On 2 August 1941 Ouzoulias met Danielle Casanova in
Montparnasse and was put in charge of the
Bataillons de la Jeunesse, fighting groups that were being created by the
Jeunesse Communiste. He took the name of "Colonel André".
Pierre Georges was made his second-in-command. Soon after
Arthur Dallidet introduced him to
Eugène Hénaff, who was responsible for the armed struggle under the direction of
Charles Tillon. At this time the JC was mainly involved in propaganda, publishing tracts and clandestine newspapers, with minimal armed action. At a session in 15–17 August it was agreed that members of the JC should receive weapons training and should increase sabotage and attacks on occupation troops. There was some resistance, but with news of the execution of Henri Gautherot and
Samuel Tyszelman the meeting agreed to take a more active role. In the weeks that followed Pierre Georges became primarily involved in military operations in the Paris region, while Ouzoulias was more concerned with recruitment and liaison between the regions. The attacks triggered harsh reprisals. In October 1941 the PCF decided to unify armed groups into the
Organisation Spéciale. In April 1942 the
Francs-Tireurs et Partisans (FTP) was created, led by Charles Tillon. The FTP unified three Communist organizations, the
Bataillons de la Jeunesse, the
Organisation Spéciale and the
Main d’oeuvre immigrée. Eugène Hénaff was political commissar, assisted by Ouzoulias. In May 1942 Ouzoulias was promoted to National Military Commissar. In 1942 Ouzoulias and Robert Deloche advised
Roger Belbéoch to infiltrate the Parisian police. This resulted in Belbéoch joining the commissariat of the 12th arrondissement of Paris, in which position he could help members of the Resistance to gain false papers, and could help persecuted Jews. Ouzoulias was a proponent of quick strikes against carefully studied targets by small groups of fighters, who would then rapidly withdraw. He also drew up guidelines for urban warfare in which FTP units could attack greatly superior German forces and be protected while they withdrew. Starting in 1943 Ouzoulias had a growing number of assistants to help him maintain contact with the regions, including his wife. Cécile Ouzoulias was arrested in April 1943 while using false papers, but was released in August 1943 due to being pregnant. She immediately went into hiding, and on 26 October 1943 gave birth to son, who was registered as Marc Hubert, "born of unknown parents." In November 1943
Joseph Epstein, the FTP Chief of Staff, was arrested and subjected to extreme torture, but revealed nothing. This was followed by a major police operation that largely destroyed the FTP's Paris organization. From the end of 1943 the national organization began to intensify preparation for a national uprising to support the expected Allied landings in Europe. From June to August 1944 Ouzoulias coordinated the FTP's military action in the Paris region. Ouzoulias and Colonel
Henri Rol-Tanguy, who led the
Île-de-France Resistance movement, planned a major rising in Paris which played a vital role during the August 1944
Liberation of Paris. On 28 August 1944 General
Charles de Gaulle put Ouzoulias in charge of the FTP and FFI (''Forces Françaises de l'Intérieur'', or
Free French). Five days after the surrender of
Dietrich von Choltitz, the German governor of Paris, Ouzoulias assigned Pierre Georges the task of forming a battalion of resistance fighters. Georges ("Colonel Fabien") organized an FFI column, the
Colonne Fabien that left Paris soon after the uprising in that city early in September 1944. The column was to form the nucleus of a Free French force in
Lorraine, which would be joined by volunteers from Paris and the eastern regions of France as soon as possible. The French state would have to accept the fait accompli of the Free French army fighting on the front, which would become a "great people's army". In the autumn of 1944, Ouzoulias was charged by de Gaulle with integrating the FTP members with the regular French army. ==Later career==