Triumph and Tragedy (The Second World War) by Winston S. Churchill
Authors: Winston S. Churchill
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were occupied by the Resistance and the regular troops.
The city was given over to a rapturous demonstration.
German prisoners were spat at, collaborators dragged through the streets, and the liberating troops fêted. On this scene of long-delayed triumph there arrived General de Gaulle. At 5 P.M. he reached the Rue St. Dominique, and set up his headquarters in the Ministry of War. Two hours later, at the Hôtel de Ville, he appeared for the first time as the leader of Free France before the jubilant population in company with the main figures of the Resistance and Generals Leclerc and Juin. There was a spontaneous burst of wild enthusiasm. Next afternoon, on August 26, de Gaulle made his formal entry on foot down the Champs Elysées to the Place de la Concorde, and then in a file of cars to Notre Dame. There was one fusillade from the
Triumph and Tragedy
55
rooftops by hidden collaborators. The crowd scattered, but after a short moment of panic the solemn dedication of the liberation of Paris proceeded to its end.
By August 30 our troops were crossing the Seine at many points. 6 Enemy losses had been tremendous: 400,000
men, half of them prisoners, 1300 tanks, 20,000 vehicles, 1500 field guns. The German Seventh Army, and all divisions that had been sent to reinforce it, were torn to shreds. The Allied break-out from the beach-head had been delayed by bad weather and Hitler’s mistaken resolve. But once that battle was over, everything went with a run, and the Seine was reached six days ahead of the planned time.
There has been criticism of slowness on the British front in Normandy, and the splendid American advances of the later stages seemed to indicate greater success on their part than on ours. It is therefore necessary to emphasise again that the whole plan of campaign was to pivot on the British front and draw the enemy’s reserves in that direction in order to help the American turning movement. The object of the Second British Army was described in its original plan as “to protect the flank of the U.S. armies while the latter captured Cherbourg, Angers, Nantes, and the Brittany ports.” By determination and hard fighting this was achieved. General Eisenhower, who fully comprehended the work of his British comrades, wrote in his official report:
“Without the great sacrifices made by the Anglo-Canadian armies in the brutal, slugging battles for Caen and Falaise the spectacular advances made elsewhere by the Allied forces could never have come about.”
Triumph and Tragedy
56
3
The Pilotless Bombardment
The Attack on London Begins, June 13 — The Construction and Performance of the Flying Bomb
— The Destruction of the Guards Chapel, June 18
— Damage and Casualties — Allied Counter-Measures — I Appoint a Small Committee, June 22 — My Speech to the Commons, July 6 —
Bomber Command Find New Targets — The ReDeployment of the Anti-Aircraft Batteries Along the Coast, July 17 — The Flying Bomb is Mastered —
Credit for All — The Long-Range Rocket —
Controversy About its Size — The Swedish Rocket and the Scientific Intelligence Report of August 26
— An Impressive Technical Achievement — The First Rockets Fall on London, September 8 — The Advance of the Allied Armies — An Opinion by Speer — The Failure of the “V3 ”— The Sufferings of Belgium — Duncan Sandys’ Report to the War Cabinet on Guided Missiles.
T HE LONG-STUDIED ASSAULT on England by unmanned missiles now began: the target was Greater London. For more than a year we had argued among ourselves about the character and scale of the attack, and every preparation which our wits could devise and our resources permit had been made in good time.
In the early hours of June 13, exactly a week after D-Day, four pilotless aircraft crossed our coast. They were the Triumph and Tragedy
57
premature result of a German order, sent urgently on D-Day in reaction to our successes in Normandy. One reached Bethnal
The city was given over to a rapturous demonstration.
German prisoners were spat at, collaborators dragged through the streets, and the liberating troops fêted. On this scene of long-delayed triumph there arrived General de Gaulle. At 5 P.M. he reached the Rue St. Dominique, and set up his headquarters in the Ministry of War. Two hours later, at the Hôtel de Ville, he appeared for the first time as the leader of Free France before the jubilant population in company with the main figures of the Resistance and Generals Leclerc and Juin. There was a spontaneous burst of wild enthusiasm. Next afternoon, on August 26, de Gaulle made his formal entry on foot down the Champs Elysées to the Place de la Concorde, and then in a file of cars to Notre Dame. There was one fusillade from the
Triumph and Tragedy
55
rooftops by hidden collaborators. The crowd scattered, but after a short moment of panic the solemn dedication of the liberation of Paris proceeded to its end.
By August 30 our troops were crossing the Seine at many points. 6 Enemy losses had been tremendous: 400,000
men, half of them prisoners, 1300 tanks, 20,000 vehicles, 1500 field guns. The German Seventh Army, and all divisions that had been sent to reinforce it, were torn to shreds. The Allied break-out from the beach-head had been delayed by bad weather and Hitler’s mistaken resolve. But once that battle was over, everything went with a run, and the Seine was reached six days ahead of the planned time.
There has been criticism of slowness on the British front in Normandy, and the splendid American advances of the later stages seemed to indicate greater success on their part than on ours. It is therefore necessary to emphasise again that the whole plan of campaign was to pivot on the British front and draw the enemy’s reserves in that direction in order to help the American turning movement. The object of the Second British Army was described in its original plan as “to protect the flank of the U.S. armies while the latter captured Cherbourg, Angers, Nantes, and the Brittany ports.” By determination and hard fighting this was achieved. General Eisenhower, who fully comprehended the work of his British comrades, wrote in his official report:
“Without the great sacrifices made by the Anglo-Canadian armies in the brutal, slugging battles for Caen and Falaise the spectacular advances made elsewhere by the Allied forces could never have come about.”
Triumph and Tragedy
56
3
The Pilotless Bombardment
The Attack on London Begins, June 13 — The Construction and Performance of the Flying Bomb
— The Destruction of the Guards Chapel, June 18
— Damage and Casualties — Allied Counter-Measures — I Appoint a Small Committee, June 22 — My Speech to the Commons, July 6 —
Bomber Command Find New Targets — The ReDeployment of the Anti-Aircraft Batteries Along the Coast, July 17 — The Flying Bomb is Mastered —
Credit for All — The Long-Range Rocket —
Controversy About its Size — The Swedish Rocket and the Scientific Intelligence Report of August 26
— An Impressive Technical Achievement — The First Rockets Fall on London, September 8 — The Advance of the Allied Armies — An Opinion by Speer — The Failure of the “V3 ”— The Sufferings of Belgium — Duncan Sandys’ Report to the War Cabinet on Guided Missiles.
T HE LONG-STUDIED ASSAULT on England by unmanned missiles now began: the target was Greater London. For more than a year we had argued among ourselves about the character and scale of the attack, and every preparation which our wits could devise and our resources permit had been made in good time.
In the early hours of June 13, exactly a week after D-Day, four pilotless aircraft crossed our coast. They were the Triumph and Tragedy
57
premature result of a German order, sent urgently on D-Day in reaction to our successes in Normandy. One reached Bethnal
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