Group mobile of reserve
The mobile groups of reserve , often shortened in GMR were paramilitary units created by the Vichy government. Their development was the privileged business of Rene Bousquet, supreme leader of the police force of the French State.
The GMR were conceived at the same time like prefiguration of the revival of the French Army, limited to: 100000 men by the armistice, and like a gripping force of the order, on the model of the Anti-riot police. Belonging to the National police force, they thus did not have the statute of soldier, which, formally, respected the terms of the convention of armistice.
As from the summer 1943, the GMR were the spearhead of the offensives armed launched by the mode against the formations with the maquis, with the agreement of the Germans. They prevailed in particular in the Massif Central. Contrary to the gendarmes, the GMR were not recruited in the local population and did not live in its center. They did not have thus reason to seek the working arrangement which often existed between the Maquisard S and the local forces of maintenance of law and order. As far as could judge some pilot and historians, they did not show particular scruples during these repression campaigns, even if one counted defectors among them at the summer 1944.
For the Release, the GMR were finally used as a basis for creation of the CRS while amalgamating with FFI.
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