Who whacked Darlan?: The finale

This blog has mulled several times the issue of the killing of French Admiral Darlan in Algiers in December 1942. I re-open the subject because of something I read recently in the diaries of Sir Alexander Cadogan, a senior British diplomat during World War II.

On Dec. 8, 1942, Cadogan wrote, “De G.’s one remedy is ‘Get rid of Darlan’. My answer is ‘Yes; but how?’ No answer.”

But an earlier entry in the diary suggests that Cadogan knew the answer quite well.  He had written on Nov. 8 that, “We shall do no good till we’ve killed Darlan.” (There is an editor’s footnote saying that this was not meant to be read literally, but I see no evidence of that.) A week later, Oliver Harvey, a minor British political figure, wrote in his diary that at a meeting with Churchill and Anthony Eden, “We all agreed that we must get rid of Darlan somehow.” So it seems to me that in mid-November, the British government decided to kill Darlan.

I think we have our answer. As did De Gaulle when Darlan got popped on Christmas Eve, 1942.

And now I shall move on.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons