Tri-Service

France To Honour Fighters 'Airbrushed From History'

France is reportedly considering erecting a memorial for the British-led resistance units who some feel were "airbrushed from history" by the country's former leader Charles de Gaulle, despite their fight against the Nazis.

The authorities in Bordeaux are looking at putting up a monument to those who fought for and led the British resistance organisations during its occupation, according to the Telegraph.

Former Liberal Democrat Leader Paddy Ashdown, a former member of MI6 who's written two books on Bordeaux during the Nazi occupation. told Forces TV:

"They [the British-led resistance units] were crucial.

"Although the [Royal] Marines have many monuments to them, where they landed, where they lost their lives, where they were captured... the French Resistance units, including the British-led French Resistance units... have none at all. They were airbrushed out."

"They were crucial to the liberation of Bordeaux, they were crucial to the liberation of France."

Mr Ashdown said following France's liberation of France, de Gaulle had needed to re-establish the country's sense of national pride following its 'humiliating defeat'.

"When De Gaulle met the primary secret agent, the great Roger Landes, arguably the greatest secret agent we [Britain] ever dropped into France... He said 'You've got 24 hours to get out of France'", Ashdown said. "There was a political reason for this."

"De Gaulle had to re-establish the pride of France after her humiliating defeat. The best story he could fasten on to, to give France pride in the war, was the French Resistance."

"He naturally wanted the French to believe, and I understand that politically, that this was done entirely by France, and wasn't helped by Britain.

"But now is the time to remember those brave men - British-led, but many, many Frenchmen [as well] - who gave their lives for the liberation of the country and indeed the winning of the war, but have never been recognised since."

There have been tensions between France and Britain over the UK's part in the country's liberation since the end of the war.

The French government only agreed to put up a statue of Winston Churchill in Paris in 1998, to reciprocate the one put up in London five years earlier in honour of de Gaulle, after a long campaign.

Recent developments, however, do suggest that France is now more willing to acknowledge Britain's role in its liberation.

The French government announced in 2014 that it would award the Legion d’Honneur to all UK veterans who took part in military operations in France between 1944 and 1945.

A memorial at Valencay (pictured above), in central France, to the 104 members of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) who lost their lives liberating the country, was unveiled in 1991.