Silverstein
Regular
Terco_Viejo said:BIGGER Kentucky James XXL said:
OK. were Senegalese shooters in French army but don't put the Spaniards in the same sack of cannon fodder. I hope what you're saying is by ignorance, mate. I invite you to read about those who formed "La Novena".
The first Spaniards who entered General De Gaulle's Free France army did so in Tunis in December 1942, fighting against Marshal Rommel's troops. Many of them had been in concentration camps in Vichy France or in work battalions in Africa. After months of arduous struggles in that region, on May 7, 1943 they conquered the port city of Bizerta, their last action in Africa.
The armoured Leclerc Division was born in May 1943 under the command of General Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque in Central African Chad, acting in support of Free France. It was composed of 16,000 men, of whom at the beginning of 1943 some 2,000 were Spanish. After Free France took control of North Africa, the Spanish Republicans integrated into the French troops had the option of choosing between the Leclerc Division (already a veteran of Free France) or General Henri Giraud's forces (made up of numerous Vichy loyalists who had recently changed sides). Faced with this situation, the vast majority of Spaniards chose the Leclerc unit. Many of these Spaniards believed that after taking France, General De Gaulle would help them to put an end to Franco.
The Leclerc Division was officially named "2nd Armoured Division" and its 9th Company was better known as "La Nueve" or "La Novena", with French captain Raymond Dronne in command, made up mostly of 150 Spanish Republicans. Most of the Spaniards integrated there were socialists, anarchists, from the Catalan POUM or apolitical hostiles to Franco, with a few communists, while others simply arrived as deserters from Moroccan and Algerian concentration camps.
The Leclerc Division, with the 9th Company, moved from Morocco to Great Britain. On 6 June 1944 the Normandy Disembarkation took place, and although some Spaniards dispersed in other allied units participated, the 9th Company remained on British soil. Finally on 4 August the 9th Company landed on Utah beach (Madelaine beach), north of Carentan Bay in Normandy. The Leclerc Division, counting on "The Nine", was part of the III American Army led by the famous General George Patton.
The first light confrontations that the Spanish Republicans had against the Wehrmacht, were developed in places like Rennes, Le Mans, Château-Gontier and a very outstanding role next to the American soldiers in Alençon. On August 7, the 9th Company suffered its first death in combat, the Spaniard Andres Garcia. On August 12, the Allies were surprised by the war experience of the 9th Company, when the Spaniards captured 129 German prisoners in Eccouché.
The city of Paris revolted against the Germans on August 20, 1944, and Charles de Gaulle insisted before the supreme allied command that troops of Free France come to liberate the French capital before the Wehrmacht decided to fight in the streets and destroy fundamental urban structures (bridges over the Seine, water networks, public buildings) as had already been ordered by Adolf Hitler.
Firstly, the American command, led by Dwight D. Eisenhower, preferred to attack massively the German troops concentrated north of Paris and delay the conquest of that city. In spite of this, De Gaulle ordered his troops to take advantage of the revolt of the French Resistance in order to take Paris and the Leclerc Division was chosen for this purpose. Precisely on this occasion the 9th Spanish Company, the reconnaissance unit of the Leclerc Division, is the first allied unit to enter the city.
At 21:22 on the night of August 24, 1944, the 9th Company burst into the center of Paris through the Porte d'Italie. Upon entering the Town Hall square, the Spanish semioruga "Ebro" fired the first shots at a large number of German rifles and machine guns. Then the civilians who went out to the street singing La Marseillaise, to their surprise noted that the first liberating soldiers were all Spanish.
After the seizure of Paris, the 9th Company left Paris on September 8. They participated in several campaigns in northern France and Germany, the most important being on May 5, 1945 when they participated in the seizure of the Eagle's Nest, Adolf Hitler's final refuge in Berchtesgaden.
After the end of World War II, 35 had been the Republicans of La Novena who had died in combat, and 97 were wounded. Only 16 of them were still active in peacetime. Some of them, after the war, decided to remain in the French Army. Most of them rejoined French civilian life. Although De Gaulle paid tribute to them, they were not rewarded for their help with the material and soldiers they wanted in order to overthrow Franco's regime. So they all had to stay in France, not being able to return to their homeland.
It was not until August 2004 that the city of Paris paid an appropriate tribute to the Spaniards of the Leclerc Division who had contributed so much to their liberation sixty years earlier. For this purpose, a commemorative plaque was unveiled next to the Seine River on Quai Henri IV. On August 25, 2012, during the celebration of the 68th anniversary of the Liberation of Paris, a republican flag participated in this event as a recognition of the role of La Novena in the liberation of the city, this fact being recognized in the speech of the President of the French Republic, François Hollande. And last year, the kings of Spain, Philip VI and Letizia Ortiz, visited in Paris the park that was created in tribute to La Nueve.
In Spain, institutional tributes have not yet been paid to these heroes of anti-fascist resistance, a shame.
Honor and glory always to "La Novena".
That was quite the informative rebuttal on my behalf, thanks. In all honesty I'd forgotten about this thread's existence...
Terco_Viejo said:Ok I see... the next time I'll post a text wall put me a "I didn't read lol" or this gif... I'll thank you.
I take notes Almalexia=troll...
You're too nice. Almalexia=James' ineffectual damage control (another Nazi trolled'd amiright)
Good game
