After D-Day by Robert Lynn Fuller

After D-Day by Robert Lynn Fuller

Author:Robert Lynn Fuller
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: LSU Press
Published: 2021-05-14T16:00:00+00:00


ERNEST HEMINGWAY AND THE FFI

One American in particular got along easily with French maquis: war correspondent Ernest Hemingway, who found himself leading a band of maquis around Rambouillet, southwest of Paris and Versailles, in August 1944 in the days leading up to the liberation of Paris. Hemingway had been traveling with the 4th Infantry Division, attached to Courtney Hodge’s First Army, when it made a wide swing south of Paris in an effort to cut off German troops fleeing to Germany. On 19 August, Hemingway and his driver drove east from Maintenon (near Chartres) in an effort to find the front and encountered a forward U.S. command post and some French civilians. The civilians, who had bicycled out from the town of Rambouillet, reported that the last German soldiers had left the previous night and mined the road as they departed. As Hemingway was the only American present who spoke French, he took this information from the civilians and passed it to the company commander on the spot. Hemingway thought this intelligence would be valuable to the regimental commander back in Maintenon and had his driver turn around to head back, taking one of the civilians with him to give his firsthand account of the situation.16

When he returned to the command post, Hemingway encountered two car loads of French resistance fighters armed with pistols and Sten guns. He interrogated them as well about the situation in Rambouillet and they confirmed the previous information given by the civilians: there were no Germans in Rambouillet and the roads were indeed mined. Hemingway again headed back to Maintenon with the guerrillas—Hemingway’s term for them—to convey what they knew to the regimental headquarters. Afterward, Hemingway and his new friends headed back to locate the mined sections of road and waited for Army engineers to render the mines harmless. During this foray, Hemingway maintained that the guerrillas placed themselves under his command, “ignorant of the fact that a war correspondent cannot command troops, a situation which I explained to them at the earliest moment.” Regardless, Hemingway and his resistance crew posted themselves as guards to make sure no American soldiers blundered onto the dangerous stretches of road. Eventually American sappers arrived and, aided by the French resistance fighters, cleared the road of mines. When the guerrillas again asked Hemingway to act as their commander, he again advised them he could not—but he could offer them “advice,” which he was happy to do. He advised them to first establish themselves as the civil authority in Rambouillet, which they did, even though FFI had not shown themselves reluctant to take charge elsewhere and needed no instructions from American “advisors” to do so. Hemingway then suggested they reconnoiter the roads out of town leading to Paris to ensure there were no further German obstacles to the American advance. This they also did until American infantry arrived to take over that job. Finding themselves again without useful employment, they went to Hemingway and asked his advice. He suggested they screen the town in case the Germans tried to come back.



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