Resistance leader Rol-Tanguy dies at 94
A week after Paris celebrated the 58th anniversary of its liberation, the Communist party yesterday reported the death of Henri Rol-Tanguy, 94, the Resistance leader who precipitated the popular uprising in August 1944.
Rol-Tanguy, born in Morlaix, Brittany, in 1908, headed the Free French in the Paris region. He gave orders for an insurrection despite Allied plans to leave Paris in German hands until the advance from Normandy had opened up defendable supply lines.
The insurrection provided Charles de Gaulle with an urgent reason to send the French Second Armoured Division to the capital in support, bringing about a rapid German surrender.
The Communist Resistance had gambled on the local German commanders refusing to carry out Hitler's orders to burn Paris to the ground.
The success of the operation, which allowed De Gaulle to return to the capital as a triumphant national leader, was remembered by President Jacques Chirac yesterday as the act of a great strategist who had defended freedom and the republic.
Rol-Tanguy, a former metalworker and veteran of the Spanish civil war, later regretted having spread out a red carpet for De Gaulle, whose movement became the principal opponent of the Communist party.
After an initial alliance, the Communists were quickly squeezed from power in the postwar years.
Rol-Tanguy, born in Morlaix, Brittany, in 1908, headed the Free French in the Paris region. He gave orders for an insurrection despite Allied plans to leave Paris in German hands until the advance from Normandy had opened up defendable supply lines.
The insurrection provided Charles de Gaulle with an urgent reason to send the French Second Armoured Division to the capital in support, bringing about a rapid German surrender.
The Communist Resistance had gambled on the local German commanders refusing to carry out Hitler's orders to burn Paris to the ground.
The success of the operation, which allowed De Gaulle to return to the capital as a triumphant national leader, was remembered by President Jacques Chirac yesterday as the act of a great strategist who had defended freedom and the republic.
Rol-Tanguy, a former metalworker and veteran of the Spanish civil war, later regretted having spread out a red carpet for De Gaulle, whose movement became the principal opponent of the Communist party.
After an initial alliance, the Communists were quickly squeezed from power in the postwar years.
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