An alleged statement by General Alphonse Juin before the battle said: "For fifty hours you will be the absolute masters of what you will find beyond the enemy. Nobody will punish you for what you will do, nobody will ask you about what you will get up to." Recent research has showed this statement was forged after the war by the Italian Communist women's organization "Unione Donne Italiane" [it] in the early 1950's. Boris Tomaso justifies it by claiming it's linked to the perception of the crimes by the Italians rather than an official policy of the French Army.