Word: giraud
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...headed Hitler's Abwehr, or espionage agency, from 1935 to 1943. Horrified with the party's excesses, he began using his position to plot against Hitler. He helped prospective terror victims escape, falsified reports to dissuade Hitler from invading Spain, saved the lives of French Generals Giraud and Weygand after Hitler ordered them assassinated. He and other undercover rebels kept a detailed chronology of Nazi crimes since 1933 and a card index of Nazi leaders. These and other documents, involving 2,000 Germans in the plot against Hitler, were subsequently seized by the Gestapo...
Radio station CHLP speaks in a modest (one kilowatt) voice, but entertains a devoted audience recruited mostly from Montreal's French-speaking east end. One night last week, listeners heard the announcer start off the 9 o'clock show with a recording by Chanteuse Yvette Giraud. Then with a brutal rasp the needle was knocked across the record and a harsh voice interrupted the program...
Died. General Henri Honoré Giraud, 70, French hero of three wars (he was cited for bravery 13 times, decorated 16 times); of intestinal cancer and pernicious anemia; in Dijon, France. Lean, towering (6 ft. 4 in.) Soldier Giraud, who escaped from the Germans in World War I with the help of Nurse Edith Cavell, was captured again by the Germans in World War II, during the Sedan breakthrough. He escaped again, made his way with Allied help to Gibraltar - and frustration. He had been picked by the Allies to command French forces in Africa after the invasion...
...campaign, but makes out a good case for his temporary collaboration with Darlan. Not only was he bound by political directives that the French in North Africa were to be treated as neutrals, not enemies, but Robert Murphy's intelligence for the U.S. State Department on General Henri Giraud proved faulty. A great deal of effort went into prying Giraud out of Vichy territory, only to have him insist on having Ike's job or none at all. Finally Giraud changed his mind...
...when the Allies got to North Africa they found that none of the French paid any attention to Giraud; the Vichy commanders on the scene idolized Pétain, and ultimately agreed to take orders only from Darlan, who by lucky chance was in Algiers at the time, visiting his paralyzed son. It was not Ike's doing that De Gaulle in London wasn't even told of the North African invasion. The British blamed a leak in De Gaulle's staff for their earlier failure to capture Dakar. Ike is still cool toward De Gaulle...