the massive scope and diversity of the mmla mission presented formidable challenges, but it was in large part successfully accomplished, despite the difficulties inherent in the wartime conditions and frequent instances of irritation or incomprehension on the part of allied military commanders and officers. the achievements of the mmla reflected the care and skill of its leader and of the officers whom he had carefully recruited, indoctrinated, trained and brought to operational readiness. as the allied armies fought their way through normandy, and as each city and town was liberated from german occupation, it would be the mmla officers or indeed their chief who would be among the first whom the populations would be able to identify. claude hettier de boislambert, personally, was among the first to enter caen and saint-lô. it was therefore not entirely surprising that on 2 august 1944, outside rennes, he was wounded, as he struggled to be among the first to enter the city so as to be able to release the french men and women who had been imprisoned by the germans in the city jail.