Deeply angry, de Gaulle repaired to the Connaught Hotel to draft his own appeal to the French. When a British official informed him that he was scheduled to broadcast on the afternoon of the 6th, after the monarchs of Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands, he flatly refused.141
5 June 1944
AFTER DE GAULLE’S SO-CALLED “POSTURING”, it was left to Free France’s London ambassador, Pierre Viénot, to smooth things over with the Allies. Viénot explained the depth of French feeling to Churchill and Eden but, as had so often happened since the Americans entered the war, Churchill threw accusations of “treason at the height of battle”.
“You have said untrue and violent things that you will regret,” replied the exhausted, sick Viénot. “What I wish to say to you on this historic night is that in spite of everything, France thanks you.”142
That evening de Gaulle’s son Philippe, a young naval officer, dined with him at his Seymour Place apartment. De Gaulle had not seen Philippe for eighteen months. From a small table they observed the hired valet moving with such apparent familiarity that de Gaulle remarked in French, “Doubtless a member of the [British] Intelligence Service.” While dining on English wartime fare—soup followed by beef casseroled in beer and milk pudding—de Gaulle told Philippe about his mother and sisters. His male cousins of military age had joined “Fighting France”. His uncles had escaped to Switzerland, but—more worryingly—various relations had been deported by the Nazis.
With so much news to exchange they were still eating at 11pm, though de Gaulle rarely took much time over dinner. More unusually, de Gaulle took tea afterwards, gulping anxiously while telling Philippe how General Juin had led his French Expeditionary Corps into Rome beside the Americans. Philippe watched the clock’s hands junction at midnight.
“That’s it!” said de Gaulle suddenly.
“What do you mean?” asked Philippe.
“The landings,” replied de Gaulle. “At this very moment our second parachute regiment are in the air heading for Vannes. Hundreds of thousands of maquis are already in place, the French will be the first to land in France. Leading elements of the British and American armies, including our marine commandos, are about to attack Normandy.”
De Gaulle was choked with emotion, his face immobile, his hands clenched in enormous fists. “Voila, our raison d’être for the last four years has finally arrived.” Then he told Philippe, “Now you’re free to leave if you want. But you must not say anything to anyone before 6am.”
At the end of that unforgettable evening, Philippe embraced his father.143
The following day Philippe presented himself at Ribbesford Hall, Free France’s Saint-Cyr in Worcestershire. Since 1940 Philippe de Gaulle had commanded Motor Torpedo Boats, but now his father wanted him to serve under Leclerc. Before joining Raymond Maggiar’s RBFM, he had to take a three-week conversion course to learn the ways of the French Army.144
* De Gaulle was wounded three times. The last time was at Verdun when his regiment was attacked and decimated. Cornered in a shell-hole, de Gaulle was bayoneted in the thigh and captured. He made five unsuccessful escape attempts, but his period of captivity was more notable for the magisterial lectures on warfare that he gave to his fellow prisoners.
* According to Philippe de Gaulle’s book, De Gaulle, Mon Père, vol. 1, p. 117, the exchange at the time was 167Fr to £1. Jean Laurent delivered the money.
* De Gaulle is sometimes called ‘l’homme du 18e juin,’—‘the man of 18 June’ because of the Appel.
* FTP = Franc Tireurs et Partisan, a Communist inspired resistance grouping which became one of the best organised, committed and disciplined.
* Colonel Colonna d’Ornano was killed on the Murzuk raid and buried along with a New Zealand sergeant on the return trip in a ceremony movingly reminiscent of the burial of Sir John Moore after Corunna.
* Now called the Avenue du général Leclerc.
* Under Vichy control, Madagascar’s intricate shoreline provided hideouts for Japanese submarines that sank British supplies en route to Egypt for the Eighth Army; an intolerable situation for the Allies.
* The scuttling’s prsctical results were first that the water in and around Toulon’s port was polluted for two years; second that the naval base was unusable until around 1950 when the last of the scuttled vessels was raised and scrapped.
* Not to be confused with the communist group, Franc Tireurs et Partisans (FTP).
† SD = SicherheitsDienst—the ‘Security Service’ which came under the authority of the SS.
* Even in Dachau Delestraint was attended by his ADC. Delestraint was executed a few days before the German surrender.
† An interesting footnote on p. 255 of Charles Tillon’s book, FTP, suggests that the Gestapo were able to unravel Delestraint’s connections, and thereby Moulin’s as well, because one Paul Lieu was not only a member of Combat but also belonged to a réseau called Alliance set up by former Cagoulard Georges Loustaunau-Lacau. Loustaunau-Lacau’s loyalties wavered during the early Occupation between Vichy, where he was linked to anti-Semite Xavier Vallat, then veering towards the maquis and then being betrayed. Untidy loyalties left trails.
* In May 1944 Jacques Bingen was arrested in Clermont Ferrand following betrayal by an Abwehr double agent, but managed to take his cyanide pill.
* A cousin of Alain de Boissieu, who commanded Leclerc’s HQ protection squadron.
* By March 1944 Hitler was exasperated by Hungarian Regent Admiral Horthy’s slowness in fulfilling the de-Jewification programme, the Hungarian Army’s poor showing in Russia, and Prime Minister Miklos Kallay’s peace feelers to the Allies.
* In French forêt does not only mean ‘forest’ but also a heavily timber-beamed attic.
* COSSAC = Chief of Staff Supreme Allied Command, ie General Frederick Morgan but also the considerable staff under him who were responsible for planning.
* SHAEF = Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force.
* RMT = Régiment de Marche du Tchad, ie the Chad Regiment. 2/RMT = 2nd Battalion the Chad Regiment.
* GPRF = Gouvernement Provisoire de la République Française, ie de Gaulle’s provisional government.
Chapter 2
D-Day—“It’s Happened!”
6 June 1944
PEDALLING FURIOUSLY ALONG THE RUE BUFFON, already late for his neurology lecture, Parisian medical student Bernard Pierquin passed the Jardin des Plantes where he heard a young woman shout to her husband, “It’s happened! They’ve landed!” At Pierquin’s teaching hospital everyone knew. “Once the Anglo-Americains get their hands on an important port the Germans will be done for,” a bright spark speculated.1
Préfecture official Yves Cazaux remembered that everyone was trying to behave normally, maintaining their composure until the news was officially confirmed at noon. When a secretary put the BBC’s French Service on loudspeaker, Cazaux’s office erupted with joy.2
Prefect of Police Amedée Bussière telephoned Pierre Taittinger.
“This time it’s serious,” said Bussière. “It’s the real thing. It’s succeeding. It’ll hold.”
“The news spread around Paris, giving the capital, under the worried eyes of the Germans, an air of secret celebration,” wrote Pierre Taittinger. Their spirits lifted, and an exquisite smile appeared on Parisian faces. They greeted each other with renewed joy. La bonne humeur was everywhere. Parisiennes in summer dresses peddled bicycles with spirited rhythm. “The last act would be played. The conclusion of this dreadful four-year drama was now visible for us.”
Though practically unable to avoid collaboration, Taittinger was contemptuous of a manifesto signed by Déat, de Brinon and Darnand demanding Laval’s dismissal for playing “the double game”, and insisting that France should ally herself with Germany.3 With the moment of truth upon them, many arch-collabos went into denial. “The landings have been totally stopped. The news is always good. The landings have been halted in Normandy,” wrote Marcel Déat. “Throwing the
invasion forces back into the sea is just a formality,” wrote Victor Barthelémy, Doriot’s No. 2 at the Parti Populaire Français (PPF).4
ALMOST FOUR YEARS AFTER THE APPEL OF 18 JUNE 1940, Charles de Gaulle spoke via the BBC’s French Service:
The supreme battle has begun. It is the battle in France and it is the battle of France. France is going to fight this battle furiously. She is going to conduct it in due order. The clear, the sacred duty of the sons of France, wherever they are and whoever they are, is to fight the enemy with all the means at their disposal.
The orders given by the French government and by the French leaders it has named for that purpose must be obeyed exactly. The actions we carry out in the enemy’s rear must be co-ordinated as closely as possible with those carried out by the Allied and French armies. Let none of those capable of action, either by arms, or by destruction, or by giving intelligence, or by refusing to do work useful to the enemy, or allow themselves to be made prisoner and remove themselves beforehand from being seized and from being deported.
The battle of France has begun. In the nation, the empire and the armies of France there is no longer anything but one single hope, the same for all. Behind the terribly heavy cloud of our blood and our tears, here is the sun of our grandeur shining out once again.
Listening from the cabinet room, Winston Churchill felt tears running down his cheeks, while General Sir Hastings Ismay, a discreet supporter of Free France’s interests since 1940, sat apparently unmoved.
“You great tub of lard,” said Churchill. “Have you no emotion?”
After witnessing the bizarre role played by General Patton as head of the fake US 1st Army Group, Leclerc was interested that the landings happened in Normandy rather than the Pas de Calais. “The battle of France has started,” he wrote to Pauline Vanier. “I have no illusions that we will rediscover France somewhat damaged, but anything is preferable to Nazi slavery. Regarding my family I have complete trust in Providence. I would be so proud to see my eldest son take part in the fight. Perhaps he is already in the Maquis.”5
But the 2e DB complained at not being included in the first wave, even though this was planned months before. News of hold-ups and delays cheered them because it meant the war would still be going on when they got there.
FROM HIS LAIR IN SOUTHERN PARIS, Henri Rol-Tanguy recognised that everything had changed. On 2 June de Gaulle’s Comité Français de la Libération National had became the Gouvernement Provisoire de la République Française. Now he had called France to arms via the BBC. “It was normal for the commander in chief of invading forces to demand the execution of longstanding plans to obstruct enemy movements, spreading insecurity and harrying his reinforcements on the roads,” Rol-Tanguy told his biographer, Roger Bourderon. “But the order to carry out these plans at once, everywhere, did not take into account the exceedingly diverse situations facing different resistance groups.”6
Following Pierre Lefaucheux’s arrest a few days earlier, Rol-Tanguy was promoted another grade within P1, the FFI’s Paris department. If de Gaulle wanted the FFI to perform larger operations, then his military delegates needed to supply more weapons. While many FFIs—mostly FTP—were very experienced at sabotage, firearms remained so scarce that, when Rol-Tanguy gave his first post-D-Day order on 8 June to sabotage Wehrmacht supply routes, he ordered his officers to keep unarmed résistants out of built-up areas, lest they encounter well-armed Germans.7
Much of what de Gaulle asked of the Resistance on 6 June was impracticable. In the departments nearest the Normandy bridgehead, risks were justified to destroy bridges and railway lines used for Wehrmacht logistics. The Resistance operation in Brittany involving ten thousand résistants supported by a regiment of French paratroops was of huge benefit. On the other hand, taking over country towns when relief by Allied regular forces was weeks away would lead to tragedy. In Ussel, Guéret and Tulle, German reaction was swift and brutal, resistance ringleaders being hung from the lampposts of Tulle watched by female SS auxiliaries sipping coffee outside a café. Then came Oradour-sur-Glane.
Several resistance groups in la France profonde were ordered to harass the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich as it journeyed northwards to the Normandy front. In retaliation, one of Das Reich’s infantry battalions entered Oradour-sur-Glane at lunchtime on 10 June. They herded the women and children into the church and set it alight with petrol and hand-grenades while the menfolk were shot in garages and barns. The village was then torched. With 642 fatalities, Oradour became one of the most infamous Nazi atrocities. The village is now a memorial. Lieu de supplice (place of execution) signs mark where the men were shot. Rusting car hulks remain in situ. Pedal-frame sewing machines lean against roofless kitchen walls to this day.
After Oradour, General Koenig ordered all resistance groups: “Put maximum check on guerrilla activity. Impossible at present to supply you with enough arms and ammunition. As far as possible break off contact everywhere to allow reorganisation. Avoid concentration of large numbers. Set up small isolated groups.”8 What became known as “the Koenig Pause” was usually communicated in good time, though in some cases, like the Vercors, tragically late. When de Gaulle’s military delegate, Jacques Chaban-Delmas, joined a COMAC meeting on 12 June, none of the three Vs knew about it. Since only around two hundred and seventy resistance operatives had direct radio contact with London, this was unsurprising. COMAC’s attitude, however, was so combative, demanding universal action everywhere, that Chaban thought there was little point in passing on Koenig’s directive.9 Meanwhile Rol-Tanguy complained that he needed more cash, thereby giving Chaban a useful thread by which to draw COMAC and P1 into de Gaulle’s command chain; he recommended that further requests should be made through himself.10
A couple of days later, judging COMAC’s mood to be calmer, Chaban-Delmas showed them Koenig’s telegram calling for cessation of action. They exploded, repeating their habitual viewpoint that the London French “understood nothing and risked nothing”. Koenig’s order was unanimously rejected. With a heavy heart, explaining the combative attitude of Resistance leaders in Paris, Chaban asked for Koenig’s order to be modified. So Koenig sent a fresh order to the Paris Resistance saying they should maintain “elusive” attacks on the enemy’s lines of communication.11
“WE ARE NOT IN THIS WAR,” insisted Pierre Laval in a national radio address. “You should not take part in any combat; if you don’t keep this rule, if you fall prey to indiscipline, you will provoke reprisals the magnitude of which the government will not be able to mitigate. You will suffer personally and materially and you will worsen the situation facing our country. You should refuse to listen to these insidious appeals addressed to you. Those who ask you to stop work and incite you to revolt are the enemies of your country.”
Milice leader Joseph Darnand made the same point with equal ferocity, and the German military governor of Gross-Paris, General von Boineburg-Lengsfeld, warned of draconian measures in new announcements—affiches—printed on yellow paper:
Parisians, the enemy is making new attempts to bring the war to French soil.
For the bringing of supplies into the capital to be assured it is essential that order and calm are maintained. To this end, the governing bodies of the State and the city, the Police and the public services must continue their functions. Industrial and business concerns, banks and shops must remain open.
The duty of everyone is to carry on their business as usual.
No evacuations are allowed unless ordered by the military.
Curfew remains fixed at 9pm.
Public assemblies, the distribution of tracts, strikes and lock-outs, and any Germano-phobic behaviour will be subject to severe punishment.
Acts of violence or sabotages of any kind will be severely punished.
The supplying of information to the enemy will be regarded as spying. All orders from the military authorities will be carried out without exception. All hostile actions will be punishable by death.”
Boineburg-Lengsfeld even accompanied his yellow affiche with a red one known as a Bekanntmachung ordering Parisians to avoid public highways reserved for Wehrmacht use. Theatres and cinemas would close but restaurants could stay open. Doors to private houses had to be left unlocked. Windows were to be closed at night and occupants were to stay away from both doors and windows. Then, extraordinarily, Boineburg-Lengsfeld scrubbed both these affiches, announcing instead that the German authorities would not impose more restrictions on Parisians provided order was maintained, though restrictions on coal would remain in force. Two days later the curfew was extended to 1am so Parisians could enjoy late-night cinema shows. However, the German authorities also asked Parisians to turn in any carrier pigeons they might find, offering substantial rewards for pigeons complete with message clasp, the message clasp without the pigeon, but less for just the pigeon—which presumably ended up in a pie.12
French ancillary workers at the Hôtel Meurice kept Rol-Tanguy informed about these “hesitations” among the city’s German governors, even supplying P1’s 2e bureau with copies of Boineburg’s rejected affiches. “It seemed that the Germans really didn’t know what attitude to adopt regarding the Paris population; first because they seemed to be an immense enigma, second because they had to take into account such considerations as their own available manpower,” Rol-Tanguy told Bourderon. “It is why they avoided any provocative measures which could have lit the touch paper and pointlessly aggravated their own situation while Paris remained well outside the combat zone.”13
German journalist Robert Strobel knew that D-Day presaged Götterdämmerung. Sonderführer Robert Wallraf had long expected the landings. In his office, Wallraf and his friends predicted the landings would happen in Normandy; the Pas de Calais was too obvious. Even with Germany’s defeat imminent, they seemed curiously satisfied; such was their loathing of the Nazi régime. Diehard Nazis said, “The poor Americans, none will escape alive!” Pessimists said, “Pack your suitcases. They will be here in a fortnight.” And those who knew French history warned, “Just wait, there will be something extraordinary in Paris; riots, possibly revolution. Not a single German will be able to walk the streets. You will see a city in uprising. They will throw rocks from the rooftops if they haven’t got weapons.”14
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