ABSTRACT
Following orders is a military virtue, but in a time of confusion and conflicting loyalties may lead as easily to dishonor as to glory. At the hour of the Allied invasions, General Georges Barre, who commanded the Army in Tunisia, and Admiral Louis Demen, who commanded the naval forces, had wanted to give instant and unquestioning obedience to their superiors. At midnight the German High Command informed Vichy that it was indispensable to oppose the invasion by allowing Axis air forces to be based in Tunisia and in the Constantine area of Algeria, and that such permission must be given in exactly an hour and a quarter. The policy of collaboration with the enemy had reached its logical conclusion. In contrast, Barre’s soldiers, under the command of their own military chiefs, were fighting proudly beside the British and Americans.
