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Chargement... Eisenhower's Guerrillas: The Jedburghs, the Maquis, and the Liberation of Francepar Benjamin F. Jones
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In the run-up to the invasion of Normandy in June 1944, General Dwight D. Eisenhower faced a series of seemingly insurmountable dilemmas. Outnumbered and desperate for any advantage to make their way past the well-defended beaches and into France, the Allies had reached out to French guerillasand partisans to help secure their aims - but transforming the highly independent resistance groups into a governable body and fighting force was a formidable task. To make matters more difficult, President Roosevelt refused to give full Allied support to Charles de Gaulle and his Free Frenchgovernment, and would not supply the timing, location, and other key details of Operation Overlord. It was into this storm of political mistrust and military confusion that Eisenhower sent the Jedburghs.Eisenhower's Guerillas tells the story of the reconnaissance and intelligence teams of young Special Forces, called Jedburghs, who worked behind enemy lines to strengthen the Allies' position in Northern France. Their task of organizing and training the French operatives, already monumental, wasmade more difficult by the fact that France's war aims were profoundly different from those of America and Britain, who regarded France as merely a military objective on the way to defeating Germany. Ben Jones describes how Eisenhower learned how to exploit this political turmoil to his advantage,and explores how the Allied Jedburgh teams still managed to coordinate French guerrilla operations within the overall plans for the country's liberation.Underscoring the critical and often overlooked part that irregular warfare played in Allied operations on the Continent, Jones delivers a riveting story of the battle for France and the political complexities that threatened to undermine the operation from within. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)950.54History and Geography Asia AsiaClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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There are basically two halves to the liberation movement. During Normandy and around D-Day, the Free French volunteers were basically front and center for the fighting. Even though Churchill and Roosevelt did not want them knowing any plans before they happened. There were thousands of would be volunteers. This was to be considered the success story. They were basically used to sabotage the Germans, cut communication ties, and blow up bridges and railways, not get directly involved in the fighting. Then you have the team's who were set in place to do their duties as the Germans retreated back into Germany. This is what I found so fascinating. None of these teams received supplies for months. They did not have proper communication, as some radios were destroyed and others captured with radio operators by the Germans. The teams did not have proper weapons, ammunition, and other basic supplies to defend themselves. London blamed it on weather conditions, moon phases (where it couldn't be bright enough for planes going over the drop off sites to be seen at night) or knowledge of where German anti-aircraft weapons may be, among others. Some team leaders were captured, killed, or sent to prison camps in Germany. Mr. Jones tried to inform us if the guerrilla warfare tactics worked in France and why or why not. I was not a student of WWIi battles, etc. before I read this book. However, this book read like a novel after chapter six. Eisenhower did what no other even tried to do: work directly with the French people for the good of their nation. I was extremely impressed by that. It was no wonder the French did not like Americans for so long after the war. But, Eisenhower saved the day where Churchill and Roosevelt did not. This is a book for everyone who wants to learn about public relations.
Thank you Oxford University Press and NetGalley for giving me an ARC of this book to read and give my honest review. ( )