French Civil and Military High Command

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French Civil and Military High Command
Vichy regime
Successor French Committee of National Liberation
Map of Algeria with mark showing location of Algiers
Map of Algeria with mark showing location of Algiers
Algiers
class=notpageimage|
Location of Algiers

The French Civil and Military High Command (French: Commandement en chef français civil et militaire) [1][2] was an administrative and military governing body in Algiers that was created in connection with the Allied landings in French North Africa on 7 and 8 November 1942 as part of Operation Torch. It came about as a result of negotiations between the Americans and two military figures from Vichy France whom the Americans believed could assure safe passage for the landing forces, namely Henri Giraud and François Darlan.

Giraud was contacted first, and spoke with General Dwight Eisenhower in his military headquarters in Gibraltar, but negotiations were slowed when Giraud demanded too much. Meanwhile, the Americans contacted Vichy official Admiral François Darlan, who happened to be in Algiers, who made a deal with the Allies not to oppose the landings in exchange for being named High Commissioner. This was accepted, and the military-civilian body was first called the High Commission of France in Africa (Haut-commissariat de France en Afrique). The name "Civil and Military High Command" was adopted later by Giraud, who succeeded Darlan after the latter was assassinated in 1943.

The Commission exercised authority over

French National Liberation Committee
.

The question of loyalties and allegiance was a complex one. Darlan was Minister of the Navy under

Vichy regime subjugated to Germany, but made a deal with the Allies to allow free passage during Operation Torch in exchange for being named High Commissioner. The French population of North Africa was divided among supporters of Vichy, Gaullists, and others. By the time the Civil and Military High Command merged in 1943, it was in support of de Gaulle and Free France
.

Terminology

The French Civil and Military High Command was first known as the "High Commission of France in Africa" ("Haut-commissariat de France en Afrique)". It was also known as the "French High Command" (Commandement en chef français) or the "Civil and Military Command of Algiers" (Commandement civil et militaire d'Alger).

Background

Unlike Britain, who had supported General de Gaulle and Free France from the beginning of the War, the Americans had not, and maintained contact with and recognized the Vichy France government. For this reason, when the Allies began to plan the invasion of North Africa, which was under Vichy control, the American army was given the task, rather than the British, who stayed in the background.[citation needed]

The Americans were planning the last details of the imminent landings in North Africa as part of Operation Torch. Nominally under control of Vichy France as the entire French colonial Empire was, the situation on the ground in North Africa was complex, with differing loyalties among the French and other population there, including both supporters of Vichy, supporters of de Gaulle's Free France, and others. The Americans were in negotiations trying to find a way to ensure that the landings would not be opposed, and that they would have free passage thereafter in North Africa.[citation needed]

The new post, based in Algiers and initially called "High Commission of France in Africa" came about as a result of negotiations between the Americans and two military figures from Vichy France who the Americans believed could assure safe passage for the American landing forces of Operation Torch, namely Henri Giraud and François Darlan.

Henri Giraud

General Dwight D. Eisenhower and General Henri Giraud saluting the flags of both nations at Allied headquarters (1943)
Main article: Henri Giraud

At the outset of World War II, Henri Giraud was a member of the French Superior War Council, and disagreed with Charles de Gaulle about the tactics of using armored troops. Giraud became commander of the 7th Army when it was sent to the Netherlands on 10 May 1940, and was captured by the Germans. He escaped in April 1942 and managed to slip back into what was by then the collaborationist Vichy France regime. He tried to persuade Vichy leader Marshall Philippe Pétain that Germany would lose and that France should resist German occupation. His views were rejected, but he was not returned to the Germans.[3] Giraud's escape became known all over France. Giraud remained loyal to Pétain and the Vichy government, but refused to cooperate with the Germans. Heinrich Himmler tried to have him assassinated.[4]

Giraud was secretly contacted by the Allies, who were preparing the invasion of North Africa. Giraud was already planning for the day when American troops landed in France, and agreed to support an Allied landing in French North Africa, provided that only American troops were used; like many other French officers he was bitterly resentful of the British, particularly after their attack on Mers-el-Kébir,[citation needed] and that he or another French officer was the commander of such an operation. He considered this latter condition essential to maintaining French sovereignty over North Africa.[citation needed]

President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Giraud (19 Jan. 1943)

The invasion was agreed on at a secret meeting on 23 October with U.S. General

Dwight Eisenhower advised that he should be brought to his Torch operational headquarters in Gibraltar, and on 5 November, Giraud was picked up near Toulon by the British submarine HMS Seraph,[6] arriving on 7 November, only a few hours before the landings. Eisenhower asked Giraud to assume command of French troops in North Africa during Operation Torch and order them to join the Allies. But Giraud had expected to command the whole Allied operation, and adamantly refused to participate on any other basis. He said "his honor would be tarnished" and that he would only be a spectator in the affair.[7]

While Giraud dithered in Gibraltar, a last minute overture to a compatriot of Giraud bore fruit in Algiers.

François Darlan

See also:
Darlan deal

To bring a quick end to the resistance and secure French co-operation, the Allies came to an agreement with Darlan, who as commander-in-chief could give the necessary orders.

High Commissioner of France in Africa (head of civil government) for North and West Africa on 14 November. In return, on 10 November, Darlan ordered all French forces to join the Allies. His order was obeyed;[9] not only in French North Africa, but also by the Vichy forces in French West Africa with its potentially useful facilities at Dakar.[10]

History

Vichy regime ordered Admiral François Darlan to oppose to the allied landings in North Africa of early November 1942. After a few days, Darlan realized the reality of the balance of power and switched to the Allied camp.[11]
On 13 November, Darlan was recognized as "High Commissioner of France in North Africa" by General Eisenhower.[11][12]

But on 24 December 1942, Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle, one of the 7 November activists enlisted in the

Corps Francs d'Afrique in World War II, shot Darlan. He was executed, after a summary trial, on 26 December. The greatest confusion reigned. Supporters of the count of Paris, including Henri d'Astier de la Vigerie, attempted to promote the accession to power of the Orléanist pretender to the throne of France.[13]

On 26 December, General Giraud was elected High Commissioner by the members of an "Imperial Council" created by Darlan after proclaiming himself High Commissioner in France and Africa (though this was rejected by Vichy).[citation needed] The candidacy of the "Count of Paris" does not seem to have been considered. That of Charles Noguès, preferred by the Vichystes and whom Giraud would later affirm that he thought of supporting for a while, did not meet with the approval of the Americans and British because of his attitude during Operation Torch.[14] By an order of February 5, 1943, Giraud took the title of "Civil and Military Commander-in-Chief ". The Journal officiel of the French High Commission in Africa was replaced, as of February 20, by that of the French Civil and Military High Command.[15] Giraud signed his decrees and orders, as "General of the Army, and French Civil and Military Commander in Chief".[a][2]

Giraud exercised authority over French Algeria and the French Protectorate of Morocco, while the Tunisian campaign against the Germans and Italians continued in the French Protectorate of Tunisia. Darlan having previously won the support of French West Africa, the latter was also in Giraud's camp, while French Equatorial Africa was in de Gaulle's camp.[16]

Giraud kept a number of Darlan's employees at his side. Several of the Vichy laws continued for a while, tolerated by the United States despite the protests of General Charles de Gaulle. On December 30, Bergeret had several people arrested, most of them Gaullists, who had participated in the Allied operations of November 8 "as a preventive measure".[17][18] Under allied pressure, the twelve Gaullists arrested were gradually freed, as were the twenty-seven communist deputies previously interned in Algeria in March 1941. On 20 January, Giraud appointed Marcel Peyrouton, former Vichy Minister of the Interior and actor in the abrogation of the Crémieux Decree to the post of Governor General.[citation needed]

At the beginning of March 1943, several measures heralded a distancing from Vichy. The images of

Franklin Delano Roosevelt to support Giraud. On 14 March, Giraud delivered a speech that he later described as "the first democratic speech of [his] life", in which he broke with Vichy by affirming that the Armistice of 22 June 1940 did not commit France and that the legislation promulgated since then was null and void.[19][20]

Jean Monnet pushed Giraud to negotiate with de Gaulle after having made initial contact with him at the

French National Liberation Committee
.

See also

References

Notes
  1. ^ Giraud title signature: Le général d'armée, commandant en chef français, civil et militaire
Footnotes
  1. ^ Maury 2006.
  2. ^ a b Maury 2010.
  3. ^ Price 1944.
  4. ^ Harding 2013, p. 53.
  5. ^ Murphy 1964, p. 115–122.
  6. ^ Churchill 1951, p. 544.
  7. ^ Eisenhower 1948, p. 99–105, 107–110.
  8. ^ Funk 1973, p. 81–117.
  9. ^ Melton 1998, p. 81–117, 152.
  10. ^ Gilbert 1986, p. 274.
  11. ^ a b Nyrop 1965, p. 28.
  12. ^ Groom 2006, p. 353–354.
  13. ^ Cantier 2002, p. 374-375.
  14. ^ Cantier 2002, p. 375-376.
  15. ^ Duval 2009, p. 31.
  16. ^ Montagnon 1990, p. 60-63.
  17. ^ Levisse-Touzé 1998, p. 278-282.
  18. ^ Cantier 2002, p. 278-282.
  19. ^ Cantier 2002, p. 378-379.
  20. ^ Salinas 2013, p. 100-103.
  21. ^ Cantier 2002, p. 379-380.

Works cited

  • Cantier, Jacques (2002). L'Algérie sous le régime de Vichy [Algeria Under the Vichy Regime] (in French). Odile Jacob.
    ISBN 978-2738-11057-2
    .
  • Churchill, Winston (1951). The Second World War, Vol 3: The Hinge of Fate.
  • Duval, Eugène-Jean Duval (2009). Aux sources officielles de la colonisation françaises – Tome 2, Vers la décolonisation : 1940-2009 (in French). Harmattan.
  • Eisenhower, Dwight (1948). Crusade in Europe. New York: Doubleday. pp. 99–105, 107–110.
  • Gilbert, Martin (1986). Road to Victory: Winston S. Churchill 1941–1945. London: Guild Publishing.
  • Murphy, Robert (1964). Diplomat Among Warriors. New York: Doubleday. pp. 115–122.
  • Price, G. Ward (1944). Giraud and the African Scene. New York: Macmillan.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Vichy government (1940-1944).


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