The Allies at War

Page 4 of 7

• 1. Three titans
• 2. Free France
• 3. America enters the war
• 4. Bitter quarrels
• 5. The eve of D-Day
• 6. De Gaulle triumphs
• 7. Find out more
• Print entire article

Bitter quarrels

It did not turn out that way. The allied landings succeeded with only a few thousand casualties but the Vichy leaders would only obey the orders of the senior Vichy commander, Admiral Francois Darlan, who coincidentally had arrived in Algiers just days before the invasion. Contrary to Roosevelt's expectations, Giraud held no sway and the Americans were forced to make a deal with Darlan, who in three days of slippery negotiation switched sides to the allies and became French leader in North Africa.

'In London extraordinary new documents show how Churchill deployed MI5 to restrain de Gaulle.'

The Darlan deal provoked widespread criticism in Britain and America and despair amongst young French freedom fighters in Algiers. Four of them decided there could only be one solution. On 24 December 1942 Darlan was assassinated. At Roosevelt's instigation, Giraud replaced him as French leader, but even the President, despite his hostility to de Gaulle, realised that there needed to be unity between the Free French and the former Vichy forces now under Giraud's command.

At the Casablanca conference in January 1943, Roosevelt tried to force a shot gun marriage between Giraud whom he privately called 'the groom' and de Gaulle 'the bride'. Churchill summoned de Gaulle from London to attend the nuptials but, to his huge embarrassment, de Gaulle initially refused to come. For him a summons by a British Prime Minister to a meeting on French soil in which he was supposed to make peace with former Vichyites was too much to take.

Eventually de Gaulle, realising that he could not break with Roosevelt and Churchill, relented and, at Roosevelt's prompting, agreed to shake hands publicly with Giraud at a press conference in Casablanca. The show of unity was for the cameras only.

The early months of 1943 pitched the triangular relationship into its lowest ebb. In the privacy of the White House, the President poured scorn on the Free French leader. In London extraordinary new documents show how Churchill deployed MI5 to restrain de Gaulle. De Gaulle himself muttered darkly in private against his American and British allies.

Yet all the time support for de Gaulle in the French Empire and the underground resistance inside France was growing. Roosevelt however was determined to destroy him and used a series of strategies to achieve his ends. Churchill found himself caught in the middle, on the one hand furious at the damage de Gaulle was doing to his relationship with Roosevelt but also understanding that, however much he distrusted him, de Gaulle was the one French leader who had always stood unequivocally against Hitler.

NextPrevious