During World War II, he joined the Free French forces and distinguished himself in Tunisia. Sent in from Normandy, his 2nd Armored Divisionfreed Paris. Some argue that GeneralGeorge S. Patton freed the bulk of northern France, and was ordered to halt at the outskirts of Paris by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, to give Leclerc the appearance of freeing the city. Others note that the Allied troops were avoiding Paris, moving around it clockwise towards Germany, and that Leclerc and De Gaulle had to persuade Eisenhower to let some troops help the Parisians who had risen against the German troops.
When the war was over in Europe, he received command of the French forces in Pacific, and represented France during the surrender of the Japanese Empire.
He died in 1947 in an airplane accident near Colomb-Béchar, Algeria.
De Gaulle's vision of a revived and stronger France required unity on his terms, and he considered those exiles who failed to rally to be sowers of disunity at a time of national crisis.
He notes that de Gaulle was anxious to broaden the ideological basis of the Free French movement, and he courted political support on the left in his statement of 24 April 1942 to Christian Pineau, a socialist trade union leader, which outlined the basis of political Gaullism.
De Gaulle resented his exclusion from the councils of grand strategy--a resentment felt throughout the ranks of the Free French--and he was left to divine Allied intentions.
The "serment de Koufra" is a pledge that Leclerc made on March 2, 1941, the day after taking the Italian fort at Kufra, Libya: he swore that his weapons would not be laid down until the French flag flew over the cathedrals of Metz and of Strasbourg.
Feeds |
Contact