
Originally Posted by
Franz Von G
Barbét (in piedmontese "light beard") were occitan/piedmontese guerrilla fighters that harassed the french supply lines during the many french invasion attempts of Piedmont. They were in origin valdesians (protestant) "rebels" during the french religion wars under Luis XIV (1680), when the french king forced the Duke of Savoy to hunt the protestants from the piedmontese valleys.
They fought with muskets and early rifles, usually ambushing artillery trains and supply carriages that were left behind along the hard paths of the piedmontese mountains. They fought also against the french Army of Italy in 1792/1796 (Napoleon). "Barbet" partisans last fight was against the Nazi Germans during the Italian Resistance Movement (1943-1945), when they attacked SS and Fascists convoys in the valleys, just as their ancestors did with the french.