Reissue of a synthesis sometimes dated, but still effective

Max Hastings, a British journalist and author of many books on history, especially World War II, but not only, sign the book in 1981 devoted to the bloody path of the Das Reich division from the south-west of France up in Normandy, in June 1944, reissued today by Tallandier (and has already been the subject of several French editions). His work is primarily based on official records and testimony of actors, French, German, British, American. Hastings is well aware, from the time, the limitations of his study, which he calls "description of some dramas in a critical phase of hostilities" (p.17).

2. The SS Panzer Division Das Reich was repatriated from the eastern front, decimated, in April 1944, to be stationed in the Montauban region. Hastings exaggerating the effectiveness of the divisions of the Waffen-SS (p.30), several items are relativized since the book's publication date, even if the author sticks to the historiography of the moment (unfortunately still present, this time -C without reason, to some literature) or that it does not systematically review the testimonies of former Waffen-SS (as in p.38). Nevertheless, it shows how new recruits, such as Alsatians are very vites taken over by the surviving cadres of the unit veterans of the war years, especially in the USSR. These frames are completely perverted by the Nazis and by the ideology of the SS, not to mention the brutality of the eastern front. However, they found the French population much more hostile than during a first visit a few years earlier. The Das Reich engaged in operations against the Resistance in the month of May 1944, multiplying summary executions, burning of homes and deportations inhabitants. The reflections of Hastings on Waffen-SS, p.42-45, are more convincing: perversion due to Nazism, the accusation of loose or weak that grows to choose the most brutal solutions and discourages choice of intelligence or even the initiative -d'ailleurs brilliant senior officers in the Waffen-SS are the exception, as illustrated Lammerding, the Das Reich commander at that time.

On-site resistance, as is often divided, especially between those claiming the Secret Army, General de Gaulle, and FTP with different postures to say the least. SOE, created in 1940, has mostly operated in Yugoslavia, and its freedom of action in France was hindered by bodies which do not see a good eye, as MI6, despite the support of Churchill. SOE has 5 networks concerned by delaying the rise of online Das Reich to Normandy. However the military leaders and political allies do not believe, essentially, that the French resistance may prohibit the movement of German troops and favor the air option. But the most important weapons quantities are parachuted in the second quarter 1944 in the hope that after the landing, resistant can cause discomfort to the occupant-and that's what will happen, the Germans react so disproportionately by diverting troops against resistant.

The SOE agents parachuted into France discovered a fragmented resistance divided, which also has many refractory to STO who won the maquis but not necessarily to fight. Since the announcement of the landing, the Resistance attacks the railroads-with mixed results, repairs are fairly Rapides and also captured localities. Or the Germans enacted at the beginning of 1944, particularly ferocious repression precautions that will be taken over by the Waffen-SS and the high command in France at the threat posed by the guerrillas. As soon as the Das Reich division starts on June 8, it is hung by small groups of AS or FTP quickly dispersed or destroyed by the firepower of the German division. Nevertheless the Das Reich probably lost fifteen killed and thirty injured in days, and finish in Brive, discovers the local German authorities prostrate under siege. The division, given the local situation dramatized by the German command, was ordered to "cleanse" an area considered infested with "partisan bands", to which it will be used by conventional methods it.

In Corrèze, the guerrillas are particularly numerous (2000 to winter 1943, much after the landing) and FTP dominate the whole, even if they are not armed. The Communists want to seize Tulle, resort they seriously underestimate the number of defenders -700 Germans of a security battalion, 500 militiamen not to mention members of the SD, the German military police and other administrators. The assault was launched on 7 June: messy, led by guerrillas totally unprepared for urban combat, he turns to the confusion, although the resistance gradually manage to reduce adverse bastions, hold sway in the evening of June 8, despite lack of ammunition. Just arriving soon after the Das Reich reconnaissance battalion to put to flight the guerrillas. The Waffen-SS, on the pretext of the supposed discovery of 40 bodies mutilated German soldiers (executed after surrendering, information Hastings can not confirm that looks and also some justification for killings used by the Waffen SS eastern front; generally, Hastings passes quickly on the details and the controversies), 99 men hang from lampposts and balconies some of Tulle. Lammerding, the boss of the Das Reich, claimed after the war that he was not aware of the action of his men, which is patently false, according to the author: it was he who gave the orders.

The Jedburgh teams parachuted there to wreak havoc on the German media are confronted with the same situation as their colleagues SOE facing the Resistance. Most are trying to work with all movements, ignoring the political situation -Hastings also evoking more easily AS and other FTP maquis. The Das Reich, which continues its progress towards the north, continues to sow death in its path. Fifty people are killed and, on 9 June in Argenton-sur-Creuse, a Waffen-SS company takes the guerrillas. While Das Reich enters Gueret, June 9 evening, Major Kampfe, who commands the 3rd Battalion of the regiment Der Führer and regains Limoges, is intercepted and captured by guerrillas, and in all likelihood killed soon after. The next day the regiment Der Führer raked Limousin looking for the officer that Waffen-SS still think alive. It was on this occasion that is captured Violette Szabo, a prominent member of the SOE.

The next day, the head of the 1st battalion, Major Dickmann, whose career was also enlivened by the resistance encountered midway, rides a punitive expedition with the 3rd company in Oradour-sur-Glane, based on erroneous reports Kampfe which was carried through the village. The Waffen-SS arrived at 14:15 in this small town the population swollen by refugees but had hitherto relatively unspoiled by war. The story of the massacre by Max Hastings is much more detailed than that of Tulle, in particular because it has many more testimonies French in particular. Acts of Major Dickmann cause some trouble on the German side, and to the command of the division, who believes that the officer has somewhat out of line - which does not prevent the Das Reich also kill that day nor deported a few days later non hanged hostages in Tulle ... Dickmann and remains at the head of his battalion.

The men of D Squadron of the 1st regiment of the SAS were also dumped in the area just after landing, after their mission has been debated in London. But SAS also find themselves confronted with the divisions of the Resistance, and ill-prepared to operate in this environment: their indiscretion in part because their loss, despite some results, including the destruction of a train carrying fuel for the Das Reich. Arrived in Normandy on June 13, the division -which is full well that undergoes post quickly allied air power and effects of the artillery regiment Der Führer -the losing 960 men in 4 days. The Normandy campaign also sees disappearing the most important protagonists of the drama of Oradour-sur-Glane, Dickmann and Captain Kahn, which conveniently avoids the Germans to reconsider this case ... the Allies recognized in the month August the role of the Resistance in the disruption of the flow of German reinforcements in Normandy certainly paid dearly. For the Resistance, the episode enters the rank of myth. It should not, however, minimize the action of intrepid resistant, poorly armed, little versed in military discipline, but, as highlighted Max Hastings, helped him somewhere in France "find her soul" (p.327). The author points out in conclusion that the behavior of the Das Reich against armed civilians was not necessarily wrong (!) Under international law of the time (Hague Convention in particular), although the attitude of the division during its ascent to the north has been abominable, but not only gratuitously: it was also discourage guerrillas and stop the panic of local German troops completely panicked by the "threat "Resistance. The trials of the post-war are hardly satisfactory, especially as that of Oradour, there are 14 Alsatians of the Das Reich, which caused severe tears. Lammerding, the British have never wanted to extradite, died in his bed in 1971. We would have liked the author develops a little more than to finish this part on almost moral considerations rather than historical, as he acknowledges him -even (p.336).

Nearly thirty years after its publication, the book by Max Hastings, despite its flaws, is still a reference on the subject. British journalist -and perhaps because Columbia- presents the facts by trying to place them in context: accelerating the German repression in France in spring 1944, the profile of the Das Reich division, developments Resistance after the Normandy landings. It certainly suffers from a now dated vision of what the Waffen-SS, and certainly, to focus, origin of the author obliges the British interventions and less on the French. We also note that it is probably exceeded by several subsequent French books, some very recent, however I am thinking to that of F. Grenard the massacre of Tulle. The British journalist also shipped quickly enough questions about memory and historiography of the subject, on which there was much to say, again, it depends on his time. But you always plunges forward in a reading that keeps, like this, a certain attraction.