Charles de GAULLE

James Holland explains why the French leader was a divisive figure among the Allies

When troops flooded into Paris to support the civilian uprisings that looked to overthrow the German occupation, they were not led by British, American or Canadian commanders. They were French. Although the Free French Army had been a smaller quotient of the invading forces, their commander, Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque, was the one leading forces into Paris, an important gesture on the part of the Allies to have France free its own capital. Credit for securing this concession from the Allies belongs to Charles de Gaulle, head of the Free French forces, but he was not a figure without some controversy.

“He’s definitely right-wing and he’s spectacularly arrogant, incredibly touchy, but he does have this terrific charisma and he does have this galvanising effect,” James Holland explains. “I think what’s clear once he does come over to France is the Allies suddenly go, ‘Okay, so there is big support for de Gaulle’.”

It wasn’t his political leanings that seemed to have concerned the Allies though, so much as what his post-war intentions might be and their unintended role in supporting them.

“The person who is really putting the kibosh on de Gaulle having a greater role is primarily President Roosevelt,” says Holland. “He just doesn’t like the cut of his jib and he thinks that if they’re not careful France will be replacing one dictator with another. Pétain will be out and de Gaulle will be in.”

And while they may have misgivings about de Gaulle, this is why the rest of the Allies take a back seat heading into Paris.

“The Americans are very keen that any new leader of France should be democratically elected and not just thrust upon them. They didn’t want to be liberators and be seen to be pushing someone who hasn’t been the choice of Frenchmen. And justifiably so.”

That all being said, de Gaulle was still kept largely out of the loop of events leading up to D-day and that wasn’t just to do with his political leanings or leadership style. “French intelligence was notoriously lax, so that was the secondary and incredibly important reason for keeping de Gaulle and his leadership out of the loop until the last minute,”

Holland tells us.

Ultimately though, after the French contribution to D-day, Holland thinks the whole staging of the

Liberation of France was handled well. “It’s conciliatory and it’s flexible. It’s recognising that they need to slightly change their pre

D-day stance with him.”

“Let us be firm, pure and faithful; at the end of our sorrow, there is the greatest glory of the world, that of the men who did not give in”.