US General Jacob Devers, 6th Army Group Commander had a large force of Free French, in mostly US Army uniforms with Free French insignia and accruements. The Free French Army also had all American made weapons and vehicles. The equipment they had from the forces in Africa was mostly derelict. General Devers had to deal with his subordinate of the First Free French Army, whose name escapes me, and General De Gaul. General De Gaul was a general without portfolio. And he bickered with General Eisenhower and the General placed in command of the Free French Army. General Eisenhower gladly placed the Free French Army under General Devers’ command. Devers did not speak French fluently, but was able to communicate with the help of a former US Senator who resigned and joined the Army. General Devers was not in good graces with General Eisenhower. He had to scrounge his own interpreters, who were really fluent had some knowledge of politics. Lt Col Henry Cabot Lodge, a former US Senator was in a combat unit and was schooled in France. General Devers deportment and respect towards the Free French Army and Lodge’s political acumen made the thing work. General Devers’ is the most influential though underrated military leader in US history.
The 6th Army Group was key element of the Allied Expeditionary Force. Formed as a step child to appease General Marshal and an attempt to get Devers separated from Ike.
I told you ALL that to tell you this. De Gaul was a royal pain in everyone’s ass until he died. He was all show, no go. But a great cheerleader who did give the French people hope. Devers and Lodge kept the peace.
@val70 Nope. All here or in territories. Some of the young men were in the Pacific, Atlantic, Africa or Europe, but not living there. They all came back. Damaged in some way. All are gone now. The allies conquered the world and gave it back, helped rebuild. Made the two of the Axis countries economic power houses. And Italy a cool place to visit.
@Thatsright I was kidding. Mine were. A distant uncle of mine was telling his stories over and over again. De Gaulles had a strict upbringing in Lille. His father was a school teacher, I seem to remember
The greatest men are men of science. Like the legend of Merlin they alter the very nature of the world it's self. They change the very nature of man making him immune to terrible plagues and feeding him where he would have starved. Such men hold the power of the sun it's self in their hands. The codebook of life opens at their command. Few even know their names. The masses do not realize that often they live only because of them.
@Munumbis Can you actually believe in both? The ultimate power of a science that shouldn't be questioned and then a legend that is both fleety in its meaning and entirely not exact as science should be?
@Munumbis Agreed. But what power do we need? Isn't there something called morality that is science's master? One just can't say that everything is Esotericism what actually doesn’t mean The Occult but rather a ‘secret knowledge for a small group of people’
Hard to see DeGaulle as anything other than man with privilege who chose to use it by hiding away in a foreign place as his countrymen endured horrors he never saw or imagined until his 'triumphant return' AFTER the occupying Nazi's had left.
@Picklebobble2 Well, a 2005 poll conducted by the public broadcaster France 2 over here, titled "Le Plus Grand Français de Tous les Temps" (The Greatest Frenchman of All Time), ranked him highly for his leadership during World War II and for founding the Fifth Republic. First actually :)
@val70 Yeah. That’s what I read. And my reading in the past on the general led me to Henry Cabot Lodge and Devers. Sorry. Now, I’ll go sit somewhere and read. Historical fiction today. On the beach.
@Thatsright You're much right about Devers though. I once was in really nasty discussion about Patton with a local historian that wrote a book him. I reviewed that book of hers on the blog of the library that I work for. She came back at me hostile. I only said that she didn't mention the comments about the concentration camp victims that he made. I know for a fact that Marshal wanted him send home right then. Ike protected him because he was good as a battlefield general
