From the front page, we have the escape from captivity of General Henri Giraud.
This is his second escape from the Germans as he was also captured during the First World War at the 1914 Battle of Guise. He escaped a short time after his capture.
His second capture was on May 19th, 1940 when the French 7th Army surrendered in the Netherlands. He was being held at the Königstein Fortress when he, at 63 years of age, scaled down a stone cliff and hoped a passing train. He wound up in Vichy France where made his way to Switzerland.
He will go on to meet with Eisenhower in the tunnels of Gibraltar about the TORCH landings in which he will be a real pain in Ike’s backside. Giraud would insist that he have full command of the troops landing on French soil. In essence, he told Eisenhower that he wanted his job.
Ike was trying to establish Giraud’s lesser position as smoothly as possible, but his aid General Mark Clark was less diplomatic. At the end of the first meeting with Giraud he told the French General bluntly, “Old gentleman, I hope you know that from now on your ass is out in the snow.” When the discussions on supreme command reached an impasse, Clark was again his ineloquent self when he told Giraud, “We would like the honorable general to know that the time of his usefulness to the Americans for the restoration of the glory that was France is now, we do not need you after tonight.”
Giraud would finally accept his role but under the command of Admiral Jean Darlan. When Darlan was assassinated later that year, Giraud would assume his command.
Now I wish I'd gotten the whole article. I now remember reading about Giraud in Korda's bio of Eisenhower and even in Wouk's novel.