Alphonse Pierre Juin (1888 –1967) was a Marshal of France. His
great skills were exhibited during the Italian campaign as commander of the
French Expeditionary Corps. His expertise in mountain warfare was crucial in
breaking the Gustav Line, which had held up the Allied advance for six months.
Juin declared to his Goumiers (Moroccan soldiers in French
service) before the battle: “For 50 hours you will be the absolute masters of
what you will find beyond the enemy. Nobody will punish you for what you do,
nobody will ask what you will get up to.”
After the fall of Monte Cassino on
the night of May 19, 1944 the Free French forces turned loose the Goumiers upon
the local population. Over 60,000 women were raped as the spoils of war. They
were as old as 86 and as young as 11.
In his diary, Major General John P. Lucas, commander of the US VI Corps, noted that Juin "turned out to be not only a splendid soldier but a fine and courteous gentleman as well."
Major General John P. Lucas calling him a,"splendid soldier but a fine and courteous gentleman as well"??
ReplyDeleteIt does NOT surprise me one bit that an American would spew such dribble from his mouth about another butcher. After all, when the U.S.A. stole the Filipine Islands from Spain in a False-Flag Operation circa 1898, the U.S. armed forces proceeded to kill just over 1 million Filipinos "just-for-fun". McKinley called it in a newspaper at the time," Kill all Filipinos above the age of 10".
This is not even mentioning what the U.S.A. did before that to the Native Indians of the Americas with their English friends in Canada of course. The lucky ones to come out of that ordeal are still alive today and living in Indian Reservations where they are jobless for the most part, lacking running water, alcoholized, severe rates of ricidivism and highly unemployed!
So an American calling a French ally the above doesn't surprise me coming from a long list of U.S. butchers throughout their so-called FREEDOM and DEMOCRACY blood stained history as well...and i haven't even mentioned what the U.S.A. has illegally done (butchered/murdered etc.) elsewhere since the Korean War until present day!
These accusations about Juin and his Moroccan troops (accusations not always without racist subtexts, they were "arab savages" after all) have been studied and seriously challenged by modern Historians. I suggest you read Jean-Christophe Notin's books, for example,an historian who made an in-depth review of the war crimes during the Italian campaign. I'm afraid the truth is very different from your account of these events.
ReplyDeleteHistoric events are typically written by the winners and in this case, the events were certainly not part of the history the victors wanted to see.
ReplyDeleteI can only base myself on what I have read, which is substantial, and I believe the evidence of the accusations is so well documented that there can be little doubt.
My references:
Baris, Tommaso (January 2007). "Le corps expéditionnaire français en Italie. Violences des " libérateurs " durant l'été 1944". ISSN 0294-1759.
Blumenson, Martin (1969). Salerno to Cassino (PDF). United States Army in World War II: The War in the Mediterranean. Washington DC: Office of the Chief of Military History, U.S. Department of the Army. OCLC 22107.
There's a gigantic disconnect here - or maybe it's just whitewashing. But, what I do know is that nothing good comes out of war.
ReplyDelete