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The image of France’s youth, freeing their occupied country during the summer of 1944 armed only with Sten guns, dominates public memory of the maquis. However, this combatant identity was a careful construction. At the end of 1942 and the beginning of 1943, the maquis, or armed members of the Resistance operating as militias, were gradually militarized, a process which was somewhat constrained by the clandestine nature of their existence. While the occupying Vichy government denounced them as irregular troops, Free France recognised them as members of its national forces and as such, integrated them into the Allies’ chain of command. Since neither of these two processes was a foregone conclusion, they allow us to examine the fighting practices of these armed civilians as they improvised on the ground, and as they were perceived by military headquarters.