Figure 1.--Here jubilent Parisans wlcome General DeGualle on Augist 26, the day after the city was liberated by Free French and American units.. |
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General DeGualle was almost unknown to the French public when the Germans defeated the French Army. They came to know him as a result of empassioned radio broadcasts from London. At first there was relatively little interest in ressistance. Most French people felt the Germans had won the War and they had to ajust to the new realities. This began to change when the Germans began conscripting forced labor in France and the fortunes of war began to change. The Allies (America and Britain) would have preferred some control over the Provisional Government. Both Roosevelt and Churchill not to mention Eisenhower were frustrated with DeGualle. In the end, they were able to exercise little control over the political situation in the liberated areas. DeGualle had touched a cord in the French soul. The French people quiickly organized a Provisional Government on their own and the overwealming choice to lead it was General Charles de Gualle. This was also frustrating to the Communists who had played such an important role in the Resistance.
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