Alsos enters Paris

Courtesy Photo | Lt. Col. Pash greets Dr. Frédéric Joliot-Curie in Paris. (Courtesy Photo)  

FORT HUACHUCA, ARIZONA, UNITED STATES

08.22.2022

Courtesy Story

U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence

by Lori S. Stewart, USAICoE Command Historian

On August 25, 1944, Lt. Col. Boris Pash and his ALSOS Team entered Paris, the first American unit to enter the newly liberated city. After securing their critical targets in the French capital, Pash established his headquarters there and sent ALSOS teams throughout Europe to locate evidence of German atomic research.

The ALSOS Mission had been established on November 4, 1943 under the command of Lt. Col. Boris T. Pash. This special task force of military and scientific personnel scoured the European theater for evidence related to Germany’s atomic research program. The scientists recommended targets to Pash, who planned and executed operations, either in advance of or following on the heels of the forward combat troops, to secure the targets. From its first mission in late November 1943 to its last in July 1945, ALSOS personnel seized and secured documents, materiel, and facilities and captured and interrogated numerous scientists in Italy, France, and Germany.

The ALSOS Mission’s first assignments had been in Italy, but following the Allied landings in Normandy, a team landed on the French coast to secure critical facilities before the Germans could destroy evidence. Pash personally led the four-man advance team, which included Maj. Horace “Tony” Calvert and Counter Intelligence Corps agents Gerald Beatson and Nathaniel W. Leonard, and a shepherd puppy named Alsos.

Their primary target in Paris was a French physicist named Frédéric Joliot-Curie, who had received, along with his wife Irène Curie, a Nobel Prize in chemistry for their discovery of induced radioactivity in 1935. The mission’s lead scientist, Dr. Samuel Goudsmit, had assembled an impressive dossier on Joliet-Curie indicating he had taken an active part in the French resistance and even supplied its members with Molotov cocktails and radios produced in his laboratory. In 1944, he was teaching at the Collège de France. Pash’s deputy, Lt. Col. George Eckman, in London was able to pinpoint the location of Joliot-Curie’s laboratory and residence.

On August 20, Pash and his team reached 12th Army Group headquarters, where they were told all allied intelligence teams were to assemble in three days’ time with the “T” Force about sixty miles west of Paris. From there, they would enter Paris after the French 2d Armored Division secured the city. Due to the urgency of his mission, Pash received authorization to join the French division for its initial push into Paris. Consequently, his team followed the first five French vehicles and entered the city via the Porte d'Orleans gateway at 8:55 a.m. on August 25, becoming the first American unit to move into the liberated French capital.

Once in Paris, Pash’s team tried four times to reach the laboratory only to be repelled by German tank and sniper fire. Finally, at 4:40 p.m., they were able to enter the building and locate Joliot-Curie. Grateful to see American liberators, he immediately asked for protection, making it easy for Pash to take him into custody. The physicist readily agreed to cooperate, furnishing what information he had available. Later he was sent to London for interviews with American and British scientists, to whom he provided additional information about the activities of German scientists.

Once Paris had been secured, it served as ALSOS headquarters from which Pash sent missions throughout Europe to locate and secure key scientific and technologic targets. On September 18, 1944, the ALSOS Mission received its first commendation from the War Department G-2 for its efforts in securing Dr. Joliot-Curie. It praised the team for “the aggressive action and initiative displayed by the Mission’s rapid entry into Paris and the successful attainment of the primary ALSOS objective in France.”

See the ALSOS Mission arrive in Paris as the French celebrate at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7K1l1Px6fY.

• Date Taken: 08.22.2022
• Date Posted: 08.22.2022 17:51
• Story ID: 427778
• Location: FORT HUACHUCA, ARIZONA, US