Secret Committee of Revolutionary Action

The Secret Committee of Revolutionary Action (French: Comité secret d'action révolutionnaire) also known by the nickname La Cagoule ("The Cowl"), was a French fascist-leaning anti-communist group that used varying degrees of violence from 1935 to 1937. The group also supported the Nationalist side during the Spanish Civil War by smuggling weapons. It was founded mostly by a group of Action Française dissidents under the leadership of Eugène Deloncle. It was however condemned by persons such as Charles Maurras and Maurice Pujo, leading lights of Action Française. Planning a November 1937 overthrow of the government, the group was infiltrated by the police, and the government arrested and imprisoned about 70 men. At the outbreak of World War II, the government released the men to fight in the French Army. Some former members of the group were split between supporters of the French State and supporters of the renegade, Charles de Gaulle. It was not until 1948 that the government tried surviving members for the charges arising from 1937.