Francs-tireurs

Okay kiddo, have you ever played a game of hide-and-seek with your friends? Sometimes, one friend might hide really well and refuse to come out when you shout their name. Well, during wars, some people would also hide instead of fighting with the soldiers they didn't like.

People who hide and attack soldiers later were called francs-tireurs. They were regular people (not fighting soldiers) who didn't agree with the war or the soldiers in charge, so they would hide and then attack them when they had the chance.

Now, this might seem like a brave or heroic thing to do, but it wasn't always. Sometimes, francs-tireurs would attack innocent people who had nothing to do with the war, just because they were on the same side as the soldiers they didn't like. And this made things very complicated and dangerous for everyone involved.