Chapter Nineteen - A War on Many Fronts Part 2 (September-December 1954)
Chapter Nineteen - A War on Many Fronts Part 2 (September-December 1954)
'On September 1, 30,000 Spanish Troops arrived in Montpellier. Happy that he now commanded 88,000 soldiers, Ridgway set off to Marseille. Unbeknownst to Ridgway, after a massive appeal by Soviet and SRF agents in Italy, about 20,000 young volunteers crossed the border and joined the Socialists in Marseille.
Marseille was reached on September 10. It seemed strangely silent, so Ridgway sent the 82nd Airborne Division to scout out ahead. As they walked into the city, they were ambushed by thousands of Socialists and suffered heavily casualties before retreating. Ridgway phoned LeMay, and they agreed to bomb Marseille, while Ridgway moves his forces in, similar to Templer's plan in Le Havre. It was successful, but Ridgway suffered heavy causalities against the highly motivated socialists, and Ridgway lost 27,000 soldiers.
After capturing Le Havre, Templer began fortifying the mouth of the Seine, and a Regiment of the Royal Marines arrived there on September 7. Next, Templer planned to seize Rouen, further up the Seine. He set off with 3 US Divisions and 1 UK Brigade and the lightly-defended city was quickly seized on September 15. He decided to wait in Rouen until he got more soldiers from the US.
In America, Dewey decided to draft 150,000 soldiers to boost the number of soldiers in France. The 15 'Dewey Brigades' were raised on August 23, were trained from August 25-September 15 and then flew over to England. On October 1st, 8 divisions would be sent to the north and 7 divisions would go to the south.
In the last fortnight of September, the war came to a lull, as the allied forces were waiting for more troops, while the Socialists regrouped and prepared for more assaults. This lull came to an end on October 1st.
The FLN was a para-military determined to 'liberate' Algeria from France. As the Civil War raged, they launched several massive terrorist attacks on October 1st and declared Algeria's independence. Ridgway and Templer wished to give Algeria its independence, but De Gaulle was having none of it. He re-directed a Dewey Division and a British Brigade to Algeria. He promoted Badout to a Major-General and put him in charge of the troops, and American Colonel William Westmoreland as his deputy.'
The Cold War 1945 to 1957 (1990)
'I was originally taken aback when Ridgway told me that I was going to become Second-in-Command in Algeria. Badout and I went to Algeria a week later with 16,000 soldiers. We met with leaders of the Pied Noir, the white Algerians, and we formulated a strategy. They would call it the Westmoreland-Badout plan later, but Pierre came up with most of it.
Martial Law was declared and Algiers and Oran were barricaded by the Pied Noir. After the FLN managed to get through and shot up central Algiers, I decided we must work with the Pied Noir. They were divided into 3 armies (West, Central, East) of 45,000 each and our forces mainly took up the time training them.
This strategy worked for a time and order was briefly restored, but then Ridgway wanted our troops. We had to give him our British troops, but after that we were spread thin and the FLN resumed their attacks'
Carolinian General (1989)
'After he gained 70,000 extra troops, Templer decided to begin an ambitious plan to attack Pas de Calais, the Socialist heartland. Templer sped to Amiens which he captured in 2 days. The Socialist leadership panicked and activated 'Plan Red'. This was a contingency plan drawn up in February in case they lost the war. On October 18, Socialist agents blew up central Paris, causing 19,000 deaths.
The French people were enraged, so Templer began advertising for volunteers, and around 100,000 people applied. With a now massive army of 200,000, Templer decided to first surround Pas de Calais, before moving into it. He quickly moved towards the Belgian border, encountering only token opposition.
On November 2, he launched an all-out assault on the city of Arras. Out of the 20,000 garrison there, 12,000 were killed and the rest were taken prisoner. He knew Lille, the Socialist capital, would be hard to capture, even for his large army, so he sent about half of his soldiers to seize the Channel ports of Calais (November 8) and Dunkirk (November 10). His troops returned to him by November 15, ready to attack Lens and Lille.
Templer estimated that there were 60-100,000 soldiers in Lille and Lens. He organised his army into a left flank and a right flank of 95,000 troops each, with 10,000 soldiers being held back in reserve.
He sent his right flank to seize Lens on November 22, and it was finally won in the early hours of November 25. The same day he sent the left flank behind Lille and the same day, Lille was surrounded.
Templer wanted an organised battle in Lille, but the Battle of Lille (November 27-December 8) was anything but organised. A company of volunteers from his left flank charged into Lille, igniting a bloody and chaotic battle. The defenders were using every tactic they had, and in the first day alone 17,000 allied troops perished.
This city finally fell on December 8th, but neither Mollet or Duclos were captured, and there were often sightings of Socialist soldiers in the countryside around. 93,000 of the original 200,000 soldiers lay dead in Arras, Lens and Lille, but the socialists were no more in Pas de Calais. However, an estimated 35,000 soldiers escaped form Lille and joined the socialists in Saint-Denis and Beauvais.
The Cold War 1945 to 1957 (1990)
'Ridgway gained 70,000 troops on October 1, putting his numbers at 141,000. He decided that the easiest way to victory was to loop north and capture Nice. The plan was very flawed, and they were slowed down by numerous guerrilla bands. The Socialists thought that this would make Ridgway think they had a large garrison in Nice, but most of their soldiers died or were captured in Marseille.
Ridgway split up his force into 3 groups on October 16th, hoping this would draw away some guerrillas, which it did, but not enough to make a large effect. In a last-ditch attempt 7000 guerrillas raided Ridgway's camp near Mansoque. The Battle of Manosque was quick, but hopeless. Both armies suffered high casualties, but hardly any of the Socialists managed to escape.
After interrogation, Ridgway learnt that Nice was practically undefended so he quickly captured the city on October 20th. After the Fall of Nice, the rest of the Socialists in the south surrendered, in exchange for clemency, granted by Ridgway and a reluctant De Gaulle.'
A History of Guerrilla Warfare (2012)
Colonel William Westmoreland
