Everyone knew an allied invasion of Western Europe was coming.

Everyone on the Allied side knew it.

Everyone in Germany knew it.

Both sides invested much time and many resources in preparing for this invasion, the tension grew until the arrival of the invasion would come as a relief, even to the Germans.

Welcome to the history of the 20th century.

The century. Episode 428, an idea of simple genius. Back in episode 428, an idea of simple genius.

Back in episode 423, I talked about some of the issues facing the Western allies as they made the final

preparations to execute Operation Overlord.

Today, I want to discuss more of those issues, and also take a look at the situation

as of spring 1944 from the German perspective.

The Allies faced a touchy diplomatic situation in their relations with the Free French,

and in particular with Charles de Gaulle and his

stubborn brand of egotistic patriotism. De Gaulle was hypersensitive to anything that could be

construed as an insult to France. To him, France was an equal partner with Britain and America,

and deserved to be treated accordingly.

On the other hand, De Gaulle seemed to take a perverse pleasure in making life difficult for his own allies.

The problem of managing de Gaul was seriously complicated by Franklin Roosevelt, who saw de Gaul as a sort of French Mussolini.

The American president insisted that the Allies were not invading France to install de Gaul as its leader,

nor any French government, until the French people chose one through free and fair elections.

Since it would take many months, at least, for an election to be arranged and a French government

to be chosen and put into place, liberated France would in the interim be governed by the

allied military government of occupied territories, known by the acronym Amgot, as with Germany

...