on the way to London last night. My flight from Dulles was canceled. My wife’s two flights from Minneapolis were both canceled — one in the morning to meet me in DC, then one in the afternoon to get her to London from Minneapolis after the flight to DC was canceled.
As one thing led to another, we gave up on the prospect of joining our group in London. All I have to show for it is the remarks I prepared to give in the voice of Philippe Leclerc on day 5 of the tour as we traveled from Bayeux to the Bulge. This is what I had planned to say, with a little help from Free France’s Lion, by William Mortimer Moore (all errors are mine).
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My nom de guerre is Philippe Leclerc. My historic division — the Second Armored Division — was nicknamed the Division Leclerc.
I am grateful to be able to speak to you today. Unless you have read about me in the pages of General de Gaulle’s memoirs, you may not have heard of me. In my present incarnation, my Fargo accent has overtaken my French accent, but either one makes me just as hard to understand. I would like to tell you about myself and my contribution to the Allied defeat of Nazi Germany.
My family name is Hauteclocque. It was an aristocratic family with deep French roots going back to the Middle Ages. Our military tradition is just as long and distinguished as well. Following the tradition, I attended the French military academy St. Cyr, and continued my education in cavalry at Samaur, where I graduated first in my class.
Here please indulge me a political note. I was an observant Catholic and ardent follower of Action Française. It was nationalist, but also anti-Dreyfus, anti-Semitic, and monarchist. In 1927 the Church officially condemned Action Française and prohibited Maurras’s writings and newspaper L’Action française. My wife and I thought the ban was ridiculous and continued our support until the fall of France.
Maurras supported Petain and I supported a free France. I put Action Française in the rearview mirror. I chose the honor of France.
I returned to St. Cyr as an instructor, but left to serve for several years in the French forces in our African empire in the 1930s. During the decade I also taught at Samaur and broke my leg in an accident when my horse fell. In photos after that you will always find me walking with a cane as result of the accident.
In late 1938 I returned to France for study at our Army’s staff college. The following year I was assigned to the Fourth Infantry Division as chief of staff. That was my position in the tragic month of May 1940. Our division retreated until it was hemmed in at the Lille Pocket near Dunkirk. Incompetence and retreat were the order of the day.
I asked my commanding officer for permission to escape so I could continue the fight: “May I have your permission to take my chance?” He consented and I escaped on foot and on bicycle, making my way to Spain and finally London. I had to leave my family behind in France. I sought to protect them by the use of my nom de guerre.
Along the way I heard General de Gaulle’s second appeal on the BBC from London declaring for Free France on June 22, 1940. He condemned the armistice. He condemned Petain. He held out hope and vowed to continue the fight for French honor. In his appeal de Gaulle proclaimed: “I am talking about honor! Indeed, France is committed to not laying down its weapons unless its allies agree to do so.”
This was what I responded to. Thus I continued my escape from the Germans in France to meet with de Gaulle at Carlton Gardens in London.
In my meeting with him in London General de Gaulle asked me to find our friends in Africa — in Cameroon and in Chad, where my mission was to lead colonial troops in harassing Italian forces. I undertook my most famous mission against the Italian garrison at Kufra in southern Libya. When the Italians surrendered on March 1, 1941 we took an oath. We swore “not to lay down arms until our colors, our beautiful colors, fly over Strasbourg Cathedral.” This was the famous Kufra Oath — and we kept it.
I believed in leadership from the front. I was a stubborn and demanding leader who treated the troops under my command with respect and care. I sought to discover and exploit the enemy’s weakest points. I never lost a battle.
We fought elsewhere in Africa in support of the Allied forces and won their respect. In mid-1943, General de Gaulle asked me to turn my Force L into the Second Armored Division, to be equipped in Morocco by the Americans in support of the liberation of Europe after D-Day.
We learned to use the new equipment and rehearsed our battle tactics. We organized along the lines of an American division with combat commands in the typical American model – three tank battalions and three mechanized infantry battalions, supported by cavalry, artillery, and engineers– about 14,000 men. We trained in Morocco and in England in the spring of 1944 until the Americans judged us combat ready.
On August 1 we embarked from ports in England for Utah Beach in France. We served under General Patton as a component of General Haislip’s XV Corps. We moved inland and fought for two weeks around Alencon and Argentan on the southern flank of the Falaise pocket. We kicked the German 9th Panzer Division out of the forest at Ecouves and contributed to the partial success of the operation encircling German Army Group B. I don’t believe it was our fault that German forces escaped through the gap north of Argentan before it was closed on August 21.
Unfortunately, before then, I had to fight with my American superiors as hard in spirit as we fought the Germans in fact. In the opinion of General de Gaulle and me, it was time for us to lead the liberation of Paris. This was the mission I had been born for. De Gaulle had actually appointed me to serve as the interim Governor of Paris while we were still in Morocco.
The Americans did not view Paris as a military objective. They also thought that de Gaulle was driven by low political motives. I resisted the splitting up of my division to support the operation at this time. I wanted to keep the unit as intact as possible to march on Paris. We prevailed both with the Americans and in the field.
Circumstances dictated the liberation of Paris. General de Gaulle was acutely aware of the desire of the Communists in the resistance to seize control. They too had a mind of their own. It was imperative that we be in a position to restore free France and not exchange Nazis for Communists.
General Eisenhower finally saw it our way. I had intended to head to Paris regardless, so I’m glad he came around.
In photographs, you see us marching down the Champs Elysees as though we didn’t have to fight to get there, but we did. It was the moment I was born for. We ventured up different axes to find weak points and got some help from Parisians who directed us. We lost some good men in the fighting, but the Germans were ready to give up. On August 25 I took Von Choltitz’s surrender at the Hotel Meurice. About an hour later de Gaulle joined us. Paris celebrated.
We didn’t have much time to celebrate. We were reattached to Patton’s Third Army and General Haislip. We fought along with the Americans in Alsace and advanced to Strasbourg by mid-November — a promise kept.
From there it was on to the Eagle’s Nest at Berchtesgaden. We saw our mission through to the end — mission accomplished.
After the war, I served in French Indochina. I met with Ho Chi Minh. I saw the disaster ahead and did my best to avert it, but lacked the political authority to do what was necessary.
In 1947 I returned to Africa. I died as my plane crashed in a desert storm in Algeria. General de Gaulle wept publicly at my funeral. I died as I had lived — in the service of France.
