Just Finished Reading: The Liberation of Paris – How Eisenhower, De Gaulle, and Von Choltitz Saved the City of Light by Jean Edward Smith (FP: 2019) [205pp] 

When the Allies landed on the Normandy beaches on 6th June 1944 the citizens of Paris celebrated. Soon, they thought, their ordeal would finally be over. Within days, they thought, they’d be free. The Resistance units especially where itching and ready, despite their lack of weapons, to act. But as days turned to weeks and still no column of Allied tanks approached celebration and hope turned to confusion and despair. The question on everyone’s lips: where are they? 

The problem was far from simple. Firstly, the German resistance to Allied advances was tougher than anyone expected. Despite the Allies having effective air supremacy, German units were generally far more experienced that their Allied opponents. Then there was the matter of logistics. With most of the ports either in enemy hands or heavily damaged it was difficult to keep Allied units fully supplied. Together with the unfamiliarity with the problems of fighting in bocage country with its sunken roads and dense hedges progress, at least at first, was painfully slow. Only with the long-awaited US breakout did things become more fluid, and the problem of Paris could even be discussed. The Free French Forces (technically) under General De Gaulle were naturally eager to liberate their capital city for a host of reasons. Their American overlords, who supplied all their equipment and who were above them in the Allied chain of command, had other ideas. It was only when it became obvious that Paris was open and would fall with the minimum of effort on the part of the Allies was its liberation even contemplated. Within the city itself tension between Resistance units and the German occupiers began to reach new heights. Under orders to destroy the city if it looked like holding it was no longer an option Von Choltitz needed to juggle his duty, fear for his family back in Germany if he didn’t comply, the need to keep the bridges intact to allow German units outside Paris to retreat in good order and his place in History if he left Paris in ruins. August 1944 was going to be a hot one. 

Yet again, I knew of the Liberation of Paris in general terms but wasn’t fully aware of the details. I didn’t know that, at least originally, the Allies (or actually the Americans) had no intention of liberating Paris but had intended to by-pass it thereby forcing the German occupiers either to flee or surrender to follow up forces. The Americans were well aware of the logistical nightmare of feeding the city which would just add to their already existing logistical problems. But I think one of the most interesting characters in the whole series of events was Von Choltitz – the German military commander of Paris and the region surrounding the city. I’m not sure if I’d heard of him before, but he seemed – at least in this narrative – to have been central to saving Paris from unforgivable destruction. Interesting, when he was finally captured by the advanced Allied units he was spat on by the French citizens (and the officer standing next to him shot and killed) yet, on his death, had a French military honour guard at his funeral. As you might imagine from the subtitle, the focus of this excellent history is on the three main players – Von Choltitz, De Gaulle and Eisenhower – with the Resistance getting a lot less attention than maybe they should have, but I’ll have more to say about that next week! Overall, I learnt a LOT from this book, and I’ll be looking out for more from this author in future. If, like me, you had a passing appreciation of the events surrounding the Liberation and wanted to know more than I can certainly recommend this to you. But what I did learn from later reading – and no doubt more reading to come – things are not always so cut and dried as they’re made out to be so it's best to get more than one opinion/perspective on a subject. More to come.  

This could 'explain' the lack of early dating success.....

 

RIP: Arthur Ian Lavender (16 February 1946 – 2 February 2024) - AKA Private Pike.

Just Finished Reading: America in Retreat – The Decline of US Leadership from WW2 to Covid-19 by Michael Pembroke (FP: 2020) [257pp] 

This was a very different read from my previous “Retreat” book. For one thing it didn’t feel anything like as partisan as the previous read. Another was the fact that this was a far more historical narrative starting with America approaching the height of its power at the end of WW2. In 1945 the US was the world's largest economy (by far), had the world’s largest military and, most importantly, was the world’s only nuclear power (until Russia detonated her first nuke on 29 August 1949). America was, by and large, the uncontested world leader - and proceeded to act like it. Within a few scant years mostly as the behest of the US a new world order would emerge from the wreckage of a devastating world war. It encompassed the birth of the United Nations and what became known as the ‘rules-based order’, and it laid the foundations for the modern world we grew up in. But then, little by little, America began to retreat.  

Interestingly, the author lays the blame for the original ‘sin’ of retreat at the feet of President Harry Truman. He was in a real way an ‘accidental’ President and never really saw himself in that role. Indeed, he was, apparently, rather unsuited to be the ‘leader of the Free World’. An early example of this, again according to the author, was his authorisation of the use of atomic weapons on Japan. This the author argues was a political rather than a military decision primarily aimed at the Russians to tell them to back off from any further involvement in East Asia. I largely agree with that assessment but need to read up more about the decision-making process that led to the bombings. But I’m starting to get into the weeds of the book too much. The argument the author makes is an interesting and persuasive one: that the initial high moral stance of the US in 1945, backed up by its immense power, was subverted first by the Cold War (which the author saw as arguably unnecessary – MORE reading required!) and then by increasing US self-interest at the expense of global stability and growth. 

There are many examples, large and small, that come to mind: the decision to make the US dollar the world’s reserve currency thereby giving the US dominant economic power, the refusal to be bound by the International Criminal Court, the meddling in other countries politics – enemy, friendly, neutral – if they were doing anything contrary to US interests, the toppling of democratically elected governments perceived to be at least theoretically antagonistic to American interests despite a very public lauding of the democratic process – the imposition of the Shah of Iran is a particularly good example of this and is still causing issues in the region today. Not forgetting, of course, the support of vicious dictatorships in South America all in the name of resisting ‘communism’ in America’s backyard. 

Overall, this was an interesting read and I found myself nodding along more than once. About the only thing that raised the odd eyebrow was the favourable contrast he made – more than once – with China over the same period. Of course, there is more than a little truth in seeing China as a positive role model – especially in its immediate sphere of influence. It’s inarguable that China has lifted many millions of its own citizens out of poverty and has for decades (at least until recently) been seen as an economic miracle despite all predictions to the contrary. Likewise, the Belt & Road initiative has provided regions that otherwise could never have afforded such things with new ports, roads, airports and other infrastructure – things that could, long term, change whole regions of the planet for the better. Naturally this isn’t out of the simple goodness of China’s heart, but still the infrastructure exists or is being built and will benefit others as well as China. So, it's not too surprising that an increasing number of countries are looking to an Eastern future rather than a Western one. Bringing this up to date, for instance, there was a significant contrast in the response of China and the US to the Covid pandemic. Whilst America denied its existence and then fought amongst itself, China was sending equipment, technicians and other support to Italy, other European countries as well as Africa and elsewhere. Again, it’s hardly surprising that heads are turning East instead of West. This was a worthwhile read and gave me a number of areas and topics to investigate further. Recommended if you want food for thought. 

Fascinating....!!!

 

SO many great 80's love songs to choose from.....

Just Finished Reading: Plugged Nickel by Robert Campbell (FP: 1988) [219pp] 

At first, they thought it must have been a truly horrible accident. Someone must have fallen from the train and been run over, cutting them cleanly in half. It wasn’t long until the train crew found the second half and reunited them, handing over the responsibility to rail-detective Jake Hatch to get the body to the local coroner. That was when the trouble started. The local man pronounced the ‘john doe’ dead and then passed on the autopsy to his Denver colleague – who found what should have been obvious from the start: that the two halves of ‘john doe’ didn’t match... at all. For one thing, one half was male and the other female. So, TWO tragic accidents or something more like a suicide pact or maybe a murder-suicide? Travelling up and down the line on the California Zephyr, Jake Hatch had his work cut out for him. There were SO many questions unanswered. Had the two deceased known each other? Where did they get on? Why was one apparently travelling in the opposite direction from the ticket in their wallet? What had been in the empty briefcase found on the train and why were the FBI trying so hard to get in touch with Jake? Oh, and just one more thing – why was the local coroner in McCook, Nebraska acting so strangely? It was going to be a long few days and many miles of track travelled before everything became clear. 

I’d read a few novels by this author before and had always found them reasonably well written and fairly entertaining in a rather disposable way. This was another solid, somewhat above average mystery thriller which certainly kept me both intrigued and entertaining for a little over 200 pages/two days of reading. The actual mystery element was well done, and the story was sprinkled with some good characterisation which I always enjoy. The main character, Jake, was fun to ‘watch’ and the only thing I didn’t like about him was the fact that he seemed to be generally irresistible to women which I found moderately annoying and completely unnecessary to the plot. I also liked the small-town Sherrif and his wife who were good, rounded characters as well as a few of Jakes ‘girlfriends’ who seemed like an interesting bunch. This was a fun, ‘bubble-gum’, read that kept me interested and turning pages. As you might imagine quite a bit of the novel took place either on trains or in close proximity to train infrastructure so there’s some rail-speak that isn’t fully explained (as it wouldn’t be IRL) but you can pick up enough from context and if you’ve watched any old American movies that had trains in them. It certainly didn’t even slow things down a little bit and added some flavour to the whole thing. Recommended if you can source a copy.