AT 4AM LAVAL LEFT THE MATIGNON accompanied by a Gestapo escort commanded by Roland Noseck. After briefly stopping at Nancy, where he informed Prefect Jean Faure what he was doing, Laval arrived at the hospital in Maréville shortly before noon.
“I have come to liberate you,” Laval told a stunned Edouard Herriot.
Laval did not tell the former President of the Chamber of Deputies everything that was going on, preferring to test the water before explaining his ideas for installing a transition government to greet the Allies. Herriot distrusted Laval. But since Laval’s efforts had freed him, he showed Laval some warmth. Restoring France’s constitutional government was important to Herriot, but he would never allow Laval to slip him into the Matignon as Vichy’s creature. “I am not going back to Paris except as President of the Chamber of Deputies and I will stay chez moi at the Hôtel de la Presidence.”
“Until the Germans leave, that’ll be a few days,” replied Laval.
While lunching in Nancy, Herriot told Laval, “You’ll need to find Jeanneney, enrobed as President of the Senate to convoke the National Assembly.”
“When he knows that I’m on the way out, he’ll arrive at the gallop,” replied Laval, smiling bleakly. Then he told Herriot it was also essential to bring Pétain to Paris.
Herriot agreed.
“In any case I shall not shake his hand,” he said.105
Since Allied fighter-bombers were unlikely to attack after dusk, they returned to Paris after dark; the Herriots in one car and Laval accompanied by André Enfière in another, escorted by German police, along roads crowded with retreating Wehrmacht troops.106
Looking out of his apartment windows over the Place de l’Hôtel de Ville the following morning, René Bouffet saw six dark cars parked outside and plainclothes Gestapo getting out. “I’m done for,” he murmured, assuming they were coming to arrest him. But the maid called out, “It’s Monsieur le President Laval.” Bouffet’s wife nervously telephoned the switchboard for information. Then, leaving their apartment, she found herself facing Laval, Edouard and Madame Herriot, André Enfière and SS Haupsturmführer Roland Noseck, who was out of uniform. Madame Bouffet reassured her husband.
“You see the atmosphere we live in,” Laval remarked to Herriot, as Noseck looked on unmoved.107
APPROACHING FRANCHEVILLE AFTER DARK, Branet’s men had little choice but to recce the village on foot. The only thing Branet knew about Francheville was that a pre-war army friend owned the château. Otherwise, in the chiaroscuro light of burning vehicles, the village appeared deserted. Some stunned Germans stumbled towards them with raised hands. They informed Branet that a dozen Panthers were sheltering in woods nearby, which explained the distant rumbling noise. This was confirmed by the only villager to open her door, a brave teenage girl. Calling at the château at sunrise, Branet found his friend, the racehorse trainer Count Pierre de Montesson, looking healthy and well-fed, riding a fine horse that had been spared German requisition. Montesson agreed to take charge of Branet’s prisoners. Preferring the protection of a French officer chez lui than the Resistance, the prisoners co-operated.
Moving on to Boucé, Branet’s force encountered a troop of German armoured cars travelling from Carrouges towards Argentan. His Shermans and Vézy’s armoured cars opened fire, capturing six men before dispersing along Boucé’s main arteries, shooting up any German vehicles they found or any German who failed to raise his hands.
All Branet’s tanks were carrying pink air-recognition panels behind their turrets but this did not prevent USAAF Thunderbolts from strafing his force, tragically killing a Frenchwoman instead. Otherwise the signs of German collapse were all around. South of Fleuré two abandoned Panthers had run out of petrol. Apart from bursts of machine-gun fire, little prevented Branet from entering Écouché. His men had accounted for fifteen tanks and forty other vehicles excluding ambulances. He could not count the prisoners they had taken. “We acquired a sense of superiority,” Branet wrote.108
In Écouché the French were amazed to see a priest picking his way serenely through wrecked German vehicles administering the last rites to dying Germans. This was the well respected Abbé Berger. As Captain Buis dismounted his Sherman, Berger approached him.
“Thank you for liberating us,” said Berger in English, assuming Buis was American.
“Thank General de Gaulle,” Buis replied in French.109
Even la Nueve’s atheistic left-wingers were impressed by Berger’s humanity. Cannonfire and Allied fighter bombers had left many of Écouché’s buildings roofless, including Berger’s church where the statue of Sacré Coeur was blown off its plinth. Dronne’s Spaniards organised a whip-round to replace it. Touched by such a gesture from non-believers, Berger organised a Mass for la Nueve which they all attended.
“Why?” asked Dronne.
“If we had priests like that in Spain, things might have been different,” came the reply.110
13 August 1944
THOUGH NOW WELL SOUTH OF THE 2e DB’S FRONT LINE, the Forêt d’Écouves remained a dangerous place. The Sherman Ourcq from the 501e RCC’s 3 squadron was damaged near Le Cercueil by an 88mm gun firing from the forest’s north side. Ourcq’s driver succeeded in steering it into the cover of some scrub but, just as the crew dismounted the stricken tank, a second shell struck, killing its commander, Sergeant Bouclet, and its gunner, Trooper Cardiot. Both were young and had undertaken considerable odyssies to join the 2e DB. Bouclet escaped Occupied France by stowing away on a goods train passing through Spain, joining Leclerc when still only sixteen. Cadiot had journeyed from Peru.111
Leclerc now sited his CP north of Fleuré, six kilometres from Argentan, where Roumiantzoff’s Spahis were already staking the 2e DB’s claim. The famous lace-making town with its Benedictine Abbey, chosen as XV Corps’ target by American generals who had never been there, was visible north of the Baize River. Leclerc’s orders were not to advance north of the Orne since it represented a clearly visible line from the air, south of which Allied bomber crews knew not to release their payloads.
The road east from Argentan leads to Paris; hence Leclerc wanted to recce the town’s southern approaches himself. Mounting his command tank Tailly, and escorted by two Stuarts from Lieutenant de la Fouchardière’s troop, Leclerc set off towards Argentan while Girard shook his head. Roumiantzoff had already pushed his armoured cars as close as he dared before machine-gun fire chased him off. Given that Tailly’s cannon was a fake (en zinc) and that Boissieu’s protection squad had not been prewarned, Leclerc’s jaunt seemed foolhardy at best.
With the fraught Boissieu following in a Jeep, Tailly rolled down the road, hidden from view by embankments and tall hedges. After half a kilometre Leclerc flicked the diverter switch on his headset to direct his driver, inadvertently placing himself incommunicado just as radio reports arrived saying the area was dangerous. Using binoculars, La Fouchardière saw partially camouflaged German tanks guarding southern Argentan.
“Mon Dieu!” Boissieu said to La Fouchardière, fearing that Leclerc might become another charred corpse in a wrecked Sherman along with de Gaulle’s handwritten note. Tailly rolled on until a Spahi officer waved it down. Leclerc opened his turret hatch. Captain Gerberon told him that the main German strength appeared to be on the southeast approach. Leclerc turned right. Boissieu and La Fouchardière found the tension intolerable. A German tank’s cannon could be seen turning towards Leclerc. Suddenly Argentanais appeared in their Sunday best clothes, gesticulating that there were Germans nearby. Seeing the words on their lips through his periscope, Girard told Leclerc they should pull back. Another Argentanais opened a shutter and pointed to a Panther, camouflaged in enfilade, and Leclerc decided to withdraw. Invisible to Boissieu and La Fouchardière, Tailly backtracked, cleaving to all the available cover for fifteen minutes.
“For a quarter of an hour that seemed like an eternity,” Boissieu later wrote, “I thought I had lost General Leclerc.” He found Leclerc in a nearby farmstead, watching
Rouminantzoff’s Spahis through binoculars. Seeing the relief on Boissieu’s face, Leclerc smiled serenely and accepted the crock of cider offered by the farmer. “I wanted to see when they would be evacuating Argentan,” said the General.
Back at Fleuré, Guillebon took Boissieu aside.
“When you have the honour,” Guillebon said tersely, “of being given command of the unit charged with protecting General Leclerc, you don’t let him wander off alone in his tank.”112
THE FIRST PAUL DE LANGLADE HEARD of the 2e DB being transferred from Haislip’s US XV Corps to the newly activated Vth Corps was around 7am that morning, when a white Scout Car bearing two stars arrived at his CP.
“I am General Gerow, commander of the US Army corps in which your division is included,” said an American with a Virginia accent. “Perhaps, since you command one of his combat groups, you might know where in Hell one might find General Leclerc at this moment?”
Langlade replied that he was not au courant with Leclerc’s movements.
“Hear this,” said Gerow tetchily. “I haven’t the time to continue this wild goose chase. I have found you here. You are one of his group commanders. You find him.” Gerow fixed Langlade with a hard, cold stare. “It is an order,” said Gerow. “I repeat, it is an order. You go as fast as you can to the General, carrying the express order from me to halt his combat groups wherever they are engaged on routes they were not authorised to use, and to retake the axes of advance that they were given and to do it immediately. I hold you responsible for passing on this order.”
From Gerow’s tone Langlade understood that Leclerc’s American superiors were displeased, and he sent Commandant Verdier to find le Patron.
“Mon Colonel,” replied Verdier. “I am sorry but I can’t take such a message to General Leclerc. Believe me, I know him well enough to know that he will not change decisions already taken and which he is seeing through to a conclusion … I simply haven’t the courage to bear the inevitable reaction from carrying such a message. Truly, mon Colonel, don’t ask me to carry out this impossible mission. Get someone else.”
Langlade then hit on Captain Arnaud. Bearing the responsibility and smiling like a martyr, he set off to find Leclerc who was supervising the mopping up of the last resistance in the Forêt d’Écouves. Arnaud returned to Langlade’s CP a few hours later.
“The General replied,” said Arnaud, blushing visibly, “tell Langlade that if this American is a c*** then that’s no reason for him to be one too.”113
By the afternoon of 13 August the 2e DB held a triangular position from Carrouges, on the northwest of the Forêt d’Écouves, to Sées on the northeast corner, stretching to a north pinnacle on the southern outskirts of Argentan. The line from Carrouges to Argentan via Écouché was most important since it faced the flow of retreating German traffic. While the US 79th and 90th Infantry Divisions gathered up exhausted remnants of the 9th Panzer Division, the 2e DB strengthened its positions and suppressed remaining pockets of resistance. This area, amounting to 260 square kilometres, contained fifteen thousand French inhabitants as well as thirty thousand Germans in broken, disorganised units. Luckily these mostly scattered infantry were happy to surrender after a few shots. Panzer troops or SS, however, required more persuasion before putting their hands up.
Whatever Gerow said, the 2e DB were not content to wait for orders if advantageous opportunities presented themselves. Leaving Écouché from the north, supported by la Nueve, Captain Buis’ company of the 501e RCC reached the ridge overlooking the Orne’s south bank where an enormous traffic jam of German vehicles converged on the bridge at Montgaroult.
The Spaniards and Lieutenant Galley’s troop of Shermans opened fire, inflicting destruction, panic and flight. Compos’ platoon dismounted their half-tracks and sealed off the bridge, albeit with a few casualties, while US Thunderbolts finished off the German columns. Now that he controlled a bridge over the Orne, west of Argentan, Leclerc ordered Buis to halt.114
Though the Orne valley’s scenery was a painter’s paradise, its high hedges and undulating countryside gave plenty of cover for experienced tank commanders wanting to creep up on their enemies. No sooner had Dronne’s most experienced lieutenant, the forty-five-year-old Amado Granell, cried out with delight at finding a smart sports car among the rows of abandoned German vehicles, than it took a direct hit from a Panzer’s cannon.115
During their first week in action la Nueve had destroyed or captured hundreds of German vehicles and killed or wounded countless enemy. Among their own ranks, these outcasts of Franco’s Spain suffered two dead and two wounded in the fighting since Alençon. Notwithstanding their anti-clericalism, Écouché’s Abbé Berger allowed la Nueve to lay out their dead in his church, and it was there that Miguel Sanchez paid his respects to the body of his cousin, clenching his fist over his chest: “I will avenge you, I promise.”116
14 August 1944
IN ONE OF THE MATIGNON’S HUGE, ornate audience chambers Laval lent forward to shake Raoul Nordling’s hand and then very pointedly stood back, body language intended to impress upon Nordling that there were other things concerning him besides Resistance prisoners. To further deflect the conversation from this matter, Laval subjected Nordling to his esprit—the sneering, sometimes inelegant wit intended to discomfort adversaries—for which he was well-known.
“Your mother originated in the Auvergne, Monsieur Nordling,” said Laval, almost out of the blue. “And it was your father who was Swedish,” Laval continued like Proust’s Baron de Charlus. “The cross-breeding of a Swede and an Auvergnatte has produced excellent results. If I owned a bitch who, on her maternal line, came from the Auvergne, and on her father’s side came from Spitzbergen, there couldn’t exist a better creature.”
Since this nonsense was intended to derail his humanitarian mission, Nordling struggled to remain affable.
“You mean Sweden, not Spitzberg,” was Nordling’s reply.
“Same difference,” said Laval, giving Nordling a playful stare. “They’re both up north.”
Geography was not Laval’s strong suit; a footnote in Nordling’s memoirs explains the locations of Sweden and Spitzberg while omitting that a “Spitzbergen” is a sub-breed of sledge dog.117
Nevertheless Laval assured Nordling that he was taking his pleas regarding political prisoners “to heart”, and needed twenty-four hours to talk with Abetz.118
WHEREAS MADAME HERRIOT could come and go as she pleased, Herriot himself was forbidden to leave the building or receive visitors. His German protectors were always there, watching him like hawks. That afternoon Laval told him that the former residence of the president of the Chamber of Deputies would become available in three days. But how was he to put in place France’s transitional government? (Which was the very reason Laval had collected him from Maréville.) How could the National Assembly be recalled without access to the Palais Bourbon and Palais Luxembourg, which housed the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate? The buildings were now being turned into German strongpoints. How could Herriot plan a new France if Jeanneney, President of the Senate, was unavailable?119
For their part, the Resistance were horrified that Laval had taken possession of Edouard Herriot and installed him at the Hôtel de Ville under the supervision of Vichy prefect René Bouffet. They concluded correctly that Laval intended to install a transitional government to greet the Americans, thereby cutting out both wings of the Resistance—the FTP and the equally uncompromising followers of General de Gaulle. They could hardly negotiate with Herriot if he was under Vichy or German protection. A résistante on the Hôtel de Ville’s domestic staff kept them au courant over Herriot’s welfare.120
FROM PATTON’S VIEWPOINT, Leclerc’s division was quite dangerously placed. If the Germans widened the pocket’s southern jaw, the 2e DB would bear the brunt of the assault, since Collins VII Corps was unable to reinforce Haislip sufficiently. Montgomery was having a tough time pushing southwards to Falaise. Bradley’s planned encirclement was no
t working out as planned and Patton now believed that the 2e DB along with the 79th and 90th Infantry Divisions should hold the southern line while a new close-off point developed further east. This would mean sending Walker’s XX Corps eastwards to Dreux and XII Corps to Chartres.121
Chastened by his own difficulties, Montgomery suggested something similar, writing to Bradley, “I think your movement should be northeast towards Dreux. Also any further stuff you can move round to Le Mans should go northeast. We want to head off the Germans and stop them breaking out to the southeast.” But Bradley still believed that Falaise should remain the close-off point, albeit with Hodges First Army having the honour.122 He described 14 August as “a long, tedious day during which many vital decisions had been discussed at the very highest levels”. One result was Patton flying to see Haislip with news that XV Corps would be split and that he would be taking Oliver’s 5th Armored and an infantry division towards Dreux, leaving Leclerc at Argentan. Haislip was thrilled by these developments but then he was not French; nor did his wallet contain the same things as General Leclerc’s.123
The 2e DB’s place in the line at Argentan was vital. Early on 14 August Hitler personally ordered Panzer Group Eberbach to attack south towards Argentan. Hans Eberbach was beside himself with frustration at Hitler’s failing grip on reality as famous panzer divisions were reduced to fragments. The 1st SS Panzer, the vaunted Liebstandarte Adolf Hitler, had merely thirty remaining tanks, 2nd Panzer only twenty-five, and 116th Panzer only fifteen serviceable runners. Only a company of Panzergrenadiers remained from 9th Panzer Division after their showdown with the 2e DB in the Forêt d’Écouves.124
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