A franc-tireur (pl: franc-tireurs) is a Soldat belonging to no regular Armée.

Origins

In the armies of the French revolution, a franc-tireur is a soldier of certain light bodies of Infanterie. By extension, combatant not forming part of a regular army. The name of franc-tireur employed during the Siège of Sébastopol reappears during the Franco-German Guerre of 1870. It is about body of more or less important volunteers who rise against the Prussian troops. The German command refused the quality of belligerent to them. Thereafter, conventions of $the Hague (1899 and 1907) and of Geneva (1949) grant the quality of belligerent to the franc-tireurs provided that they are presented in military formation and have at their head a chief responsible for his men, that they carry a recognizable distinctive sign remotely and finally that they carry the weapons openly and recognize the Lois of the war.

Evolution

The name of franc-tireur is more and more often erased in front of that of partisan. Between 1941 and 1945 in France, two movements of the French interior Résistance are organized:

• Franc-tireur created in zone southern by Jean-Pierre Levy

• Franc-tireurs and in favor (ftp) directed by Charles Tillon

Semantics

One also speaks by extension about a franc-tireur to qualify a person who completes a work as a recluse, often without being concerned with impact that can have around him.

Not to confuse franc-tireur and Marksman or sniper in English.

Media

• Franc-Tireur is the name of a French publication published towards the end of the Second world war, in 1944.

• the Franc-tireur is a French film of Jean-max Causse of 1972.

• the Franc-tireur is a film French TV of Maurice Failevic (Co-writing with Jean-Claude Carrière) of 1978.

• the Franc-tireurs is an emission of topicality diffused on TV-Quebec.

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