Word: dakar
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...Giraud, but, when the time came, his name spelled little magic with civil and military leaders in North Africa. Crafty Admiral Jean Francois Darlan -either by accident or design-was on the spot: it was he who issued the cease-firing order, it was he who promised to deliver Dakar (capture of which, in the estimates of some U.S. officials, might have sacrificed 40,000 lives...
...Admiral Darlan began digging in, there were some who began to wonder whether U.S. policy had really paid off. This week came news that Dakar had been opened to Allied forces. But although some French troops were fighting with the Americans, there was no record of Darlan having ordered them to do so. He had been powerless to bring the French fleet at Toulon to the side of the Allies. If he succeed in establishing himself as leader of the French, would post-war France be governed by the officers' clique and her "200 families...
...lunch was in honor of crusty, one-legged Pierre Boisson, Governor General of French West Africa (including the port of Dakar). The three men who joined him were Kansas-bred Lieut. General Dwight Eisenhower, Commander of Allied Forces in North Africa, Irish-born Admiral Sir Andrew Browne Cunningham, Commander of Allied Naval Forces under Eisenhower, and Admiral Jean Louis Xavier Francois Darlan, newly self-proclaimed "Chief of State in French Africa...
Present. From Boisson and Darlan the British, through Admiral Cunningham, wanted: 1) permission to use Dakar as a base against Nazi U-boats in the South Atlantic; 2) use of French Fleet units at Dakar. From Darlan in particular, Eisenhower wants the status quo maintained in Morocco and Algeria so that there will be no transport interruptions or rear-guard threats to Allied forces now attacking Tunisia...
Actually the advance was ahead of schedule. Behind the First Army Western Africa appeared to be secure to the Allies all the way down to Cape Town. Admiral Darlan broadcast the announcement that French West Africa and Dakar had come "freely under my orders." Dakar had been won at last and after a bloodless battle. Despite official fears that press comments less brutal than President Roosevelt's forthright reference to the renegade admiral might upset the apple cart, Darlan apparently was still acting in accord with General Eisenhower's plans...