Eisenhower's Guerrillas: The Jedburghs and the Liberation of France
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- čas přidán 25. 04. 2024
- Eisenhower's Guerrillas: The Jedburghs and the Liberation of France
With Benjamin F. Jones
Part of our Build up to DDay and Operation Overlord series
• Build up to DDay and O...
The challenges facing General Dwight Eisenhower before the Invasion of Normandy were not merely military but political as well. He knew that to liberate France, and to hold it, the Allies needed local help, which would necessitate coordinating with the highly independent French resistance groups known collectively as the maquis. The Allies' objective was to push the Germans out of France. The French objective, on the other hand, was a France free of all foreign armies, including the Allies. President Roosevelt refused to give full support to Charles de Gaulle, whom he mistrusted, and declined to supply the timing, location, and other key details of Operation Overlord to his Free French government. Eisenhower's hands were tied. He needed to involve the French, but without simultaneously involving them in operational planning.
Into this atmosphere of tension and confusion jumped teams consisting of three officers each -- one from the British Special Operations Bureau, one from the U.S. Office of Strategic Services, one from the Free French Bureau Central de Renseignement -- as well as a radioman from any one of the three nations. Known as the Jedburghs, their primary purpose was to serve as liaisons to the maquis, working to arm, train, and equip them. They were to incite guerilla warfare.
Benjamin F. Jones is the State Historian and Director of the South Dakota State Historical Society. Prior to his current position, he was South Dakota's Secretary of Education, a Dean at Dakota State University, and a professor in the Department of History at the US Air Force Academy. He served as an advisor to the National Military Academy of Afghanistan and later as a liaison officer to the Afghan Ministries of Defense, Interior, and their National Directorate of Security for the effort to transition Afghan security from the coalition back to Afghanistan.
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Brilliant Presentation! Thanks to Woody and Ben
Very proud that my late father Roger was a Jed. He was the W/T in Team Jeremy & was inserted on 24/25 Aug to Le Chambon sur Lignon in Haute Loire. He worked with OSS agent Virginia Hall.
Over the years I was honoured to meet a number of British Jeds and its fair to say that to a man they were most proud of their subsequent deployment into Burma with Force 136 in 1945.
Woody/Benjamin. A subject I knew nothing about. Learnt a lot through a great professional presentation! Thanks. Bob
Always good to hear about the Jeds, and the politics behind this is especially fascinating. Thank you Ben.
All new to me. Every time I learn more I realize how little I know...
Welcome to my world Bruce
@@WW2TV Thank you very much for your welcome sir! I'm pushing 70 wish you had started 25 years ago.
Outstanding presentation! Incredibly informative and interesting. Excellent maps and charts. Thank you!!
Very interesting and well delivered presentation. The political and military objectives are expertly explained. Without Jed's and Marquis involvement, casualties would have surely been higher..doffing cap.
Hi Buddy, never to old (73) to learn ! Never knew about this. Great stuf. Stay young Paul and keep on making Your great video’s.
Best, the crazy Dutchman.
Thanks very much
very outstanding presentation on an overlook topic
was it just me or did bens presentation rise to a crescendo ? it did for me. i will watch this again but this time with notepad & pen. a plethora of information . thank you benjamin f jones and WW2TV.
Glad you enjoyed it. The book is helpful in sharing the details and then pulling out and illustrating the themes.
Donovan had responsibilities but no actual
powers and the existing US agencies were
skeptical if not hostile to the British. Until some
months after Pearl Harbor, the bulk of OSS
intelligence came from the UK. British Security
Co-ordination (BSC), under the direction of Ellis,
trained the first OSS agents in Canada, until
training stations were set up in the US with
guidance from BSC instructors, who also
provided information on how the SOE was
arranged and managed. The British immediately
made available their short-wave broadcasting
capabilities to Europe, Africa, and the Far East
and provided equipment for agents until
American production was established.
This is a great point. One of the issues I left out was the May/June fight between Donovan and Eisenhower that put all OSS into SHAEF. Donovan complained but couldn’t do anything about it. He’s not a “Commander” in the military sense. He is, like the armed services, one who mans, trains, and equips. He’s not conducting operations.
Thank you.
Very interesting tale. I’ll have to see if his book is at the local library.
It sounds like the Jedburgh’s had greater effect on the peace and setting up civil government than they did on the battles.
Tactically they may or may not have been successful. The most successful teams were in Brittany or those dropped deployed in June like Ian and Hugh who then had time to organize resistance and get in more supplies. But strategically, they buttressed French sovereignty and that had a huge impact from August well into the Cold War. The steam ran out in 1968, one could argue.
Interesting fact that the base training for the French commando parachutist GCP is called stage Jedburgh. They only recruit trained soldiers
As a young lad in Liverpool an old friend of mine introduced me to his dad-"Bulbasket"-amazing fellow thanks
They were. Tragic what happened to Bulbasket.
@@Jayhawkerjones Cpl. Sam Smith 22SAS
Regretfully no mention of Captain Ortiz USMC. A very daring bold fellow.
There will be in the future. He's the subject of a book being written
Ortiz was a courageous man, but he wasn’t a Jedburgh.
one of the main reasons that the Jeds were sent in at the last moment wa the fact that most circuits had been penetrated by earlyb44 by sd /gspz-----thus at the last minuite they could have some measure of protection
Small problem with some of your statements, team quinine was involved in disrupting Das Reich progress on the figeac tulle road in the Lot. They dropped into France on the 8th. Under the coordination of the Maquis with Bernard Cournil they did a hit and run. Which is what they were supposed to do. Disrupt, harass and delay. They also held for days 300 Germans and milice in a tunnel in support of operation dragoon. Their purpose was not to field an army but do guérilla and disrupt the logistics of the German.
Thanks for bringing this up. Teams Quinine, Ammonia, and later Bugatti were dropped in specifically to harass 2nd SS Panzer. And they did. But as Peter Leib and Max Hastings in their books point out, that much of the delay was due to resistance doing what they would have done anyway. See my Chapter 6 and the section “Southwestern France.”
An added thought, we all know that De Gaulle was excluded from major decision making, I cannot help but think that his entry post invasion and the 'triumphant' walks were all a political reward for his secquestrated support for the total resistance effort, including the Jeds.
After all, who became president....yes, I know, I'm cynical, lol
You're not that far off :)
De Gaulle certainly had an impact on how - especially in France itself - the history of the war was established.
As alluded to, the role of the resistance and Free French was boosted, largely to offset the Vichy period and it's only in the last decennia that gets more attention.
A small addition to the start of De Gaulle's career: one of the reasons he was reined in by Gamelin was the political difficulty in prioritising a 'professional' army as opposed to the French preference of using a conscript army.
So even if he had been 100% correct in his doctrine proposals (which by the way was not as successful as he expected when he got the chance in June 1940), the politics would have been quite something else.
He didn’t become President immediately. Isn’t French politics fun?
Jedburgh is a Scottish town.
The name is pronounced 'Jedbrer' in the same way Edinburgh is pronounced 'Edinbrer'.
One would have thought the pronunciation would have been correct.
Nevertheless, a very interesting and informative presentation.
We literally explained that. Jedbrer is indeed where the name originated, but it is now a common word in the US military with the pronunciation of Jedburgh. So when used as a SF term it WAS Jedbrer, but as language evolves is now Jedburgh
South Dakota?
Would you like to trade Governors with Ohio?
You are on your own, lad!
Talk talk talk talk nothing burger
Too many big words for you? Not enough animations and graphics? This is proper history by a proper historian who understands the subject