D-Day: Why American GIs carried a copy of the Michelin Guide • FRANCE 24 English

D-Day: Why American GIs carried a copy of the Michelin Guide • FRANCE 24 English

now we are joined in the studio by Solon mja Solange great to see you uh you’re here as part of our D-Day coverage to talk about a very specific object that made a difference for many American vets as they inched their way across Normandy yeah when it comes to things that we talk about about the heroes that They carried on D-Day much attention is often given to how chewing gum Lucky Strike cigarettes even Coca-Cola and Levi jeans arrived on Francis Shores with the Battle of Normandy but few know that in the 30 kilos of Gears of gear that American officers carried there was a book and this book was entirely in French it was the mishan guide at the very same one that’s been published since 1900 to help Travelers find good restaurants the famous mishna stars now the reason American soldiers carried it is because of all of the other useful information that the book had namely some 600 uh detailed maps as well as other tidbits like how much uh how much automobile weight certain Bridges could carry or for example where gas stations and G garages were located and this because this was essential because most road signs uh were destroyed either by the Nazis or the bombs uh now why didn’t GIS just use military Maps well they often were not as good as the mishan ones which were a a 1 to 200,000 scale actually just before the war in 1938 the French army actually signed a a partnership with mishan uh but then of course the the war came and that didn’t frate now so long tell us about the actual guide book because it was in French so presumably the gis couldn’t read it was it that different than the original well it was actually a carbon copy uh except for a few cosmetic things first and foremost it was not red and it Remains the only one that is not red this is because the flashiness of that color well it could have caught the enemy’s eye another difference is on the cover it says for official use only and reproduced by uh the Military Intelligence Division and then as lumon tells us the rest or all 1,100 pages of it well it’s exactly the same uh with relatively easy to use alphabetized towns and beyond that l or as the collectors called the book well it was printed on a cheaper paper and weighed some 700 grams as was quite you know it was a book to carry uh as for why the US Army chose to repent this specific 193 9 version well it was actually the last one that was printed before the war now we don’t know exactly how many copies were made uh but few withstood the conditions of the war so at auction the very rare copies that exist they fetch for thousands of euros and sometimes they even fetch for more than the first editions from 1900 and whose brilliant idea was this well this has remained a bit of a mystery uh but there is one theory that is gaining traction the idea is largely credited to the French officer and a French officer named Gustav M and he was part of the resistance and he was working in the UK uh helping plan dday and he was surprised by the poor quality of the military Maps so he proposed his guide book which he had actually taken with him when he fled France in 1940 and there’s a little proof that like tangible proof that this happened but collectors and even the mishna company they say that this Theory does hold up mishna also says that the company was contacted by US forces uh to reprint the book and it said yes but again there is no uh tangible trace of that either because working against the Nazis well it was akin to a death sentence now uh of course members of the Misha Family actually quite paid quite dearly for their resistance dance yeah the Son and the grandson of one of the founders was they were both deported uh and uh when the Nazis found out that Mas Mish was helping people escape to the UK and he died in captivity 1945 but his help and the guide book were not the only ways that the Mish company participated in the war the darker side is that their Factory uh which was eventually Raised To The Ground by Allied bombs well it would made tires and machines for the Germans as it had been taken over by the Nazis but the company also says that their workers often secretly they sabotage some of those tires they managed to keep their Workforce from being massively deported and through their UK affiliate their Branch there they provided tires and axles to Allied Vehicles also there is more map help in August 1944 American troops uh who just liberated Paris well they needed to go they needed maps to go further east uh mishan gave them their stock of 190,000 copies of Eastern uh France Belgium and Germany uh but more was needed and they printed Mish printed 194,000 copies in more than a single week uh and since there was actually so little paper uh they actually use the backs of old Nazi M Maps so needless to say the bandam or the Michelin Man uh has a very rich and a Franco American history

Among the vast amount of kit American soldiers carried with them when they landed in Normandy on D-Day was one surprising item: a copy of the Michelin Guide. FRANCE 24’s Solange Mougin explains why.
#DDay #WWII #commemorations

🔔 Subscribe to France 24 now: https://f24.my/YTen
🔴 LIVE – Watch FRANCE 24 English 24/7 here: https://f24.my/YTliveEN

🌍 Read the latest International News and Top Stories: https://www.france24.com/en/

Like us on Facebook: https://f24.my/FBen
Follow us on X (Twitter): https://f24.my/Xen
Browse the news in pictures on Instagram: https://f24.my/IGen
Discover our TikTok videos: https://f24.my/TKen
Get the latest top stories on Telegram: https://f24.my/TGen