TIL that British and American commanders ensured the liberation of Paris on 25 August 1944 was a "Whites Only" victory. Most of Charles De Gaulle's Free French Army were African colonial soldiers who fought valiantly to liberate Paris but were stripped of uniform, sent home and denied pensions.

This comment was posted to reddit on Jun 21, 2019 at 5:44 pm and was deleted within 17 hour(s) and 41 minutes.

TIL that British and American commanders ensured the liberation of Paris on 25 August 1944 was a "Whites Only" victory. Most of Charles De Gaulle's Free French Army were African colonial soldiers who fought valiantly to liberate Paris but were stripped of uniform, sent home and denied pensions.

I surmised the article which paints the decision in a racist light because, well, it is fucking racism 101 as well as being a gigantic dick headed decision by the Allies at the time.

The article simply states that Allied Command, at the behest of American and British command did not want any African soldiers in their liberation of Paris and to show white soldiers parading in.

Just because these colonial nations had (and continues to have) a history of being shitheads and racists doesn't mean their decision to remove African colonial troops from liberation day of Paris any less awful.

I don't have much knowledge of how France handled Africa (hence why I learned this shit fact today), so please tell me more

/r/todayilearned Thread Parent Link - news.bbc.co.uk

TIL that British and American commanders ensured the liberation of Paris on 25 August 1944 was a "Whites Only" victory. Most of Charles De Gaulle's Free French Army were African colonial soldiers who fought valiantly to liberate Paris but were stripped of uniform, sent home and denied pensions.

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