Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free French during World War 11 and later president of France, was famously anti-English/British even as Churchill and the Americans fought to free Europe from Hitler. One of de Gaulle’s closest advisors noted that he ‘must constantly be reminded that our main enemy is Germany. If he would follow his own inclination, it would be England.’
An incendiary letter has now surfaced which was never sent from Churchill on the eve of the D-Day landings, the largest seaborne invasion in history, which began the liberation of France, and the rest of Western Europe, and laid the foundations of the Allied victory on the Western Front.
In advance of the Normandy landings De Gaulle proved his usual intractable self about broadcasting a speech ahead of the landings and blocking the dispatch of French liaison officers to accompany the allied troops into France.
In the letter Churchill “the heinous character of [De Gaulle’s] action” and threatens to “make plain to the world that the personality of General de Gaulle is the sole and main obstacle between the great democracies of the west and the people of France”. In the event De Gaulle relented partially and the letter which would have ruined his political career was never sent.
De Gaulle’s relations with Dwight Eisenhower, the US Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe were not much better.
What is fascinating about the WW11 leaders was the pervasive influence of the Neptune Pluto conjunction of the last nineteenth century which has overtones of megalomaniac ambition as well as obsessive and often fantastical beliefs.
De Gaulle, 22 November 1890 4am Lille, France, like Hitler, had Neptune Pluto conjunct in Gemini in the 8th. In De Gaulle’s case this was opposition a final degree Scorpio Sun, making him controlling, obstinate to the nth degree and prone to flights of fancy. His 4th house of roots and national pride had a high-vitality and stubborn Mars Jupiter in Aquarius trine his Neptune Pluto. He would be prone to fixed ideas which were well-nigh impossible to budge.
Not that Churchill was exactly easy, 30 November 1974 1.30am Woodstock, England, with Pluto in Taurus in his 8th and Neptune in late Aries on the 8th house cusp.
His relationship chart with De Gaulle had Pluto in the 8th opposition Saturn Sun and Neptune also in the 8th conjunct the composite North Node – chained together and resenting it. Not much cooperation there.
Dwight Eisenhower had Neptune Pluto in Gemini conjunct his Midheaven in a Mutable T Square opposition Venus square Saturn in Virgo. Joseph Stalin had Neptune and Pluto in Taurus, not conjunct but both opposition Mars in Scorpio which sat on the midpoint. So a resonant influence on his chart.
D-Day launched with a Mars Pluto conjunction in Leo which maybe stirred in De Gaulle the historical antipathy between France and England which also has a stressed Mars Pluto square Sun in the relationship chart. De Gaulle then went on to put obstacles in the way of the UK joining the EEC.
What a strange mindset – ego getting in the way of common sense. It’s a miracle anything was resolved.
Charles de Gaulle is an absolute cockroach for the way he treated Canada and Canadians in 1967, Canada’s centennial
year.
Even before his infamous declaration of “Vive le Quebec libre” from the balcony of Montreal’s City Hall on July 24, 1967, President De Gaulle had refused to appear at a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge in France, arguably Canada’s greatest military triumph. On the Easter weekend of 1917, the Canadian Corps took from the Germans a position that British and French forces could not take in over two years of fighting. The site of the battlefield was given to the Government of Canada by the French as a memorial site and on July 26, 1936, King Edward VIII unveiled the spectacular memorial monument designed by Walter S. Allward.
Not far from my residence in Ottawa is a street named Centennial Boulevard. It used to be named De Gaulle Boulevard, but local residents insisted that the street’s name be changed after De Gaulle’s disgraceful insults towards my country in 1967.
André, I agree with you but although it was very wrong for the Americans to want to treat it like an enemy country, de Gaulle should have allowed them to keep order although not administer France. One lady from Caen told me it was worse for her family after the liberation than in the occupation, not just because of the German fight back but the reprisals that went on after the Nazis left with the Americans impotent to enforce law and order against the rival factions.
I do not understand the astrology to comment on that but I know De Gaulle and Churchill had their moments but also great respect for each other. Churchill was honoured by De Gaulle after the war. I think there were other issues at stake the horrendous blanket bombing at Caen and Le Havre by the USA that killed thousands, Churchill had to remind the Americans France was an occupied ally not an enemy country. De Gaulle cost a lot of French lives, however, by not allowing the American army to keep order after the liberation when horrendous reprisals went on. De Gaulle after the British abandonment of the French at Dunkirk and Suez without warning simply did not believe the English were more committed to Europe than the USA and perhaps Brexit proved him right about some English anyway! Not myself Vive La France
Marjorie
W.C. Was born in 1874.
With respect, Marjorie, your assessment is unfair. De Gaulle’s resistance on the eve of D-Day came about when he learned that FDR wanted to treat France exactly like Germany as a country under US military rule. The Americans even printed Mickey Mouse currency and wanted nothing to do with De Gaulle’s appointed officials. They soon changed their tune when they realized the only way to make things work on the ground was to cooperate with them. The great British military historian Sir Anthony Beevor showed great respect and understanding for De Gaulle in his definitive book on D-Day. He concluded that while De Gaulle did not save France from Germany, he did save it from the US. To De Gaulle, the enemy was not Great Britain; his memoirs showed his deep admiration for France’s long-time enemy. His enemy was anyone who would try to stop France from regaining what he thought was France’s rigthful place in the world. Without De Gaulle, France would not be a permanent member of the UN Security Council today and would not have been one of the victors in Berlin, which the Germans, who hated the French the most, could not believe. Eisenhower was far more understanding than his own President; decades after his retirement, his anger was only aaroused by the name of Field Marshal Montgomery, whom he considered a psychopath. As for Churchill, his emotions wera lways see-sawing generally and so was his relationship with De Gaulle. He was the first to spot De Gaulle’s potential greatness during the fall of France and his generosity allowed De Gaulle to restore the French honour that Churchill also admired.
Look at the hell they created between them.
English and French speaking Canadians died on D-Day and beyond to liberate France from the Nazis. Yet in 1967, while visiting Canada, DeGaulle encouraged Quebec separatists trying to destroy Canada by calling to a crowd: “Vive Quebec! Vive Quebec libre!”
The English word “gall” — meaning “bold and impudent behavior” — fits with DeGaulle remarkably well. (For once, this word is rooted in proto-Germanic rather than Norman French.)
By the way, there is only 36 per cent support for separatism in Quebec, thank God. Vive Quebec inside Canada!
36% is quite high when one considers nobody has been promoting independence in the last 20 years until now, when a popular new PQ leader appears set to win the next election. De Gaulle was a visionary. His Vive le Québec libre! still inspires very many Québécois and will until it becomes a reality.
oh Andre…. I do hope Quebec never leaves! This country benefits from all its diversity. It is a young country, so glitches and gaffs along the way…. but what we have is worth working through. Brexit is worth noting!
Our Moon in Gemini plays out with our relationship journeys… Quebec and Nunavut in particular… “countries within a country”….and then the Maritimes and Alberta. Like any relationship, it takes work and constant assessment and renewal. I think it’s Canada’s singular gift to the world…. our unique way of working this out.
In 1995, when the big vote for separation happened, my close friend (born and raised in Quebec City) shared her family’s political divide at that time. The 3 adults that had left Quebec to live elsewhere in Canada voted to stay… the siblings still living in Quebec voted to leave.
I’ve stood on the Fields of Abraham and .. even now… I can feel what I felt there. It was overwhelming and terrible. Historical pain, generational pain…. it’s always there and plays out on the political stage.
There is no easy path… I just know I hold space for Quebec to stay.
Chapeau!
As long as they receive the lion’s share of equalization payments they’ll never leave.
Somehow less than a quarter of Canada’s population has banked 51% of all the payments.
They’d be mad to give that up, their yearly windfall is actually written into the Canadian constitution.
I don’t know what you’d call it but DeGaulle has a trapezium with his early degree plants in Sag-Gemini making sextiles to Aqua Mars and Aries moon. His chart is all rather well connected up therefore.
The anaretic Libra Uranus in the 1st house doesn’t seem to make an major aspects other than a wide square to Mars-Jupiter in Aquarius. But that is almost perfect symbolism for being the leader of the “Free French” – interesting that he had Saturn in 11th – again making him something of an outsider. It is square his nodes and Sag venus and creates sort of a t-square in mutables.