Word: goutons
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1941-1941
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Free French marines, all spit & polish. Inside, in the reception room, besides the conquering Allied generals waited 20-odd foreign consuls; native political leaders; sheiks in wimples; religious dignitaries from the country's many Moslem and Christian sects. They waited in vain for Admiral Pierre Victor Gabriel Gouton (acting for General Henri Fernand Dentz, Vichy's High Commissioner) to come out and say goodby...
Hands clasped over sword hilt, Admiral Gouton sat in the High Commissioner's office and ne bougeait pas. Unless the Allied commanders called on him first, he would not budge. General Georges Catroux, who commanded the Free French in the Syrian campaign, equally refused to make the first gesture. At last General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, the Allied Commander in Chief, went in and got the Admiral to come out. When he left the building, trumpets flourished...
| 1 |