Assassination in Algiers: Churchill, Roosevelt, de Gaulle, and the Murder of Admiral Darlan

304 Pages·1990·7.16 MB·English

by  Anthony Verrier

ASSASSINATION
IN ALGIERS
Also by Anthony Verrier
An Army for the Sixties
The Bomber Offensive
International Peacekeeping
Through the Looking Glass:
British Foreign Policy in an Age of Illusion
The Road to Zimbabwe, 1890-1980
ASSASSINATION
IN ALG IERS
Churchill, Roosevelt, de Gaulle,
and the Murder of Admiral Darlan
ANTHONY VERRIER
W • W • NORTON & COMPANY
New York London
31143005194007
C/.l
Copyright © 1990 by Anthony Verrier
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
The text of this book is composed in Lino Walbaum,
with display type set in Bodoni.
Composition and manufacturing by
The Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Group.
Book design by Jacques Chazaud
First Edition
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Verrier, Anthony.
Assassination in Algiers : North Africa and France, 1940—1942
by Anthony Verrier,
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Operation Torch. 2. World War, 1939—1945—Campaigns—Africa,
North. 3. World War, 1939—1945—Diplomatic history. 4. World War,
1939-1945—France. I. Title.
D766.82.V45 1990
940.54'23—dc20 89-36578
ISBN 0-393-02828-3
W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110
i
W. W. Norton & Company Ltd.,
10 Coptic Street, London WC1A 1PU
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
A Tous Les Français
and for F.S.—to whom more is
owed than can ever be expressed.

Ideological wars are revolutionary wars,
easily transcending national boundaries,
and always, at least in intention, and in
the imagination of the men involved in them,
total wars.
Garrett Mattingly,
The Defeat of the Spanish Armada

Contents
Acknowledgments 11
Preface IS
Introduction 19
Part One:
1940—1942: Background to Conflict 31
Chapter 1 1940: The Fall of France 33
Chapter 2 1941: The Lean Year SO
Chapter 3 1942: Une Place dTarmes 12
10
CONTENTS
Part Two:
Operation TORCH 103
Chapter 4 On the Eve 105'
Chapter 5 Darlan’s Triumph 141
Chapter 6 “The Urgency of Elimination” 193
Chapter 7 Darlan’s Death 225
Epilogue Algiers: January to June 1943 253
Glossary 213
sources 215
Notes 211
Translations 290
Index 292
Illustrations and Maps follow page 152