AUGUST 20, 1944
TOURNIÈRES, FRANCE
NIGHT
General Dwight Eisenhower plans to bypass Paris.
And Charles de Gaulle intends to change his mind.
The supreme commander stands in the map tent at his forward headquarters. The roar of propellers fills the night as de Gaulle’s refueled France lands in a nearby field. The light spatter of raindrops on canvas beats tattoo as Ike scrutinizes maps showing the approach to Paris. Impromptu wooden floors prevent him from standing in the mud. Eisenhower has watched with approval as de Gaulle has taken leadership of the French people, so deft in his maneuvering that General Henri Giraud is now just a footnote.* Ike quietly defies President Franklin Roosevelt in his backing of de Gaulle as the next leader of France. But he knows that de Gaulle has flown here to pick a new fight—this time with Eisenhower.
“This man and I have always been very good friends, although the start of our relations was not a really promising start,” Eisenhower will say of de Gaulle, adding that their 1942 meetings in London were soon overshadowed by their deepening friendship during their time in Africa the following year.
But Eisenhower is nervous when he hears French being spoken outside his tent on this rainy evening, signaling the impending arrival of de Gaulle. Despite his lofty title as supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces, Ike finds himself intimidated by the force of de Gaulle’s personality.
“After all, I was commanding every damn thing on the continent—all the troops—and all that de Gaulle could count on: troops, equipment, every damn thing supplied by America,” Eisenhower will note. And he knows that none of that matters to General de Gaulle. It doesn’t help that the Frenchman towers over him, almost six inches taller. Eisenhower is afraid he will buckle to de Gaulle’s demands and reminds himself not to “get committed to Paris.”
Neither man can possibly know that Adolf Hitler issued an order today stating that Paris is to be a Schwerpunkt—strongpoint—to be defended at all costs. This certainly means another Stalingrad.
But both de Gaulle and Eisenhower are well aware that fighting between the Germans and the Resistance is escalating. A group known as the Comité de Français de Libération Nationale is fomenting insurrection. Paris police are also rising up. German snipers are shooting back. De Gaulle wants to charge in and take control of this insurrection, and Eisenhower thinks that’s a stupid idea that could sucker Allied forces into months of street-to-street fighting.
De Gaulle steps into the tent. He is freshly shaven, having borrowed a razor to clean himself up before this very important conference.
Ike walks de Gaulle through easel after easel of maps, showing Allied troop positions in comparison with the Germans. The point of Allied strategy right now, Eisenhower reminds the general, is to defeat the German army. Should the Allies get stuck in a prolonged battle for Paris, the Wehrmacht will escape to reload and rearm to fight another day. The smart move is to ignore Paris and race toward Germany. The war could be over in six months. Taking Paris means bringing the Allied advance to a dead halt. This could extend the war at least one year.
De Gaulle argues back. The uprisings in Paris are largely workingmen, who favor the French Communists. There are 25,000 armed citizens under authority of the French Communist Party. Should they take control of the city, there will be dire repercussions when the war is over and these same partisans align themselves with the Soviet Union instead of America and Great Britain. De Gaulle fears his own government will be ignored and shoved aside if he does not get to Paris as quickly as possible to assume the mantle of authority.
De Gaulle’s argument is political. Eisenhower’s is tactical.
Ike does not back down.
So General de Gaulle pivots, presenting an alternate strategy. The French 2nd Armored Division under the command of General Jacques-Philippe Leclerc is currently in France, serving under General George Patton and his Third Army. De Gaulle threatens to give the order for Leclerc to peel off and take Paris single-handedly.
Eisenhower tenses but does not take the bait. The 2nd Armored, Eisenhower will later recall, “couldn’t have moved a mile if I didn’t want it to, and it wouldn’t have.”
Ike turns de Gaulle down flat.
General Charles walks back to his plane, alone and lost in thought.
“Where is General Leclerc?” de Gaulle asks, finding an aide, already making plans to ignore Eisenhower.
The general has waited four years to take Paris. He will not come this close and be denied.