Liberation of Paris : How Eisenhower, De Gaulle, and Von Choltitz Saved the City of Light (9781501164941)

by Smith, Jean Edward

  The only opposition came from the American military. The American commanders wanted to pursue the retreating Germans, not parade through Paris. On the evening of the 25th, Major General Leonard Gerow, commanding V Corps, ordered Leclerc to make contact with the German forces northeast of Paris and prepare to attack them. Leclerc took the order to de Gaulle, who was not only surprised but upset. He told Leclerc to designate a small unit that could guard against any German approach, but hold the rest of his division for the parade: “Since the Allied command had not resolved to make the slightest liaison with me, I ordered Leclerc to inform it of the arrangements I had decided on…. To the contrary orders that the Allies might send, Leclerc was to reply that he was maintaining his position according to General de Gaulle’s orders.”2

  When Gerow heard Leclerc’s response, he became livid. The following morning, he sent a letter to Leclerc ordering him to ignore de Gaulle’s instructions and head northeast immediately.

  You are operating under my direct command and will not accept orders from any other source. I understand you have been directed by General de Gaulle to parade your troops this afternoon at 1400 hours. You will disregard those orders and continue on the present mission assigned you of clearing up all resistance in Paris and environs within your zone of action.

  Your command will not participate in the parade this afternoon or at any other time except on orders signed by me personally.3

  The American colonel who gave Gerow’s letter to Leclerc said that if the Second Armored Division participated in the parade that afternoon, Gerow would consider it a “formal breach of military discipline.” Leclerc took the colonel to de Gaulle, who dismissed Gerow’s order. “I loaned you Leclerc,” said de Gaulle. “Surely I can borrow him back for a few moments.”4 In his memoirs, de Gaulle said, “Naturally I ignored this order.” He went on to point out that except for Gerow, the Allies did not “meddle with affairs in the capital.”5 Gerow did not understand the political significance of the parade, and not surprisingly he was ignored.

  The crowds in Paris gathered all day to watch the parade. De Gaulle estimated that almost two million people—an unprecedented number—turned out between the Arc de Triomphe and the Place de la Concorde. At 3 p.m. de Gaulle arrived at the Arc de Triomphe, where he was saluted by the Régiment de Marche du Tchad, the oldest unit of the Free French Army, originally commanded by Leclerc in Chad. He moved immediately to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc, placed a wreath of gladiolas in the shape of the Cross of Lorraine on the grave, and relit the eternal flame that had been extinguished when the Germans occupied Paris in June 1940.

  General de Gaulle laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

  The parade was ready to begin. Preceded by four Sherman tanks of Leclerc’s division, de Gaulle led the way. He was joined by his generals—Juin, Koenig, and Leclerc—as well as the leaders of the Paris Resistance, Colonel Rol and Maurice Kriegel-Valrimont; the members of the government Alexandre Parodi, Charles Luizet, Chaban-Delmas; and Georges Bidault of the CNR and Charles Tillon of the Parisian Committee of Liberation. It was a complete collection of the leaders of the Paris liberation, with de Gaulle leading the way. With his six-foot-five stature, he easily dominated the scene. They did not ride in vehicles but walked in the center of the Champs-Élysées from the Arc de Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde. They were followed by the troops of the Second Armored Division, and then by members of the Resistance.

  The immense crowd roared approval. Young girls frequently ran out to give de Gaulle bouquets of flowers, which he graciously accepted. At the statue to Georges Clemenceau, midway down the Champs-Élysées, de Gaulle paused and saluted. “What a triumph,” said Bidault. “Yes, but what a crowd,” de Gaulle replied. As Simone de Beauvoir noted, “We acclaimed not a military parade, but a popular carnival, disorganized and magnificent.”6

  De Gaulle was visibly moved. “I went on, touched and yet tranquil, amid the inexpressible exultation of the crowd, beneath the storm of voices echoing my name, trying, as I advanced, to look at every person in all that multitude in order that every eye might register my presence, raising and lowering my arms to reply to the acclamation: this was one of those miracles of national consciousness, one of those gestures which sometimes, in the course of centuries, illuminate the history of France.”7

  When de Gaulle reached the Place de la Concorde, the mood was briefly broken when shots rang out. De Gaulle continued to march across the square as though nothing had happened, to a convertible automobile that was to take him to Notre-Dame. Most spectators in the square, however, dove for cover. They watched in amazement as de Gaulle carried on while the gunfire continued. To this day it is not known who was doing the shooting—or what they were shooting at. As a Paris reporter said, de Gaulle’s behavior “inspired confidence and compassion at the same time. His face was the face of a hero.”8

  General de Gaulle leading the parade. General Koenig is on his left; General Leclerc follows.

  At Notre-Dame the situation was tense. Monsignor Emmanuel Suhard, the cardinal-archbishop of Paris, had been instructed to stay away from the proceedings because of his support for the Vichy regime.I He had welcomed Pétain to Paris in April, and in July had presided over the funeral of Phillipe Henriot, the Vichy minister of information and an ardent pro-Nazi who had been assassinated by the Resistance. De Gaulle said he understood Suhard’s actions because the Church always accepted the “established order” and he was “not unaware of the fact that the cardinal’s piety and charity were so immense that they left little room in his soul for the appreciation of temporal matters.”9 But he accepted Parodi’s request that Suhard remain in his residence during the ceremony because he did not want any protests during it, and above all wanted to keep the Communists in line.

  De Gaulle got out of his car at the Hôtel de Ville, was received by Garde républicaine in dress uniform while the band played La Marseillaise, and then walked across the Pont d’Arcole to the cathedral. Again the crowd was immense, and again, once de Gaulle crossed the bridge, shots rang out, apparently coming from the towers of Notre-Dame. As happened at the Place de la Concorde, the crowd ran for cover, but de Gaulle, accompanied by his generals and government officials, continued without flinching. “It was the most extraordinary example of courage I have ever seen,” said Robert Reid, a BBC reporter who was covering the event.10 Troops from Leclerc’s division returned the gunfire, and order was quickly restored.

  Inside the cathedral the congregation was waiting, but as soon as de Gaulle entered, firing began again. Rather than being directed at anyone, however, it simply went into the air, over the congregants’ heads. Once again people sought cover. And again de Gaulle continued to walk deliberately, to his place of honor at the left of the transept. Because of the electricity outage there were no lights and no organ music, but the service went on. De Gaulle was greeted by Suhard’s replacement, Monsignor Brot, who told de Gaulle that the cardinal was upset he was not welcome at the ceremony. De Gaulle said he would meet with Suhard soon. Although some firing continued, General Koenig, standing behind de Gaulle, shouted at the congregation, “Have you no pride? Stand up.”11 As people rose to their feet, the clergy began to sing the Magnificat. De Gaulle led the response. It was even more impressive. As Helen Kirkpatrick, a reporter for the Chicago Daily News, wrote to her family, “I am not one for believing in miracles, but only a miracle prevented those French generals, and myself as well I suppose, from being killed.”12

  De Gaulle and Monsignor Brot at Notre-Dame

  When the Magnificat was completed, and with shots still ringing out, de Gaulle decided to terminate the ceremony. He walked out of the cathedral with his head up and shoulders back, the symbol of France reborn. Whatever had caused the shooting—and its source remains unknown—de Gaulle emerged as the unquestioned leader of the new France. His poise and bravery were now a matter of record, and were unparalleled in modern French history. As an American newsman wrote, “d
e Gaulle had France in the palm of his hand.”13

  On his way back to the War Ministry after Notre-Dame, de Gaulle decided to take advantage of the shootings and disarm the Resistance in Paris. He did not believe that the shootings were done by members of the Vichy Militia or German stay-behinds, but rather by the FFI, to emphasize the danger that Paris faced. “By shooting a few bullets into the air at the agreed upon hour, without perhaps foreseeing the bursts of fire that would be the consequence, an attempt had been made to create the impression that certain threats were still lurking in the shadows [and] that the resistance organizations must remain armed and vigilant.”14 When he arrived at the War Ministry, he instructed General Koenig to see to it that the FFI in Paris was disarmed and that the members who wished to join the regular army were enrolled as soon as possible.

  Koenig immediately went to see Colonel Richard Vissering of SHAEF. “The worst danger in Paris at the moment is the FFI,” said Koenig. The best way to relieve the situation was to get “the most disturbing elements into uniform and under military discipline.” Koenig asked Vissering for fifteen thousand uniforms so that the FFI could be taken into the army. Vissering agreed. Reporting the request to SHAEF headquarters, he said, “The situation from a public safety standpoint is alarming. Citizens of all kinds go about in fear of being arrested by one gang or another. It appears most of these groups are political, the most powerful among those being Communist. The region is rapidly becoming a terrorist one and the general opinion on all sides is that a civil war may break out at any moment.”15 De Gaulle was taking advantage of the shooting to further consolidate his position.

  The sense of victory was disturbed Saturday evening when the Germans attacked Paris from the air. At 11:15 p.m., German bombers from Luftwaffe bases in eastern France and Holland appeared over the city and began to drop their bombs. There were few anti-aircraft guns available, and the Germans had control of the skies. The bombs were dropped largely in northern Paris. In the end 214 persons were killed and 597 buildings damaged, including the Halle aux Vins and the Moulin de Paris—the city’s most famous wine center and flour mill. Hitler had again ordered the destruction of the city, and this time General Otto Dessloch complied. It was the largest air raid of the war on Paris and served as a reminder that hostilities were not over.

  From his desk in the War Ministry that evening, de Gaulle wrote to Eisenhower to thank him for assigning the capture of Paris to the Leclerc division. “Although Paris is in the best order possible after all that has happened, it is absolutely necessary to leave a French division here for the time being. Until other big units arrive from the south, I ask you to keep the Leclerc division here.” De Gaulle went on to point out that the food situation in Paris was serious and that there was a severe lack of coal. “Thanks in advance for whatever you can do to remedy this.”16

  Eisenhower had thus far stayed out of the picture. He wanted de Gaulle to reap the benefits, and the best way to do that was to remain absent. But he was deeply concerned about what was happening. Because he was the Allied supreme commander, the situation was ultimately his responsibility. And based on his experience in North Africa, he understood that it was best not to interfere and to allow de Gaulle to handle it.

  Early Saturday morning, after the liberation was complete, Eisenhower decided he would go into the city and pay tribute to de Gaulle. Doing so publicly would further enhance de Gaulle’s position. Still at his headquarters in Tournièrs, he and his driver Kay Summersby left late that morning for Bradley’s headquarters in Chartres, a six-hour trip. They went through the Falaise battlefield for a second time, and Kay said, “I was glad when we emerged from the Falaise section, leaving the sickly odor and sight of death far behind.”17 They passed through Gacé, the tactical headquarters of Montgomery’s Twenty-First Army Group, and Ike stopped to invite Montgomery to join him. Montgomery was not there but later sent a short message to Eisenhower declining. He was too busy, he said. Why Montgomery refused has often been speculated upon, and some writers assume he was obeying British Foreign Office instructions to stay away so that Ike’s call on de Gaulle “would be an undiluted American gesture of recognition.”18 Eisenhower was not disappointed that Montgomery declined. “It’s just as well,” he told Summersby. “The less I see of him, the better it is for my blood pressure.”19

  When Eisenhower and Kay arrived at his headquarters in Chartres that afternoon, Bradley wasn’t there. He was in Brest, on a quick inspection visit, but he returned soon after they arrived. According to Bradley, “Ike suggested we slip quietly into Paris for a glimpse of the city the following morning. ‘It’s Sunday,’ he said. ‘Europe will be sleeping late. We can do it without any fuss.’ ”20 Bradley agreed. That evening Ike, Bradley, Kay, and Colonel James Gault, Eisenhower’s British aide, enjoyed dinner together. “We had a marvelous evening,” Summersby wrote. “Bradley and Ike got along very well, almost like brothers.” Dinner was simply rations and wine. “We played a little bridge, talked a bit. That was all.”21 Bradley’s aide, Lieutenant Colonel Chester Hansen, said that though Eisenhower would never admit it, “I know he was anxious to see the city. Kay certainly was; she seemed the most concerned about it…. Brad was not too keen on going. Told me he would never go if Ike hadn’t come up and asked him.”22

  It was obvious that Eisenhower was not only interested in buttressing de Gaulle’s authority, but also wanted to see Paris. His tour with Pershing on the Battle Monuments Commission had ended in August 1929—exactly fifteen years earlier—and he was eager to see how the city had changed. “We lived on the Right Bank near the river,” he told Kay. “I often used to walk up to the Arc de Triomphe with John [Ike’s son], but nobody gave me a second look in those days.”23

  The drive into Paris on Sunday morning was lengthy. Kay drove Eisenhower’s official Cadillac adorned with American, British, and French flags, and as people recognized Ike, the crowds became enormous. Colonel Hansen reported that when the convoy reached the city, people who had been asleep “came out in their pajamas to wave bonjour at us. Flags and shouting everywhere and the enthusiasm was infectious.”24 They were met at the Porte d’Orléans by General Gerow and General Koenig and escorted to de Gaulle’s headquarters in the Ministry of War.

  Kay Summersby describes the scene they encountered. “On the surface, the city looked just as it had when I left there in August of 1939. The tree-lined sidewalks, the unbombed houses, the broad thoroughfares… all these were the same. But many a street was blocked by crude barricades, where the people of Paris had started their own liberation. Along some areas were burned, overturned German vehicles. The only cars were those operated by mad-eyed FFI men who careened through the streets… firing their guns whenever the spirit (or a new bottle) moved them. Tanks and other armored vehicles of General Jacques Leclerc’s force roamed the avenues with a festive air immediately contagious…. The sidewalks were packed with crowds who shouted and threw kisses at our convoy.”25

  It was Eisenhower’s decision to call on de Gaulle, and it was very well thought out—the supreme commander of Allied Forces paying tribute to the president of France. “I did this very deliberately as a kind of de facto recognition of de Gaulle as the provisional President of France,” said Ike. “He was very grateful—he never forgot that. After all, I was commanding every damn thing on the continent. He looked on it as… a very definite recognition of his high political position and place. That, of course, was what he wanted and what Roosevelt had never given him.”26

  Once again Eisenhower and de Gaulle hit it off. De Gaulle presented Eisenhower with a list of urgent needs—food, gasoline, military uniforms for the members of the Resistance who would be taken into the French army. He also asked for additional military equipment for new divisions he planned to create.

  In addition to the logistical help, de Gaulle asked Ike for the temporary loan of two American divisions as a show of force and to bolster his position. “I understood his problem,” said Eisenhower, “and while I had
no spare units to station temporarily in Paris, I did promise him that two of our divisions, marching to the front, would do so through the main avenues of the city. I suggested that while these divisions were passing through Paris they could proceed in ceremonial formation and invited him to review them…. I told him that General Bradley would come back to the city and stand with him on the reviewing platform to symbolize Allied unity.”

  Under Eisenhower’s orders, two days later the Twenty-Eighth Infantry Division and the Fifth Armored Division marched down the Champs-Élysées on their way to the front lines east of Paris. The photo of the Twenty-Eighth Infantry marching was immediately placed on an American postage stamp. As Eisenhower said later, “Because this ceremonial march coincided exactly with the local battle plan it became possibly the only instance in history of troops marching in parade through the capital of a great country to participate in pitched battle the same day.”27

  De Gaulle told Eisenhower he was very dissatisfied with General Gerow, and that he planned to keep Leclerc’s division in Paris for several more days. Eisenhower, an old friend of Gerow, did not object. He realized Gerow was not familiar with the political scene. And so Leclerc’s division stayed in Paris until the beginning of September. While he was in Paris, Leclerc wrote to General Haislip asking that his division be taken from V Corps and reassigned to XV Corps. Haislip and Patton were strongly in favor, and on September 6, when the Second Armored Division went back into combat, it was with XV Corps. On September 12 the division attacked German Panzers near Dompaire and scored a major victory. Haislip called it a “brilliant example” of air-ground coordination. Patton personally presented Leclerc with a Silver Star. But Leclerc’s most significant achievement was the capture of Strasbourg in November, which solidified French control of Alsace. The Second Armored was also the first Allied unit to reach Hitler’s lair at Berchtesgaden. For his service commanding the Second Armored Division, Leclerc was awarded the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor.II