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Posted on 04/20/2003 12:00:52 AM PDT by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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The liberation of Paris in World War II illustrated better than most examples the close connection between politics and the military. On the Allied side, specifically for the Americans and the French, the political and operational motivations interacted in harmony as well as in conflict. How they played out is instructive.  The Allies first gave serious thought to Paris when they acceded to the political wish of General Charles de Gaulle, head of the French Provisional Government in London. The invasion planners added the 2d French Armored Division to the list of units scheduled to sail from England to the continent, "primarily so that there may be an important French formation present at the re-occupation of Paris." General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, promised to use the unit to free the capital. General Jacques Leclerc, the wartime pseudonym of Philippe François Marie de Hautecloque, commanded the division. An aristocrat, he had served as a regular army captain in the disastrous campaign of 1940. After the French surrendered, Leclerc made his way to England and joined De Gaulle. Leclerc burned with desire to expunge and avenge the French defeat. He was headstrong and impatient, possessed a formidable will, and generated an immense charisma. De Gaulle sent him to Chad, where he raised a column of troops. He took his men to Libya and routed Italian soldiers at Koufra. He then attached his outfit to General Bernard L. Montgomery's British Eighth Army and fought on its desert flank. Leclerc advanced rapidly in rank and gained a legendary reputation. Having operated more or less independently, he was ill-suited to the discipline of the chain of command. Toward the end of 1943, De Gaulle instructed Leclerc to form the 2d French Armored Division. Leclerc pulled together a variety of elements, "a mosaic of peoples, races, religions, and political convictions." Free French from the United Kingdom and Syria, French North Africa and Equatorial Africa, Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Moslems, and animists, communists, reactionaries, socialists, radicals, free thinkers, militant Christians, and Quakers all mingled in friendship. Animating them were hatred of the Germans, love of France, and the spirit of Leclerc, who imparted a sense of adventure. The men exhibited the exuberance of freebooters. After training in Algeria, the division moved to England. The soldiers knew what they were expected to do. They could hardly wait. Anticipation of their mission made them difficult to control.  The French armored division arrived in Normandy on 1 August 1944, almost two months after D-Day, and was assigned to the Third US Army under General George S. Patton, Jr. A patrician who spoke fluent if ungrammatical French, Patton welcomed Leclerc warmly. He offered Leclerc the opportunity to fight immediately instead of waiting to liberate Paris. Leclerc jumped at the chance. Patton attached Leclerc's division to the XV Corps, commanded by General Wade Hampton Haislip. An aristocratic Virginian who had been a student at the Ecole de Guerre in Paris, Haislip spoke French easily. Like Patton, Haislip was especially nice to Leclerc. Both Americans tried to make Leclerc feel at home. Yet Leclerc was skeptical of Americans. His service with the British in North Africa had given him some anti-American attitudes. Like many British officers, Leclerc thought the Americans to be newcomers to the war and amateurs in execution. He was sure he saw battlefield problems and solutions instantly, whereas Americans required time and paperwork to grasp and work out situations. Part of Leclerc's outlook came from resentment. The French were the proprietors of France, yet the Americans, who were merely transients, were running the show. Leclerc would try Haislip's and Patton's patience. He would get on the nerves of all his American superior commanders, Generals Omar Bradley at 12th Army Group, Courtney Hodges at First US Army, and Leonard Gerow at V Corps. With the French on the left and an American armored division, the 5th, on the right, the XV Corps pushed north toward Argentan to close what became known as the Argentan-Falaise pocket, the maneuver to surround the Germans in Normandy. Ahead lay an upland forest, difficult terrain, and Haislip instructed his armored divisions to go around it, the French on the left, the Americans on the right.  In a defiant or thoughtless, yet inexcusable, gesture of disobedience--perhaps because Leclerc had never before commanded a division in combat--Leclerc disregarded Haislip's order. He sent his elements around the left side, through the forest, and around the right. The latter troops preempted a major road reserved for the Americans and blocked their movement to Argentan, which was undefended. During the six hours it took Leclerc's men to complete the maneuver, the remnants of three panzer divisions arrived in Argentan and assumed defensive positions. They turned back the XV Corps and kept the Americans and French out of the town. On the outskirts of Argentan, the French division found itself on the southern jaw of the Falaise pocket. Paris was 100 miles away. Leaving Leclerc where he was, Patton, on the following day, 14 August, sent half of the XV Corps eastward toward the Seine River. Leclerc was exasperated. Did no one understand the importance of his mission? Asking Patton when the French could go to Paris, he explained, "It is political." Patton needed Leclerc to contain the Germans at Argentan, and he bluntly told Leclerc to stay put. Patton's diary entry for the following day, 15 August, reads as follows: "Leclerc came in very much excited. He said, among other things, that if he were not allowed to advance on Paris, he would resign. I told him in my best French that he was a baby and . . . that I had left him in the most dangerous place [on the front]. We parted friends."  Leclerc wrote to Patton on the next day, 16 August. Argentan, he said, was quiet. It was probably time for him to regroup for movement to Paris. Patton wondered in his journal whether Leclerc would obey orders. At Patton's headquarters that evening, Leclerc found Bradley there on a visit. Bradley and Patton both assured Leclerc of their respect for his ultimate place in the scheme of things. Understanding why he had to remain at Argentan, Leclerc worried. American troops were closer to Paris than he was. On 19 August, Haislip's XV Corps crossed the Seine River, 25 miles below Paris. Walton Walker's XX Corps at Chartres and Gilbert Cook's XII Corps at Orleans were 50 and 75 miles from the capital. If Eisenhower had to liberate Paris quickly, would he be able to use Leclerc? The departure of Haislip's corps headquarters and the shift of Patton's army to the east brought Leclerc new superior officers. The headquarters of Hodges' First Army and of Gerow's V Corps took charge of Argentan and Leclerc. Neither American spoke French. Neither was concerned with Leclerc's special role.  DeGaulle,Choltitz,Leclerc To become acquainted with Leclerc, Hodges invited him to lunch on 20 August. All Leclerc could talk about was Paris. Hodges was disgusted. Yet on his own initiative he generously noted in his diary his intention to let Leclerc liberate the capital if the mission fell to Hodges. On 21 August, the Falaise pocket closed and Leclerc, no longer required at Argentan, decided to fulfill his task. That evening he sent 150 men in ten light tanks, ten armored cars, and ten personnel carriers toward the capital. If the Allies moved into Paris without the French division, this small contingent was to go along as representatives of De Gaulle's Provisional Government and the French Army. Writing to De Gaulle, Leclerc regretted his inability to dispatch his entire division. "Unfortunately," the Americans regulated the fuel they furnished him. And "the rules of military subordination" prohibited him from independent action. Ordering the small group to Paris was already a serious infraction. On the following morning, 22 August, Leclerc sent an officer to explain to Gerow, his immediate superior. Gerow had by then received a message asking why French troops were outside their authorized boundaries. Was Gerow unable to control them?  Before Leclerc's emissary could speak, Gerow presented him with a letter for Leclerc. "I desire to make it clear to you," Gerow had written, "that the 2d French Armored Division is under my command for all purposes and no part of it will be employed by you except in the execution of missions assigned by this headquarters." He directed Leclerc to recall his detachment. Unwilling to do so, Leclerc flew in his light plane to Hodges' First Army headquarters, the echelon above Gerow. Leclerc learned that Bradley was conferring with Eisenhower on Paris. Hodges was awaiting word on the outcome of the meeting. Leclerc decided to wait there too. Eisenhower had concluded that it was best to defer the liberation. Taking Paris would delay operations against the Germans elsewhere. Seizing the capital might destroy the place and its historic and cultural monuments. Diverting food and coal to the city's inhabitants on humanitarian grounds would hamper the Allied pursuit of the Germans fleeing toward their homeland. The possibility of ending the war quickly might vanish. Bypassing Paris, going around the city, and waiting for the isolated German garrison to surrender made military sense.
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<------mash
Hope you had a happy Easter!
BTTT!
Happy Easter!
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Easter in Iraq
 Capt. Daniel Bucur, of Georgia, chaplain for Task Force 2-69 Armor, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division from Fort Benning, Georgia, prays with soldiers during Easter services along the Tigris River in central Baghdad, April 20, 2003. U.S.-led forces in Iraq said on Sunday they had seized Saddam Hussein's science minister and a leading Iraqi opposition group said Saddam's sole surviving son-in-law had surrendered to them, bringing to seven the number of 'most wanted' Iraqis in U.S. and opposition hands. REUTERS/David Leeson/The Dallas Morning News  U.S. soldiers stand during church services in Baghdad, April 20, 2003. Iraqi Christians observed a somber Easter Sunday, praying for an end to postwar chaos and uncertainty, as a first convoy of food aid reached Baghdad. Australia, which joined the United States and Britain in the war to overthrow Saddam Hussein, said the allies would declare victory in the next few days. But diplomatic arguments continued over Iraq's future, and Saddam's fate remained a mystery. (Gleb Garanich/Reuters)  Thousands of Iraqi Christians flocked to churches for their first Easter mass since the fall of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), and heard the US occupation compared to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.(AFP/Odd Andersen)  Iraqi parishioners attend a Protestant church in central Baghdad on Good Friday, April 18, 2003. Iraqi Christians marked Good Friday with prayers for a resurrection of peace and normality in the war-torn country. REUTERS/Petr Josek  Members of the choir at St. Theresa's Catholic Church, in Basra, Iraq, sing hymns during the celebration of Easter Sunday Mass, April 20, 2003. Over 500 of Basra's Catholics turned out to celebrate Mass at the church. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)  United States Army's Cpt. Tom Roughneen of New Jersey talks with locals as Sgt Nino Dioso of Pennsylvania, right, jokingly gestures behind him during an Easter Sunday celebration at the Catholic Cathedral in Kirkuk, Iraq Sunday April 20, 2003. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)  U.S. Army Chaplain Tim Meader (L) and Chaplain William Lovell, both from Fort Carson, Colorado, bow their heads in prayer during an Easter service at Camp New Jersey, Kuwait on April 20, 2003. U.S. soldiers waiting for orders to go into Iraq marked Easter Sunday in a camp in northern Kuwait with prayers and thoughts of the families they had left behind. REUTERS/Adrees Latif  U.S. army Captain Tom Roughneen of New Jersey smiles as he greets newly baptized three-month old Maria Saad during a celebration at the Catholic cathedral in Kirkuk, Iraq, Sunday, April 20, 2003. Christians in Iraq celebrated Easter Sunday. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)  Iraqi Christians stand during the celebration of Easter mass, at Baghdad's Sacred Heart Catholic church, Iraq, Easter Sunday, April 20, 2003.  United States Army Chaplain Terry Simmons, from Fort Carson, Colorado, leads a prayer during Easter services at Camp New Jersey, Kuwait, April 20, 2003. REUTERS/Adrees Latif
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Here is another picture. 1944.
I never heard of hunting eggs at night.
But I'm glad you had a great time and some delicious things to eat!
My Easter was great too, I went to Mass than over to my parents' house to have Easter Dinner there with my brother and his family and my two sisters with thier families.
By, Michael Marks
Thanks pippin I'll read it in a litte bit, we've got a storm warning, looking pretty severe, gotta help the hubby batten down the hatches and shut this down.
Amen to that. Nice to meet you. I don't think I've seen you in the Foxhole before. (But I could be mistaken - CRS disease, ya understand...)
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