Mafia!

This is coolbert:

Here with an excerpt from the book: "The Guns at Last Light" by Atkinson

Describing the invasion of southern France [Dragoon] by the allied armies during the latter part of the Second World War [WW2], the chase northward, the formation of the allied 6th Army Group, and the shortage of critical supplies that quickly became manifest:

"Six hundred thousand men and almost a million tons of material had come through Marseille and Toulon and across the Cote d'Azur beaches by early November. But a long trek to the front, various miscalculations, and a thriving black market in the French ports - - 20 percent of the cargo unloaded in Marseille was stolen, often by Army freebooters - - made for shortages of food, ammunition, and fuel."

[my emphasis in all cases!]

Army "freebooters" and the French mafia! Freebooters often defined as genial pirates. Men whose business is extortion and theft but the crime done in a cordial and for the most part humane manner.

Theft nonetheless! Depriving your own men and the war effort of essentials. And those participating profiting in a major way in the process.

That loot diverted to the black market. That French civilian population severely deprived for a period of four years prior now having at their disposal for the proper price tires, gasoline, food.

Refer to my prior blog entry regarding Luciano, the American mafia, and the guard of the docks in New York City during WW2.

The American mafia given the task of preventing German sabotage and work stoppages. That latter as accomplished by the control of the unions.

It also tacitly understood that the mafia as part of the deal more or less "allowed" to steal a percentage of the whatever cargo was being loaded on merchant vessels for overseas shipment. About 10 % the norm under peace time conditions. Contraband for the thriving black market also to an extent existing during the United States during the war.

coolbert.