Eisenhower's Guerrillas: The Jedburghs, the Maquis, and the Liberation of France - Hardcover

Jones, Benjamin F.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199942080 ISBN 13: 9780199942084

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2016

Synopsis

The challenges facing General Dwight Eisenhower before the Invasion of Normandy were not merely military but political as well. He knew that to liberate France, and to hold it, the Allies needed local help, which would necessitate coordinating with the highly independent French resistance groups known collectively as the maquis. The Allies' objective was to push the Germans out of France. The French objective, on the other hand, was a France free of all foreign armies, including the Allies. President Roosevelt refused to give full support to Charles de Gaulle, whom he mistrusted, and declined to supply the timing, location, and other key details of Operation Overlord to his Free French government. Eisenhower's hands were tied. He needed to involve the French, but without simultaneously involving them in operational planning.

Into this atmosphere of tension and confusion jumped teams consisting of three officers each -- one from the British Special Operations Bureau, one from the U.S. Office of Strategic Services, one from the Free French Bureau Central de Renseignement -- as well as a radioman from any one of the three nations. Known as the Jedburghs, their primary purpose was to serve as liaisons to the maquis, working to arm, train, and equip them. They were to incite guerilla warfare.

Benjamin Jones' Eisenhower's Guerrillas is the first book to show in detail how the Jedburghs -- whose heroism and exploits have been widely celebrated -- and the maquis worked together. Underscoring the critical and often overlooked role that irregular warfare played in Allied operations on the Continent, it tells the story of the battle for and liberation of France and the complexities that threatened to undermine the operation before it even began.

About this title

About the Author:

Benjamin F. Jones is Dean of Arts and Sciences and Associate Professor of History, College of Arts and Sciences, at Dakota State University. He served as an advisor to the National Military Academy of Afghanistan and later as a liaison officer to the Afghan Ministries of Defense, Interior, and their National Directorate of Security for the effort to transition Afghan security from the coalition back to Afghanistan.

Review:

Dr. Ben Jones' remarkable book introduced me to the Jedburgh's clandestine operations.  I have long had a love-hate relationship with the French, and been a skeptic of their behavior in World War Two. But Eisenhower's Guerrillas offers a corrective as well as a much-needed history and analysis of Eisenhower's and Roosevelt's struggle to get along with de Gaulle, et le contraire." 
- -Former US Senator Larry Pressler, and Visiting Professor at Science Po, Paris

"Strategic leaders will find Jones' history of the Jedburgh teams andhis keen insights invaluable."   - Parameters

"Jones's book fills a void, expanding our knowledge of and appreciation for the complexity and political significance of the Resistance movement overall and for the limited but unique accomplishments of the Jedburgh teams in particular."  - Studies in Intelligence

"In this solid history, Jones, . . . details the campaign code named Jedburgh, conducted in occupied France during the months after D-Day--one of the most successful and least familiar special operations of WWII. He clarifies the complex synergy of political and military considerations that shaped the fragile coordination of British and U.S. special forces; the French resistance fought "with the Allies militarily but against them politically" and pursued distinctively French objectives." - Publisher's Weekly

"Jones's sober narrative makes disappointing reading for romantics, but his conclusions are impressively clear-headed."  - Max Hastings, The New York Review of Books

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0199942080
• ISBN 13: 9780199942084
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400