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Paris Liberated!
Ah, the summer of 1944. I remember it well. The French countryside was alive with the sounds of birds and turning coats. Flowering baskets and collaborators hung from every lamp post. And a beautiful young woman named Lilli Marlene bade a tearful farewell to her beloved Otto, and prepared to welcome her beloved Hank, just as her mother had a generation before. I wrote that two years ago, to mark this occasion, the anniversary of the Liberation of Paris. The French have spun a myth over the generations of how General LeClerc and the forces of Free France entered the city in triumph. The facts are somewhat different and show that the French owe that event to the Fourth Infantry Division of the United States Army and to the Spanish expats of the French Second Armored Division. When commanded by officers with skills and backbone, the French soldier can fight as well as any. They are demonstrating that in Afghanistan today. In the Second World War, that type of officer was less prevalent and far too many French soldiers died because of it. The Resistance, equally covered with myths, spent as much time fighting among its various political flavors as it did fighting the Boche. Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2006-08-25 |
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