    
Title: French Generals Henri Giraud and Charles de Gaulle Description: French Generals Henri Giraud (Henri Honoré Giraud; 1879-1949), left, and Charles de Gaulle (Charles Andre Joseph Marie de Gaulle; 1890-1970), right, shaking hands at Anfa Hotel at the Allied Casablanca (Morocco) Conference, January 1943, obscuring U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Franklin Delano Roosevelt; AKA: FDR; 1882-1945), sitting center; Giraud was then the ranking commander of the Vichy government in Morocco and Algeria, following the arrest and assassination of French Admiral Francois Darlan (1881-1942)—Darlan was shot to death in his headquarters in Algiers on December 24, 1942 by French nationalist Fernand Bonnier de la Chapelle (1922-1942), who was executed two days later for his crime—and he had, years earlier urged the Vichy government to resist the German occupation of France and, like de Gaulle, was one of the few French generals that aggressively fought against the German invasion of his country in 1940, leading the 7th and 9th French Armies in blocking German advances in the Netherlands and at the Ardennes; he was taken prisoner, but escaped a maximum German prison in 1942, fleeing to Vichy, France, where its collaborationist leader, Marshal Philippe Pétain (Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Joseph Pétain; 1856-1951) refused to turn Giraud over to the Germans; he was sent to North Africa, where he became Darlan's deputy, secretly working with the Allies to enable the Allied Invasion of North Africa; de Gaulle had also fought bravely against the German invasion of France in 1940, escaping to England to establish the Free French Government in exile and headed the Free French forces invading North Africa and elsewhere; he and Giraud agreed at Casablanca to have joint command of all French forces fighting against the Axis forces, but by 1943 Giraud retired, leaving de Gaulle as the sole leader of Free French forces; Category: Military Topic: Leaders Keywords: Casablanca Conference, Free French forces, French generals, meetings, military leaders, Operation Gymnast (initial code name for the Allied Invasion of North Africa), Operation Torch (codename for the Allied Invasion of North Africa), Second World War, Vichy (France) Government, World War II, WWII Orientation: Portrait Dimensions: 1650 x 2171 (3.58 MPixels) (1.32) Print Size: 14.0 x 18.4 cm; 5.5 x 7.2 inches File Size: 10.27 MB (10,764,044 Bytes) Resolution: 300 x 300 dpi Color Depth: 16.7 million (24 BitsPerPixel) Compression: None Image Number: 0000047013 Source: Jay Robert Nash Collection |
