# Did the French deliberately use "Fake" French soldiers to liberate Paris? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 18, 2019, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-french-deliberately-use-fake-french-soldiers-to-liberate-paris/832704 "2019-04-18T03:50:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2019, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-french-deliberately-use-fake-french-soldiers-to-liberate-paris/832704/1 "2019-04-18T03:50:54Z")
[This Cracked article](https://www.cracked.com/article_18857_the-6-greatest-war-heroes-who-got-screwed-out-history.html) seems to imply that the French deliberately went out of their way to use white soldiers to liberate Paris, even at the cost of using non-French citizens. > [@](#): > > This was a time in history where blacks and whites were still segregated in the American military and forbidden from fighting together. The Allies had an image to uphold, after all – better for the people to watch Paris liberated by square-jawed, chiseled Aryan superheroes than a ragtag bunch of African natives and Muslims. Before de Gaulle was granted permission by America to take back his own country, he had to scramble to find enough white people to replace anyone in his army who failed the melanin test. > > Of course, that had been de Gaulle’s entire problem in the first place. His ultimate solution was to borrow a whole bunch of Spanish soldiers, dress them in berets and pencil mustaches and hope nobody would notice. In the meantime, the Africans were sent home without any of the glory. However the Wikipedia article on the Liberation of Paris doesn’t mention any of that, while Spanish soldiers under French command did liberate Paris first no mention of that being a deliberate decision or if they were the closest ones ready for battle. Also it only mentions that the US objected to black Senegalese soldiers being used in the victory parade, nothing about ALL non-white soldiers being deliberately singled out to not participate. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2019, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-french-deliberately-use-fake-french-soldiers-to-liberate-paris/832704/2 "2019-04-18T04:02:13Z")
The liberation of Paris was to put it mildly, an organizational shitshow. The original plan was for the city to be the ultimate objective of Allied armies. As the Northern France campaign developed, that changed and Eisenhower decided to bypass the city instead of hammering his head against it and its garrison. Then as the German collapse in France continued, Parisians rose up against their occupiers. De Gaulle begged Ike to change his mind, when the later refused, add Gaullists directed the French troops who were nearby to shift their focus away from the Allied advance and to Paris. Doing so is complicated. The Free French Forces were an integrated part of the Allied Armies, not a separate grouping. As a result it was total mad house as they struggled to smuggle enough supplies and men to be able to launch an unauthorized attack. In the event, Eisenhower came around and directed Paris to be taken. I am guessing that rumor is a mixture of remembrance of both the pre liberation chaos and the Alies institutional racism. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2019, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-french-deliberately-use-fake-french-soldiers-to-liberate-paris/832704/3 "2019-04-18T04:36:43Z")
This seems like an unlikely story. DeGaulle was notoriously resistant to requests made by the Americans or British, even when it was Roosevelt or Churchill personally making the request. So the idea that he would meekly accept directions from some staff officers is way out of character. As far as Degaulle was concerned, he outranked everyone in SHAEF, including Eisenhower. And it was a huge political and psychological issue for DeGaulle that Paris had to be liberated by French soldiers. I don’t see how he would have accepted the idea of allowing Spanish soldiers pretending to be French to have the honor. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2019, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-french-deliberately-use-fake-french-soldiers-to-liberate-paris/832704/4 "2019-04-18T07:40:30Z")
From Oct '44, to be fair, he _did._ ---
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2019, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-french-deliberately-use-fake-french-soldiers-to-liberate-paris/832704/5 "2019-04-18T08:51:52Z")
This one is true. [Paris liberation made ‘whites only’](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7984436.stm) > [@](#): > > The leader of the Free French forces, Charles de Gaulle, made it clear that he wanted his Frenchmen to lead the liberation of Paris. Allied High Command agreed, but only on one condition: De Gaulle’s division must not contain any black soldiers… > > Finding an all-white division that was available proved to be impossible due to the enormous contribution made to the French Army by West African conscripts. So, Allied Command insisted that all black soldiers be taken out and replaced by white ones from other units. When it became clear that there were not enough white soldiers to fill the gaps, soldiers from parts of North Africa and the Middle East were used instead… > > For France’s West African Tirailleurs Senegalais, however, there was little to celebrate. Despite forming 65% of Free French Forces and dying in large numbers for France, they were to have no heroes’ welcome in Paris. After the liberation of the French capital many were simply stripped of their uniforms and sent home. To make matters even worse, in 1959 their pensions were frozen. [Liberation of Paris: The hidden truth](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/liberation-of-paris-the-hidden-truth-434403.html) > [@](#): > > Months before D-Day, American and British commanders decided that only French troops who were 100 per cent white could take part in the operation to free Paris. John Lichfield reports ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2019, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-french-deliberately-use-fake-french-soldiers-to-liberate-paris/832704/6 "2019-04-18T10:05:51Z")
It seems not improbable that some of the Spanish republicans who had joined various resistance groups in France were incorporated into the Free French army. But De Gaulle as a traditional professional soldier was more than a bit sniffy about non-professionals. I doubt if he was too keen on the left-wing partisan tradition, either: indeed I wonder if he and the other professional generals were so keen on French troops liberating Paris in order to make sure the Communists didn’t take charge, as in1870. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2019, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-french-deliberately-use-fake-french-soldiers-to-liberate-paris/832704/7 "2019-04-18T13:18:29Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > The liberation of Paris was to put it mildly, an organizational shitshow. > The original plan was for the city to be the ultimate objective of Allied armies. > As the Northern France campaign developed, that changed and Eisenhower decided to bypass the city instead of hammering his head against it and its garrison. > Then as the German collapse in France continued, Parisians rose up against their occupiers. De Gaulle begged Ike to change his mind, when the later refused, add Gaullists directed the French troops who were nearby to shift their focus away from the Allied advance and to Paris. > > Doing so is complicated. The Free French Forces were an integrated part of the Allied Armies, not a separate grouping. As a result it was total mad house as they struggled to smuggle enough supplies and men to be able to launch an unauthorized attack. > > In the event, Eisenhower came around and directed Paris to be taken. > > I am guessing that rumor is a mixture of remembrance of both the pre liberation chaos and the Alies institutional racism. The first allied unit into Paris was the American 102nd Reconnaissance Squadron. I was in the unit many years later of course and was able to speak to some of the veterans. The account was cleared up for the history books but they got into a little bit of trouble for jumping the gun. [http://njcavalryandarmorassociation.org/History%20of%20the%20102nd.pdf](http://njcavalryandarmorassociation.org/History%20of%20the%20102nd.pdf)