This week we celebrate the successful Allied invasion of Europe on the Normandy beaches of northern France. On 6 June (Thursday), it will be the 80th anniversary of D-Day and the beginning of the Allied push into Germany.

I will be giving a one-hour on-line presentation this Thursday for Bonjour Paris (see below). I decided to reprint our 2018 blog on Operation Double Cross that happens to be my presentation topic. Our discussion will expand the story of Operation Double Cross. I hope you can join us on Thursday.

Join Stew Ross for a Discussion on

France Today

“REMEMBERING D-DAY:

Operation Double Cross”

Thursday, 6 June 2024

11:30 – 12:30 (EST)

Click here to watch the trailer for the presentation.

An inflatable “dummy” M4 Sherman tank. Photo by anonymous (c. 1943). PD-U.S. Government. Wikimedia Commons.

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BONJOUR PARIS is a digital publication dedicated to all things Paris. Visit the web-site here.

Undoubtedly, many of you have heard the story of the fake army which was used to deceive Hitler and his generals into planning for a cross channel invasion (across the Strait of Dover to Pas de Calais). It is true but the story is somewhat more complex and as wartime documents seven decades old are declassified, historians are only now able to fill in missing gaps and answer why Hitler reacted the way he did to the Normandy invasion.

Did You Know?

Did you know that 1st Lt. Paul Chaufty was a P-47 Thunderbolt pilot who was flying an armed reconnaissance mission on 13 August 1944 when he was shot down over the French villages of Ciral and Saint-Ellier-les-Bois? It was the day Allied armies were liberating Ciral. Lt. Chaufty bailed out of the plane, but his parachute never opened, and he fell to his death in a field. A mile away, the plane crashed.

Marie Bastien was fourteen at the time and watched the young pilot’s plane come down. The following day, her father found the body and brought Chaufty’s remains back to the farm where he was buried wrapped in his parachute. Four days later, the pilot’s remains were removed and buried in a temporary military cemetery before final relocation to the Fairview Cemetery in Carthage, New York.

Marie never forgot her experience watching Lt. Chaufty fall to his death. She vowed to keep his memory alive and over the years, discussed this with her daughter who eventually reached out to Lt. Chaufty’s family. One week ago, Marie, her daughter, and members of the Chaufty family stood in the village of Saint-Ellier-les-Bois as a plaque honoring Paul Chaufty was unveiled.

Thanks to one woman’s tenacity, a brave American’s legacy will not be forgotten.

Locals erected a makeshift American flag marking the site where Chaufty's plane crashed in near the village of St. Elliers Les Bois, France. (NBC News) — Locals erected a makeshift American flag marking the site where Chaufty’s plane crashed in near the village of St. Elliers Les Bois, France. (NBC News)

Deception strategies were used by the Allies and Germans against one another throughout World War II. However, by 1942, the Americans and British held the upper hand: intelligence was gained through the top secret Ultra program by decrypting German messages using the Nazi military Enigma machine at Bletchley Park. Deception methods created primarily by British intelligence were becoming increasingly complex and successful. As Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin agreed in late 1943 on plans for an invasion of Europe, the Allies came up with the largest deception plan to date to be used against the Nazis.

Bletchley Park. Photo by Magnus Manske (2005). PD-GNU Free Documentation. Wikimedia Commons.

Four rotor German naval Enigma. Photo by Magnus Manske (2005). Bletchley Park. PD-GNU Free Documentation. Wikimedia Commons

Operation Bodyguard and Fortitude

Operation Bodyguard was the American and British-led umbrella deception plan to mislead the Germans into thinking the inevitable invasion of Europe would take place at a location other than the real invasion site. Additionally, the plan was to deceive Hitler about the actual date, time, and size of the assault force. It was formulated in 1943 once the Allies agreed to a 1944 invasion date.

There were many directives under Operation Bodyguard including Operation Cockade, Plan Jael, Operation Quicksilver, and the Torrent Plan. However, the largest and most successful was Operation Fortitude. Read More The Double Cross System

Paris is famous for its 20th-century photographers such as Brassaï (1899−1984), Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908−2004), and Jacques Henri Lartigue (1894−1986). The city also produced two well-known celebrity photographers: Man Ray (1890−1976) and Felix Nadar (1820−1910) ⏤ Click here to read the blog, First Celebrity Photographer. During the mid-19th-century when photography was in its infancy, a group of photographers were hired by the city’s historic-works department to document Paris through their lenses. Today we are going to reintroduce you to one of those photographers, Charles Marville. While the original 2015 blog (same title) included only one image, we have expanded the story using multiple photographs. I have tried to find locations where a Marville photo can be paired with a contemporary image . . . the “before and after” effect. I like viewing these types of comparisons and thought you might also enjoy it.

Salvador Dali (left) and Man Ray (right). Photo by Carl van Vechten (c. 1934). Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division PD-Expired copyright. Wikimedia Commons.

Portrait of Brassaï. Photo by Emiel van Moerkerken (c. 1936). Source: Wikiportret.nl. PD-CCA-Share Alike 4.0 International. Wikimedia Commons.

Portrait of Charles Marville. Photo by Charles Marville (c. 1856). PD-Author’s life plus 70 years or fewer. Wikimedia Commons.

Portrait of Sarah Bernhardt. Photo by Nadar (c. 1864). The Getty Center, Object 45995. PD-No known copyright restrictions. Wikimedia Commons.

I’m often asked how and why I started writing the walking tour books and subsequently, the blogs. Well, around 2010, I ran across a book by Leonard Pitt called Walks Through Lost Paris (refer to the recommended reading section below). Mr. Pitt takes the reader on four walks through historic Paris and presents pre-Haussmann photographs side-by-side with contemporary shots. The reader can easily see how Paris was transformed in the mid-1800s from a medieval city to the modern city we enjoy today. Sandy and I took Mr. Pitt’s book with us to Paris, and I became determined to write a similar book but based on the French Revolution. My one-book idea blossomed into five published books with three or four more to come.

Mr. Pitt’s book introduced me to several photographers, including Marville, who were hired by the city to visually record Paris before Haussmann began ripping it apart (click here to read the blog, The Destruction of Paris and here to read the The Missing Emperor). These photographs were “discovered” in the 1980s and have been used extensively in books and exhibitions around the world. Sarah Kennel’s book, Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris, was written in conjunction with an exhibition coordinated by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (again, refer to the recommended reading section below). It’s a beautiful book and I recommend it to anyone with an interest in historic Paris. From these images and old maps such as the 1550 Plan de Truschet and Hoyau, we are able to get a sense of what medieval Paris looked like. London was able to shed its medieval cloak after 1666 but it took Paris another two hundred years for its transformation.

When we first started going to Paris, I was not much into the “medieval” period. The Musée de Cluny, or musée national du Moyen Âge Paris (National Museum of Middle Ages) was not high on our list of stops. I gained a healthy interest in medieval Europe as I researched the history of Paris for our third and fourth books, Where Did They Burn the Last Grand Master of the Knights Templar (click here to read the blog, Cour des Miracles and here to read Hanging Around Medieval Paris). Even if you’re not into medieval times, I think you’ll find the images in this blog interesting. Read More Charles Marville and le Vieux Paris

Author: Stew Ross

The Double Cross System