9. A Lunatic Relieved the Allies of a Huge Headache
Admiral Francois Darlan (1881-1942) was commander in chief of the French Navy at the start of WWII. After France was defeated in 1940, Darlan served the collaborationist Vichy regime, and became its deputy leader. When the Allies invaded French North Africa in 1942, they cut a deal with Darlan, whereby he ordered the forces under his command to surrender. In exchange, Darlan got to govern French North and West Africa. However, the agreement became a PR embarrassment, because it favored the collaborationist Darlan against the Free French under Charles de Gaulle, who had never stopped fighting the Nazis. The embarrassment was finally lifted when Darlan was assassinated on Christmas Eve, 1942 by Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle.
La Chapelle was a member of a Resistance group that decided to kill Darlan. He secured a pistol, received absolution from a priest, and on December 24th, he waited for Darlan near his office in Algiers, and shot him when he showed up. La Chapelle was tried by a French military court the following day, and was sentenced to death. However, he convinced himself that he would get a stay of execution, or at worst, that there would be a sham “execution” in which the firing squad would use blanks instead of real bullets. La Chapelle did end up getting pardoned and rehabilitated by an appellate court, which ruled that his assassination of Darlan had been justifiable because it was done “in the interest of the liberation of France“. However, that ruling was handed down in December of 1945, three years too late for La Chapelle, who was executed by a firing squad that used real bullets on December 26th, 1942, one day after receiving his death sentence.
