This man is the general of the French Army, a very strong political enemy of former French President Charles de Gaulle, who has the legendary experience of successfully escaping from the Germans' prisoner-of-war camps twice, he is Henri. Giro. (hereinafter referred to as Giro)
Henry. Giro
In fact, when it comes to Giraud, before we start talking about his legend and escape experience, the first person we want to talk about is Henry. Philip. Pétain (hereinafter referred to as Pétain). Friends familiar with French history know that this Pétain was a highly controversial field marshal and politician in France, who served in the army all his life, and when he was almost 60 years old, he began to have the opportunity to change his "professional destiny", relying on his military strategy of "active defenseism" to successfully save the whole of France in World War I. I thought that I could retire with the aura of these national heroes and go back to enjoy my old age, but with the advent of World War II, Hitler made him the helm of the French puppet government "Vichy France", and became a "traitor" spurned by everyone, and his tortuous experience can be described as "embarrassing".
Henry. Philip. Pétain
After watching Pétain's general experience, let's return to the protagonist we want to talk about today - Giraud. Born in 1879, he was 23 years younger than Pétain, and according to our Chinese habits, this is the age gap of one generation. But fate has always been arranged in the dark, a man born in the metropolis of Paris, a rural family born in Arras in northern France, and when he grew up, he chose the same military school, which is the famous French military academy - Saint-Saint. Cyr Military Academy.
By the way: Liao Yaoxiang, who was captured in the Liaoshen Campaign in the Liberation War at that time, graduated from this military school.
Without further ado, let's continue to talk about Giro as a person. High-caliber students who graduated from famous military schools will naturally not be treated badly. But when World War I broke out, he was still only a captain and company commander, at that time he was nearly 40 years old, according to common sense, this age is still only a company commander, indicating that the chance of promotion is very small, in addition, in that era of personal connections, it was a clear person who knew, and he would be like this in the future.
But God gave him a chance to "get promoted quickly", and it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. During World War I, the top of the French army was almost all radical and ignored the kind of "offensiveism", and the infantry rushed all the way, regardless of whether the artillery behind followed. It was because of this so-called "blind command" that Giro and his company encountered stubborn resistance from the enemy, and the battle was very fierce.
In a battle with the Germans, Giro was wounded in the lower leg, and his subordinates panicked, and before being surrounded, they did not care about their commanders anymore, and ran away directly. The poor captain company commander Giro could only be "messy in the wind", and after finally being captured by the Germans, he healed his wounds and sent him to a prisoner-of-war camp.
Fortunately, the German army in World War I was relatively "moderate", and they still followed some basic "rules" in the treatment of prisoners of war.
It was from this time that Giro's "legendary life" really began!
First jailbreak
Giraud, who was imprisoned by the Germans in a prisoner-of-war camp, was constantly thinking about how to escape. Finally, he waited for a golden opportunity, and he took advantage of the gap between the German guards to steal the clothes of a priest accompanying the army and escape from the prisoner of war camp. Interested friends can go to see the film specially shot by the French for Giro, which tells about his magical escape experience.
Giro, who came out of the prisoner of war camp, in order to avoid German search, changed his identity in the process of escaping, one time a lumberjack, the other became an elementary school teacher, a total of 14 professional identities, before finally getting rid of the German army.
And Giraud was well aware that it seemed impossible to return directly to France directly from the German-French border, so he fled northwest to the Netherlands, then took a ship from the Netherlands to England, and finally explained his identity to the British and stated that he wanted to return to his homeland to continue the war.
So, the British took him back to France on warships.
After returning to France, Giro naturally received "special treatment", which can also be "glimpsed" from later films filmed in France about his Tao Po story. As a result, the promotion channel of Giro was finally opened. By 1936, he had been appointed commander of the 6th Military Region in Metz and promoted to general in 1939, by which time Giraud was 60 years old.
On the other hand, Pétain mentioned earlier when we laid the groundwork, because of the "miraculous command" in World War I, from the original rural poor boy, without any connections, and later all the way to the commander-in-chief of the French army, and later vice chairman of the Supreme Military Council, army director and air defense director and so on. By February 1934 , he had been appointed Minister of War in the Dummelg cabinet.
Metz's "Deutsches Gate"
Giraud, the captain and company commander who had "miraculously" escaped from a German prisoner-of-war camp, was also appointed commander of the 6th Military Region in Metz in 1936. Metz is the central city of the Lorraine region of France, located on the road from Rome to Reims, France, a military town in France, on the border between Luxembourg and Germany, Germany occupied for 47 years, the strong "German gate" on the Sele River can fully explain the entire "sad history" of the city.
Arranging for Giraud to be the commander of the military district in this place shows that the then French Minister of War, Pétain, who was 80 years old, still trusted him very much. This also laid the groundwork for the later De Gaulle always "not waiting" to see Giraud, although Giraud had later "cut off his robe" with Pétain, who became the head of the Vichy government, but this special official promotion experience still made the later de Gaulle have a bad heart for Giro.
The second time captured and escaped
Time passed in a blink of an eye, and during the period of preparation from the end of World War I to the beginning of World War II, according to the summary of military experts, the French were always a beat slower than Germany, whether in terms of economy or military preparation, France was already much behind Germany.
A large number of soldiers died and were disabled during World War I, the cost of war remained high, the Americans collected debts after the war, the Bank of France had no money to lend, and those in power could only transfer this heavy burden to the French people. Therefore, for a period of time, France can only print money desperately, and the franc has depreciated sharply. The Great Depression in the United States in 1929 began to affect France again, and the automobile manufacturing and textile industries were seriously damaged, and France experienced a serious economic crisis.
To illustrate: by 1935, France's steel production was about 2/5 of what it was before, and the automobile and textile industries had fallen by 35%.
As a result, the French people were dissatisfied, and politics was turbulent, with 8 prime ministers and a total of 12 governments in four years. Among them the Democratic Union Andrei . Tardieu served as Prime Minister of France from 2 March 1930 to 13 December 1930 and from 2 February 1932 to 3 June 1932 ( during the Third Republic , President of the Council of Ministers ) . And another Camille of the Left Alliance Radical Socialist Party. Chordang also served two terms as prime minister of France, but both stepped down a few months later.
In fact, those who are familiar with history know: France in the First World War belongs to the victorious country, and next to Germany, the damage is also the worst, after Germany's defeat, the French should have been able to ask Germany for more war reparations, but the British and Americans felt that France was too ruthless, asking for too much, on the other hand, Germany is also more "smart", although it did not fight in the homeland, it should be no problem to come up with some compensation, but they still pretended to be "no money" and refused France's request.
Moreover, in order to make the Germans have money to repay these war reparations in the future, the British and Americans also lent money to Germany to develop economic production, while the France that followed them was urged to repay the previous loans, and it has to be said that the French after World War I were pitted by the two partner countries of Britain and the United States!
As a result, after the start of World War II, this chaos in France continued. By the time the Germans' artillery fire was on their doorstep, and they had to choose to declare war on Germany, France, whether it was the domestic order, the various management of the army, and the combat effectiveness, was simply "a chicken feather."
This is why France "reluctantly" declared war on Germany in September 1939, and only 10 months later, chose to surrender.
Let's go back to our protagonist, and the content is a little too much.
The situation in France is like that, probably clear, and our protagonist, General Giraud, was sent to the front after the outbreak of World War II, and now serves as commander of the Seventh and Ninth Armies, and by May 1940, he led his troops to follow the then French commander-in-chief, General Ghammeling, against the German army in Belgium. But this time, he was unfortunately captured by the Germans again.
Those who are familiar with history know that Gammelin is a man who thinks he is smart, but indecisive, since the victory in the Battle of the Marne in World War I, until the start of World War II against Germany, he once thought that the Germans would not send troops, and when the German army pressed the situation, he thought that the Germans would adopt Plan D, that is, the old route of World War I, from Liège through Belgium into the north of France, so he led his army to Belgium to fight. He insisted that his defensive plan would be able to withstand the German attack.
But he did not expect that a large number of German armored troops directly blocked and outflanked them directly from the Yalden mountains, resulting in the final division of the headquarters into three and no radio contact, until the Meuse line was broken through by the Germans, he realized that his army had completely failed.
My protagonist, Giraud, is a victim of Ganmerin's blind command, and Admiral Giraud's headquarters is raided by a German unit, and a group of French officers, including Giraud, are taken prisoner, and this German unit is rewarded by Hitler for capturing a French army general.
After the surrender of France, Germany occupied Paris, and Giraud and other captured French officers were sent to a mountain house in Dresden, eastern Germany, and imprisoned. Said to be a villa, it is actually a fortress with a history of more than 800 years, located on a very high hill, it is almost difficult to escape.
But this did not bother Giraud, who already had a prison escape, he first learned German hard, and there was no obstacle to communicating with ordinary Germans, and most of them could not be heard. He then made up a secret phrase in his correspondence with his wife and asked the latter to assist him in escaping from prison.
The key to his success: He also stole a map of the prison and memorized every important detail on the map so that he could use it when he escaped.
According to the records and later movie descriptions, he also used his usual time to collect a lot of twine, and used the guards to relax and rub them into a long rope little by little, because the huge wall of the prison, as well as the high slope outside the wall, add up to almost 50 meters high, if there is no rope, it is tantamount to suicide.
After nearly a year in captivity, in April 1941, Giro finally escaped from prison again. This time, he managed to escape back to Lyon, France, and then joined the French resistance.
Why did US President Roosevelt take a fancy to him?
Speaking of this, it is necessary to mention Giro's "shrewdness". Because from St. . After graduating from Seale Military Academy, he served in North Africa for a long time, which also allowed him to save some "connections" there. After escaping from German prisons for the second time, he first joined the French resistance, which at this time was mostly occupied by Germany, and the rest of southern France was administered by the Vichy French government, which was the aforementioned Pétain.
A particularly important force in the French resistance movement was the "Free France" led by Charles de Gaulle, who had fled to England. As for how de Gaulle later returned to France and led the French? We'll get to that in a moment.
First of all, why did the then US president look at Giraud instead of Charles de Gaulle in the UK?
President Charles de Gaulle
In fact, there is no special grudge between the three, but Giraud is more likely to come, he first ran to the British base in Gibraltar in November 1941, chose to cooperate with the then Allies, and went to North Africa to plan the French army there to fight the Axis powers, and arrived in North Africa, which was then Algeria, in the same month, and was appointed commander of the North French army at that time.
It may be mentioned here that Charles de Gaulle also always wanted to use the North African colonies as a springboard to organize troops to recover mainland France, and there were many Algerians fighting in the French army during World War II. Therefore, the importance of the position of Giro is self-evident.
During World War II, it is no secret that Britain and the United States cooperated with each other, but also checked and balanced each other! British Prime Minister Winston Churchill fully supported de Gaulle, so US President Roosevelt would naturally support Giraud, an old French general with a "legendary prison escape experience". In 1941, Giraud was 62 years old, while de Gaulle was only 51 years old.
François, the number two man in Pétain's Vichy regime and the first cabinet of Navy Ministers. After Darlan was assassinated by 20-year-old Bernier Campbell on Christmas Eve 1942, Giraud was quickly appointed by the Allies as supreme civil and military commander in North Africa. What needs to be said here is that the American Roosevelt actually supported the Vichy French regime, so during the Pétain-Darlang period, the relationship between the United States and this German puppet regime was still good, which is why Darlan later chose to cooperate with the Allies.
Francois. Darlan
General Leahy of the U.S. Navy later revealed in his diary: If we had succeeded in cooperating and jointly defeating the German army, General Darlang would have entered the Hall of Fame of National Heroes in French history.
But it was because of the assassination that Giraud was given a chance to "make a name for himself", so that he also had the ability to "wrestle" with the future French President Charles de Gaulle.
In fact, since the Anglo-American landing in North Africa in 1942, the entire battle has progressed very rapidly, and it may be necessary to make a "plan" for future combat plans and related political issues. Therefore, on January 14, 1943, the most famous Casablanca conference in World War II was held as scheduled, as the name suggests, a military conference held in Casablanca, Morocco, a meeting attended by US President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, which lasted for ten days and did not end until the 24th. At a press conference after that meeting, Roosevelt announced that the anti-fascist allies would go to war with Germany, Italy, and Japan until they surrendered unconditionally.
Roosevelt spoke at the press conference
At that time, Roosevelt invited Stalin to participate, but he did not go because of the need to direct the war. At the same time, Churchill and Roosevelt each invited a French representative to attend, Roosevelt naturally invited the highest military commander in North Africa, Giraud, and Churchill strongly invited de Gaulle to the meeting, and threatened: Between Roosevelt and you, I will choose the bigger.
The reason for inviting the representative of France involves a key question: whether to open a second battlefield in France itself? and the formation of French power structures in North Africa.
In fact, the United States and Britain valued their own interests in North Africa the most at this time, so when this war was about to be won, the next layout was extremely important. Therefore, in order to persuade the other party to accept their arrangement, Roosevelt and Churchill were also quarrelsome! Therefore, simply call both people and interview them directly.
Since Giraud himself served in North Africa, he first went to Casablanca, then Churchill and Foreign Secretary Antony. Aiden invited Charles de Gaulle to attend the meeting. At first, de Gaulle refused, arguing that whether and where he and Giraud would meet should be a matter between the French and not the "High Court of the Allies" to make arrangements. He also believed that there was "ambiguity" between Giraud and Pétain of the Vichy regime, believing that he had been loyal to Pétain and unfit to lead the French resistance.
But at this time, it was not that he did not want to come, and the great interests of the British in North Africa were involved, so Churchill patiently persuaded him again and again, and finally de Gaulle agreed to go to Casablanca to participate in the conference. Interestingly, when de Gaulle and Giraud first met, they were not even willing to shake hands, and only reluctantly shook hands and took pictures when Roosevelt was almost "forced".
From left to right: Giraud, Roosevelt, Charles de Gaulle and Churchill
The result was eventually formed in France under the joint administration of Charles de Gaulle and Giraud, and on April 10, Giraud also made a "peculiar" proposal to Charles de Gaulle: the establishment of a "French Overseas Territories Commission" in Algiers, both of whom were members of this committee, but this commission did not have actual political power, which de Gaulle did not accept.
Instead, five days later, on 15 April, the French Council for Combat adopted a resolution unanimously supporting de Gaulle's idea of an executive committee with real powers, chaired by de Gaulle and placed under the leadership of the French army with Giraud as commander-in-chief. But after subsequent negotiations, the two sides agreed to establish a French National Liberation Committee to be co-chaired by them, with equal numbers of other delegates. As de Gaulle's prestige grew, his support for Giraud dwindled, and he resigned a month later, and by the time of the committee re-election in November, he withdrew completely.
Although de Gaulle later transferred Giraud to the post of commander of the French army after the French victory, he did not take up his post. On 3 June 1944, Charles de Gaulle was elected Prime Minister of the Provisional Government of the French Republic, and on 30 August de Gaulle returned to Paris when the French Provisional Government was established in Paris.
At this time, de Gaulle's influence in France was no longer the same, and although Giraud also returned to France in October of that year, he was no longer able to compete with de Gaulle. Of course, the legendary experience of Giraud's two prison escapes also earned him a reputation among the French folk: the runaway artist.
Interestingly: the three French generals mentioned in the article who were influential in World War I and World War II, including Pétain, Giraud and Charles de Gaulle, who later became the first president of the French Fifth Republic, were all from Saint. Cyr Military Academy.
It has to be said that Napoleon's legacy to France is really very large.
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