22 May 1939 the victorious insurgents paraded in Madrid. General Franco set up a dictatorship that lasted until his death in 1975.

FRENCH EXPEDITIONARY CORPS IN ITALY: In the summer of 1943, General Juin set up the French Expeditionary Corps in Italy, which took part in the Italian campaign alongside the English and American armies. The corps, which included the 2nd Moroccan Infantry Division, 3rd Algerian Infantry Division, 4th Moroccan Division and 1st Free French Division, had 200,000 men. Many of these troops were from France’s colonial empire and fought particularly well at Monte Cassino and Siena, which was liberated on 3 July 1944.

FRENTE POPULAR: Name of the leftist and far-leftist coalition that won Spain’s legislative elections in February 1936. They were the Republicans. After the outbreak of the civil war, they created government militias to fight Franco’s insurgents. The Spanish Republicans are sometimes called militiamen.

FTP(F): Francs-Tireurs et Partisans (French). Created in 1942, the FTP grouped together paramilitary organisations (Organisations Spéciales, Jeunesses communistes, Main d’œuvre immigrée - MOI) under the command of Charles Tillon. The highly structured FTP advocated urban guerilla warfare and immediate action. They organised sabotage and attacks against the occupier. In 1944 the ORA, AS and FTP formed the Forces Françaises de l'Intérieur (FFI), whose commander in chief was General Koenig. The FTP played an important part in the fighting to liberate the areas were they were active.

FÜHRER: German word for leader. In Nazi terminology, it has an almost mystical meaning. Used alone, it meant Hitler himself.

FÜNF UND ZWANZIG: “Twenty-five” strikes to the lower back. The mention of the figure alone is enough to understand what it refers to.

F.U.J.P: Front Uni des Jeunesses Patriotiques or Forces Unies de la Jeunesse Patriotique (“United Front of Patriotic Youth” or “United Forces of Patriotic Youth”. Set up in autumn 1943 to mobilize young people to support the maquis and FTP groups, the organisation was formed on the initiative of the MUR but in most regions acquired its own independent, spontaneous character. Many members were very young and subsequently joined the maquis or made up the patriotic militias at the Liberation. FUJP groups distributed tracts urging resistance to the STO (compulsory labour service) in most southern towns and cities. They also staged raids to steal STO files.