Chapter 28 03. Morality over utility

When the US military landed on the beaches of Normandy, someone said: "Lafayette, here we come!" Lafayette once led the French Expeditionary Force across the Atlantic to support the American War of Independence. More than a hundred years have passed, and the Americans have not forgotten the old love of the French for the United States.Now, the Americans have come to liberate France, but some French people want to liberate themselves. On August 19, 1944, an uprising broke out in Paris.This uprising is generally considered to be a portrayal of the fighting spirit of the Paris people. In fact, there is an ulterior purpose behind this uprising.Scholar Xiao Xuehui made a wonderful comparative analysis of the Paris uprising and the Warsaw uprising.In fact, from the perspective of the overall strategy of the Allies, this is an uprising that should be avoided.

Paris, a world-class metropolis, is extremely important both to Germany and to its allies.However, Supreme Allied Commander Eisenhower decided to postpone the liberation of Paris.Eisenhower mainly considered the following issues: First, if he attacked Paris prematurely, he would inevitably have fierce street battles with the German defenders, which would greatly consume the strength of the Allied forces and destroy this world-famous city; After Paris, it needs to assume the responsibility of civil affairs and supply the daily necessities of the 2 million residents of Paris, which will affect the strategic goal of marching on the Rhine.And these kinds of situations are never allowed to happen by the Allied Forces.Therefore, the Supreme Command drew up a plan for the liberation of Paris. According to this plan, the Allied forces will encircle Paris from the north and south, and it will not be completed until at least mid-September.

However, the people of Paris could not wait to get rid of the German occupation.Although Paris was shocked by the news that Warsaw was in ruins, the impulse of Parisians to wash away the humiliation of four years of occupation was irresistible.When the Allied forces' delayed plan to liberate Paris reached the hands of the French Resistance, preparations for the uprising were ready.The situation is then complicated by divisions and struggles within the resistance. France, like Poland, has a fairly active resistance movement, but unlike the unity and unity of the Polish resistance organization, the French resistance organization has multiple factions.Each faction formed its own system, and coordination was extremely difficult.Among them, the de Gaulle faction and the French Communist Party are the two factions with the strongest armed forces and the greatest influence on the people in the resistance movement.

The "Free France" founded by de Gaulle was the earliest resistance organization in France. In June 1940, Petain surrendered, and in July a puppet regime cooperating with Germany was established in Vichy.Before the establishment of the Vichy regime, de Gaulle delivered the famous "6.18" radio speech in London, calling on the French people to resist the German occupiers, and founded the "Free French Movement".At this time, the French Communist Party, the French branch of the Comintern, did not take part in the struggle against Germany.The French Communist Party did not join the resistance movement against Germany until June 1941, after Germany attacked the Soviet Union.

As the two major factions of the resistance movement, "Free France" and the French Communist Party, there is only one consensus - opposing the German occupation. Apart from this, the two factions do not have any common ideological and value foundations, and their political goals are even worse. It is tit for tat.The contradictions between the two sides, which had been concealed by the consensus against German occupation, became acute when France was about to be liberated. Both factions hope to liberate Paris as soon as possible, and both want to establish their leadership over future France through the political action of liberating Paris.In addition, both sides are very clear that without the cooperation of the Allied Forces, the price of the uprising will be very heavy.

But the approaches of the two sides vary widely.De Gaulle asked the Supreme Command of the Allied Forces to attack Paris in advance. When his efforts failed, he ordered the members of the "Free France" in the country to prevent an uprising before the Allied forces approached the city.The French Communist Party received orders from its superiors and was determined to do whatever it took—in the words of the instigators of the uprising, "Paris is worth 200,000 deaths"—which resulted in the fact that the French Communist Party led the uprising and laid the foundation for the French Communist Party to take power in the future.The French Communist Party is playing with Hitler for political purposes.

On August 18, the Paris headquarters of the "Free France" organization sent a telegram to London, describing the tense situation in Paris: "Any rash action by the resistance organization is enough to lead to serious consequences. The German army seems to have decided and concentrated its forces to carry out bloody revenge... It is necessary for you to negotiate with the Allies, demand that the Allies quickly capture Paris, and warn the residents in the sharpest and clearest language through the BBC to avoid a repeat of the Warsaw incident." But on this day, at a secret meeting controlled by the French Communist Party At the meeting, a resolution was forcibly passed, and it was decided to hold an uprising the next day.And there is a very important point in their uprising plan: to keep the leaders of "Free France" in the dark so that they cannot stop the uprising.

Under the circumstances that the uprising could not be stopped, the "Free France" organization, which was informed of the uprising plan, had no choice but to decide to launch the uprising on August 19.This uprising, which should have been avoided, finally broke out. The uprising seemed to be going well at first, and soon spread throughout Paris.However, Paris was a city that Hitler must defend.The German army responsible for the defense of Paris was General von Choltitz, a short, unattractive man who had repeatedly made military exploits.Hitler gave him an order to stick to Paris, and if he couldn't keep it, Paris would be razed to the ground.

However, the fate of the city was at stake, and Choltitz, who had always carried out orders uncompromisingly, became hesitant at this time.He had to consider whether he could bear the responsibility of destroying Paris, and finally implemented a temporary ceasefire.The temporary ceasefire proposed by the German army was an unexpected opportunity for the "Free France" organization to save Paris, so they tried their best to achieve a ceasefire throughout the city.But the French Communist Party, which launched an uprising at any cost, denounced the ceasefire as an act of treason, and they took all measures to break it-although the price of this political action may be 200,000 lives and the destruction of Paris.

Despite this, Paris maintained a two-day ceasefire.These precious two days have provided time for all parties to avoid the most unfortunate situation. Free France and Choltitz took advantage of this respite to make secret contacts with the intention of avoiding or postponing an irretrievable conflict.Meanwhile, factions of the Parisian Resistance were appealing to the Allies for aid.The Charles de Gaulle faction called on the Allied forces to move into Paris quickly; the French Communist Party also called on the Allied forces to support them, but instead of asking the Allied forces to move into Paris, they asked the Allied forces to drop weapons on a large scale throughout the city.

At the same time, the demolition experts sent by Hitler to plant landmines and explosives have arrived in Paris; Hitler’s orders received by Choltitz have become more and more resolute, and they have reached the point where they have to be carried out; into paris... It seemed that Paris could hardly escape the fate of Warsaw, and the only hope was the immediate Allied attack on Paris. At this critical juncture, de Gaulle personally asked Eisenhower to march to Paris, but he failed.Eisenhower was concerned with the whole war on the Western Front, and he refused to change plans for political needs. The envoy sent by the French Communist Party to the headquarters of the Allied Army to ask for weapons knew that weapons could not save Paris, so they also asked the Allied Army to march to Paris, but they met a wall with General Patton.General Patton's answer is very simple: the task of the Allied forces is to annihilate the German army, not to regain the French capital. The resistance movement launched an uprising without authorization, and now it will suffer the consequences. On August 22, when Paris was about to repeat the mistakes of Warsaw, Eisenhower changed his military plan and decided to let the Allied forces enter Paris.The generals of the U.S. military also paid great attention to protecting such world-famous cities. Bradley asked the commander of the armored division that "Paris must never have any major battles" and "do not want any bombing or shelling in the city", and some even marched into Paris. All the troops left the artillery behind. On the morning of the 23rd, the fighting in Paris resumed in full swing.If the Allies could not arrive within a day or two, the destruction of Paris was inevitable.While the rebel army was struggling to support, the Allied forces had marched to Paris day and night. On the 24th, when several German SS divisions carrying out the task of destroying Paris headed for Paris, the Second Armored Division of the French Army and the Fourth Infantry Division of the US Army arrived in Paris successively.Paris was finally saved. From the uprising to the liberation of Paris, it took a total of 6 days, and there were two or three days of ceasefire in the middle. The city was basically intact and there were no major casualties.By the morning of the 25th, the last German stronghold surrendered. A total of 20,000 German troops were captured, with 3,200 casualties.