Twelve Apostles (USA)

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The Twelve Apostles were a dozen US diplomats with the rank of Vice Consul in French North Africa who observed the consumption of goods imported from the US from June 1941 to Operation Torch on November 8, 1942. At the beginning of the Second World War , the supply situation for the population in French North Africa was poor. Of the goods handled in the port of Marseille , the German Reich received an average of 80 percent, 100 percent of the ores and dried fruits and 80 percent of the grain. The US government saw an entry into French North Africa in the trade in goods, while Winston Churchill saw the goods being passed on to the direct sphere of influence of the German Empire. During negotiations between Robert Murphy (diplomat) and Maxime Weygand it was agreed that twelve additional Vice-Consuls would monitor the whereabouts of the goods imported from the USA. They had been guaranteed freedom of movement within the French sphere of influence in North Africa . The Vice-Consuls spoke French and were subordinate to the Office of the Coordinator of Information , which was headed by William Joseph Donovan .

The first contingent of observers had the following composition:

  1. Sidney L. Bartlett
  2. Charles Denby Wilkes, son of Charles Wilkes
  3. David Wooster King was in Casablanca from June 1941 to November 1942 . When the US consulate in Casablanca was surrounded by Garde Mobile , he escaped from the consulate and warned the consul general not to burn the code key before he was arrested by the French authorities .
  4. W. Stafford Reid was US Vice Consul in Casablanca from June 1941 to 1943, where he installed a radio system.
  5. John Crawford Knox (born February 10, 1910 in Omaha, Nebraska, † January 21, 1990) was stationed from June 1941 to September 1942 in Algiers , where he helped set up a radio system.
  6. Ridgway Brewster Knight, was stationed in the Oran .
  7. John Ellington Utter, († September 10, 1980 in Paris) Harwad graduate, 1930 employee of the National City Bank of New York in Paris, was stationed in Casablanca, later Tunis, Cairo and Paris, participant of the Paris Peace Conference in 1946 , chairman of the commission of representatives of the four superpowers who decided on the future of the Italian colony of Libya, in 1950 he headed the Africa department in the State Department .
  8. Harry Adsit Woodruff (born January 29, 1903 in Fort Wright, Washington, † January 12, 1952 in Brooklyn, New York)
  9. Leland L. Rounds was stationed in Oran from June 1941 to November 1942, where he helped set up a radio system.
  10. John H. Boyd was stationed in Algiers
  11. Franklin O. Canfield (* 1910), Harvard graduate, attorney at Sullivan & Cromwell in Paris, recruited for Operation Jedburgh ; after 1945 he was legal advisor of Standard Oil , in 1966 he became director of the Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas for North America.
  12. Donald Q. Coster (* 1908; † June 8, 1984 in the American Hospital of Paris) was replaced in 1942 by Gordon H. Browne, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
  13. Kenneth Pendar was accredited in Marrakech , when Charles Noguès had him deported in June 1942, he went to Algiers, where he installed a radio system in August 1942. On November 7, 1942, he brought an embassy from François Darlan to the French headquarters, which ordered a ceasefire for the French troops.

Later appointed observers were:

  • Frederic Paul Culbert was accredited in Dakar and was in Casablanca from June 1941 to December 1942, where he helped set up a radio system.
  • L. Pittman Springs († December 15, 1957 in Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania) entered the foreign service in Cherbourg in 1920 , Dakar in 1922, Tunis in 1941 and from August 1941 in Algiers was retired in 1957.
  • Lloyd Victor Jacquet

Sidney L. Bartlett, Charles Denby Wilkes, Franklin O. Canfield and Donald Q. Coster, resigned from their offices in 1941 and were replaced by:

  • Gordon H. Browne was accredited at the US Consulate in Tangier. On the night of November 7th to 8th, 1942, he operated a radio system under fire at Oran Tafraoui Airport for four hours, which made situation reports from a paratrooper unit.
  • George R. Hull, automotive advertising specialist
  • William Douglas Read
  • Harry P. Blank, Jr.

The French authorities did not issue a visa to William Joseph Donovan on instructions from the Wiesbaden Armistice Commission . The briefing of the Vice-Consuls was done by Robert M. Solborg from the ARMCO Steel Company . François Darlan was killed on December 24, 1942 by Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle, a member of the Resistance of the formation of Henri d'Astier de La Vigerie. Henri Giraud was then given command of the French troops in North and West Africa and had Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle shot on December 26, 1942. Giraud had 27 members of the Jedburgh special forces, who had facilitated the capture of Algiers under the guidance of an apostle, taken to a southern Algerian concentration camp in the Sahara without any reaction from Robert Murphy .

Operation Torch did not complete the apostles' formal mission to monitor trade. The Banque marocaine pour le commerce et l'industrie had tried in February 1943 to transfer nearly 0.75 million US dollars to the Wehrmacht- occupied France, which was prevented by the authorities headed by Henri Giraud .

In the Comité français de la Liberation nationale , Charles de Gaulle called for the resignation of Charles Noguès. After a written request from Henri Giraud , Charles Noguès resigned on June 5, 1943.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ John Crawford Knox: https://www.fold3.com/page/21988570_john_c_knox/
  2. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated May 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.icj-cij.org
  3. ^ Donald Q. Coster: http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/dqcoster.htm
  4. ↑ http://www.ifz-muenchen.de/heftarchiv/1982_2.pdf
  5. ↑ The New York Times , June 7, 1943, In February the Bank of Morocco attempted to send some $ 750,000 worth of gold to German-occupied France, the move being blocked by Giraudist authorities.
  6. ^ Hal Vaughan: FDR's twelve apostles