The route to Rambouillet passed near Chartres. “My parents were there,” wrote Alain de Boissieu, “but in what condition would I find them? Could they perhaps have been deported due to me? Or killed in an air-raid?” Boissieu handed command of his squadron to Lieutenant Duplay and drove his Jeep as though on auto-pilot along lanes he knew since childhood. He found his sister, Chantal, at Chartres’ préfecture. She told him their parents were safe, but their home was wrecked when a nearby bridge was destroyed. Finding them in temporary accommodations, Boissieu embraced his parents for the first time since 1940. “Tomorrow we’re going to liberate Paris,” he said. His parents proudly told him how many of his relations were in the Resistance. The Boissieu family mostly saw the Occupation the same way. It was like that sometimes.26
BREAKFASTING AT THE HÔTEL DE VILLE’S CANTEEN, Marie-Hélène Lefaucheux witnessed résistants’ rising confidence; thirty German prisoners and two young Miliciens sat under guard at a nearby table. Although worried sick over her husband’s fate, Marie-Hélène knew that Miliciens were usually misguided boys. “They will be shot tomorrow,” said a FFI guard. Marie-Hélène was chilled to her spine.27
Having been up all night tending casualties, Dr. Victor Veau was amazed by the euphoric atmosphere at his local library, where he went to read the latest newspapers, and roundly disabused fellow readers of thinking everything was over. Earlier, from his surgery room window, Veau saw an old couple selling Libération having their papers confiscated at pistol point by a German officer yelling guttural obscenities. Once this officer disappeared the couple were resupplied with more copies. Even now some Germans still behaved ruthlessly; a young cheminot was shot for obstructing the requisition of a locomotive at the Gare de l’Est. With bullets in the chest and head, Veau hardly needed a long autopsy to deduce cause of death.28
Although the situation was intensifying, Nordling was disconcerted when von Choltitz placed sentries outside his Consulate. Claiming the Swedish flag was sufficient protection, Nordling persuaded von Choltitz to remove his men. Representing the GPRF required Nordling to receive one Colonel Lelorrain to liaise with the 2e DB when they arrived. Lelorrain, aka Lorrain Cruze, was a tough, stocky man whose glasses made him look intellectual. Like Chaban-Delmas, Lelorrain was another political appointee sent to witness Nordling’s conversations with Bender and representatives of the Occupation authorities.29
THE FIRST BIG INCIDENT OF AUGUST 23 occurred around 9am when a column of thirty vehicles, including armoured cars, light tanks and a Tiger, arrived on the Champs Élysées heading for the Seine quays. Little happened until it reached the junction with the little tree-lined Avenue de Selves. Now used for parking, this slip road accesses the service area of the Grand Palais’ exhibition halls. The cellars of this great belle époque edifice were used as an overspill lock-up for collabos and German prisoners. But, in the main halls above, Swedish impresario Jean Houcke’s Circus Honcha was preparing the liberation’s first great show; an extravaganza of acrobatics and wild animals, from which he anticipated making a fortune. Unfortunately, from the Commissariat office, Gardien Chastagnier, who probably could not see the full extent of the column descending the Champs Élysées, shot and killed a German soldier. The German convoy reacted quickly; fifty infantrymen took position to suppress the gunfire from the Grand Palais.
Once the gunfire began, Jean Houcke feared the worst while, from the cells, German prisoner Captain von Zigesar-Beines saw two small contraptions resembling miniature tanks chugging towards the building. These were remote-controlled explosives called Goliaths. Sadly Gardien Chastagnier had fired upon a German convoy which included combat engineers. As Parisians butchered one of Houcke’s circus horses which was caught in the crossfire, the two Goliaths rattled ever closer to the Grand Palais. Zigesar called out a belated warning just as a Goliath exploded, rattling windows across western Paris. German infantry then threw hand-grenades while one of their tanks fired explosive shells. As fire engulfed the Grand Palais, the policemen had no option but to release prisoners from the basement; Germans, collabos and low-lifes. Despite the gun-battle going on, brave Paris firemen attempted to control the fire. Since the German convoy on the Champs Élysées was not under General von Choltitz’s authority, they even shot the fire-hoses, chuckling when the water pressure became a dribble. Eventually, to avoid further destruction, the Police résistants asked Zigesar to arrange the Grand Palais’ surrender. Jean Houcke wept in the street. “Don’t worry, the Allies will be here in a few days, you’ll see,” said an elderly Parisienne. But Houcke was inconsolable.30
When Lieutenant von Arnim called Nordling about the Grand Palais incident he confusingly called the building the “Palais Royal”—the apartment building where Colette lived—causing some delay before the confusion was rectified.31 Several police résistants captured at the Grand Palais were taken to the Hôtel Meurice, arriving just as Nordling’s deputy, Gustav Forssius, and Swiss Consul René Naville were negotiating the release of Wehrmacht food supplies. Since the city’s authorities were now virtually indistinguishable from the Resistance leadership, German demands that these foodstuffs should be withheld from the Resistance became impossible to enforce. Nevertheless von Choltitz agreed for more French lorries to pass German checkpoints to collect flour. That business over, von Choltitz led Forssius to the balcony. To the west smoke rose above the Grand Palais. “They’ve smashed the glass,” sighed von Choltitz, pointing at his window. Forssius warned that reprisals would simply aggravate the situation. “It’s like a pretty girl,” said von Choltitz. “When she gives you a slap, you don’t return it.”32
At Nordling’s behest the Gardiens captured at the Grand Palais were exchanged for German personnel held by the Resistance. The destruction of the Grand Palais, which was restored soon after the war, demonstrates just how lightly General von Choltitz dealt with the Insurrection. He played a double game with Field Marshal Model, sending communiqués that Paris was in full revolt, that he had no artillery and that the garrison’s food—which he was giving away—was running out.33
IN THE DEPOT’S QUARTIER DES SOEURS Taittinger witnessed several distinguished Parisians arriving as prisoners. Since smart, traditional General Herbillon was too old to serve Vichy or de Gaulle, Taittinger could not understand why he was there. His concièrge denounced him for warning (realistically) that the Torch landings would curtail food shipments from French North Africa, causing his arrest twenty months later.34
Another important arrival was the famous actor, playwright and impresario, Sacha Guitry. Despite his abiding faith in Allied victory, by continuing his boulevardier lifestyle under the Occupation Guitry laid himself open to envy and copious denunciations. A late riser, like many thespians, Guitry was still in bed when the FFIs came, though apparently he had taken a telephone call from the distraught Arletty shortly before. Determined to degrade him as much as possible, the FFIs only allowed Guitry to put a dressing gown over his pyjamas, slip on some jade green mules and place a panama on his distinguished head. Without his wallet, he had no cash for paying the warders to get him sundries. Luckily, since Guitry was famously generous, other prisoners chipped in to find what was necessary.35
However, former naval officer and right-wing writer Paul Chack deserved arrest. Though, not originally anti-semitic, Chack was seduced by fascism and embraced collaboration wholeheartedly. After chatting amicably about the 1930s, Taittinger thought Chack seemed “marked by death”. Chack recognised that he would become a marked man at the liberation and slumped into a deep melancholy. He was shot the following year.
When haut monde financiers and bankers arrived, Taittinger thought all his Quartier Vendôme friends had come to see him. Monsieur Miret, Secretary General of Assistance Publique, who unlike Guitry was allowed to dress properly, arrived looking so smart that Taittinger thought he was negotiating their release.
When Taittinger and friends visited the exercise yard, Madame Marie Goublet, one of France’s first female barristers, dropped a
note to René Bouffet. Goublet’s crime was to include General Karl-Heinrich von Stulpnagel in a dinner party. In fact, for distinguished prisoners—rather than low-life collabos—the FFIs respected due process. But Guitry remained a target for spite. In a macabre practical joke, FFIs called on him every two hours, saying the firing squad was ready. Each time he calmly smartened himself, ready to meet his end. After ten minutes they told him to wait. And so on all night. At daybreak Guitry admitted that he had not slept well.36
“PARIS WAS IN THE PROCESS OF BECOMING A KIND OF REFUGEE CAMP, in the interior of which freedom of circulation was only for the FFI,” Rol-Tanguy told Bourderon. “This objective was achieved by the evening of 22 August. The enemy continued to give ground; seventy quartiers were now free, or abandoned. The Germans were only able to move on certain routes. On the 23rd a column coming down the Champs Élysées was the cause of the violent incident which led to the fire at the Grand Palais. Nevertheless, the essential objective was achieved; the enemy had retreated to various strongpoints where they reinforced the exterior defences, notably multiplying the barbed-wire barriers, and in which they waited until Leclerc’s tanks arrived. My 2e bureau had these pinpointed since the 22 August; the Hôtel Majestic, Luxembourg, République, the Foreign Ministry, Chamber of Deputies and the Hôtel Meurice.”37
More sobering than Rol-Tanguy’s ebullient reminiscences was a document presented at the Préfecture to Georges Maurice, the new director-general of the Municipal Police, containing casualty figures for the Insurrection’s first four days. Police casualties were 62 killed and 172 wounded; Resistance 483 killed and 1,197 wounded, while the German garrison, whose figures are possibly suspect, lost merely 68 killed and 82 wounded. There is a limit to what conclusions should be drawn from such figures. They did not include captured résistants who were summarily executed, whose corpses were discovered weeks later. It must also be recognised that, towards the war’s end, German propaganda often minimised bad news.38
And German generals, sickened by Hitler’s war, sometimes played their own game. Pierre Billotte wrote that General Speidel and others ensured that reinforcements were diverted from Paris to arguably more important sectors on the lower Seine, while claiming that retreating Wehrmacht units needed secure bridges in Paris.39 This conflicted with the destruction orders von Choltitz continually received from Rastenburg, of which he candidly informed Nordling at their afternoon meeting.40 As for the sappers sent to blow the bridges; following the extraordinary welcome that von Choltitz gave them, nothing had happened. At luncheon inside the Meurice, one of von Choltitz’s officers asked whether the bridges would be blown.
“If I execute that,” replied von Choltitz, “there will be nothing left to do on the seventieth bridge than leave a monument to the dead.”
“It would be best to put it on the one where there is already a statue,” said the officer.
“What statue?” asked von Choltitz.
“Sainte Geneviève.”
“That one,” agreed von Choltitz. “With a virgin, we will go straight to Heaven.” Then, turning to the officers dining with him, von Choltitz said, “Gentlemen, since our enemies won’t listen to our Führer any more, this whole war is going to pot.”
News of this exchange reinforced Nordling’s opinion that von Choltitz would only make a token resistance when the Allies arrived. It was reported to Jacques Chaban-Delmas and reached Leclerc within twenty-four hours.41
Going through the motions of taking the offensive, von Choltitz threatened to attack all Resistance-held buildings with heavy weapons. But either through conscience or pragmatism, this never happened. The journalist, lawyer and future politician, Raymond Dronne, later wrote, “They only needed to launch their tanks; a few shells to blow the doors off, some high explosive shells through the windows, and all positions could have been quickly retaken.” Dronne continues, “The Resistance did not have the means to prevent the destruction of Paris, let alone pursue a desperate struggle like in Warsaw. Whether aerial bombardments, cannonades by tanks or artillery, systematic demolitions or simply allowing fires to burn their way through, if not all of Paris, then a significant area, von Choltitz did not do any of it. Whatever the reasons behind this may have been, it is to his credit.”42
During his meeting with Nordling, von Choltitz was called from his office. On returning he told Nordling, “That’s too bad. I am going to get a visit from the chief of staff of the Grossdeutschland Panzer Division which is cantoned around Beauvais. He proposes to offer me a hundred and fifty heavy tanks from his unit, the ones that destroyed Kovel. He assures me that in forty-eight hours all Parisians will be dead or so terrorised that I could walk through Paris with a cigar between my lips and a walking stick. I told him I didn’t need any of them and that I was in control of the situation.” Explaining this, Dronne says von Choltitz was bluffing. The Grossdeutschland Division was fighting on the Eastern Front; nor did German units escaping Normandy have many serviceable tanks left.43 If true, perhaps it resolves where rumours of German reinforcements came from.
AFTER SPAHI LIEUTENANT BERGAMIN met Mouthard at a crossroads outside Trappes, Mouthard gave the Patrouille Hemingway’s painstakingly accumulated details on German positions west of Paris. Bergamin was ordered to maintain contact with the enemy in order to gauge German strength. From his Jeep, Bergamin directed three M8 armoured cars and a Stuart-mounted 75mm howitzer (lance-patates) towards German lines, soon coming under intense fire. A German 88 destroyed the Stuart, killing two Spahis and wounding two other crewmen. After physically removing his casualties, Bergamin’s uniform was drenched in blood. Sickened, Bergamin slumped down in one of Rambouillet’s bars and downed a bottle of champagne, watched by Hemingway and Bruce. Mistaking the blood on Bergamin’s uniform for his own, Bruce wrote, “He was, however, in wonderful spirits.”44
Given that GT Langlade completed the march to Rambouillet in ten hours, it becomes obvious that, Bradley’s criticisms aside, the 2e DB made good time.45 Leclerc’s HQ convoy trundled along in front led by Captain Savelli’s Jeep. Every so often Leclerc and Girard stood like Colonel Peschaud’s route guides watching the 2e DB make the march they were born for.
“While we were talking to him [Bergamin],” wrote Bruce, “General Leclerc arrived in a three-star Jeep. He is tall, spare, handsome, stern-visaged, and a striking figure.”46
Journalists’ cameras clicked away; one snapped Leclerc looking irritable in his Jeep. Although Leclerc’s attitude towards journalists had softened since his time in Africa, he muttered, “Buzz off you unspeakables!” in something above a whisper, audible to Bruce and Hemingway. “A rude general is a nervous general,” Hemingway wrote, thereafter calling one of France’s greatest wartime heroes, “That jerk Leclerc!”47
“All his [Leclerc’s] people were in light vehicles and went into the park of Rambouillet,” wrote Bruce. The 2e DB’s CP pitched its tent beside the château’s broad, tree-lined avenue and Gribius began drafting the order entitled “S’emparer de Paris”—“To seize Paris.” At least Leclerc appreciated Bruce and Hemingway’s reconnaissance activities, asking them to pass their information to Repiton-Préneuf’s 2ème Bureau. “This, with the assistance of Hemingway, Mouthard and Mowinckel, I did,” wrote Bruce.48
“The correspondents are furious with Leclerc because he will not tell them his plans,” Bruce continued. “He in turn is angry with them for they are looking for a story and he is trying to make plans to capture Paris. Apparently the pressure from the resistance people in Paris, who are being chopped up by the Germans, was finally too great for the High Command, and they belatedly decided to capture the capital.”49
After finding the capital’s western approaches blocked, but less resistance around Arpajon, Guillebon radioed Leclerc asking permission to enter Paris via Arpajon. Unfortunately the message did not get through. Guillebon sent out two more patrols, one to Versailles which quickly met opposition, and another towards Chevreuse which reported frail German defences; hence a pote
ntial opportunity. But, deciding discretion was the wiser option, Guillebon turned back towards Limours-Rambouillet, leaving disappointed bystanders.
“What? Are you going again?” they asked. “You’re abandoning us? What about Paris?”50
Turning back was disappointing, but Guillebon’s force was too small. GT Billotte, designated to enter Paris from the south, would not reach Rambouillet until evening. Guillebon also reported that when French civilians asked American patrols why they had not taken Paris, they replied, “That mission is reserved for the 2e DB.” “They said that three days ago,” wrote Girard, “three days during which we had bridled with impatience and, above all, the Americans had wasted for nothing. Le Général has been right all along.”51
Leclerc sent Captain Janney to de Gaulle with a situation report. “I have received Captain Janney and your note,” replied the Constable. “I should like to see you today. I expect to be at Rambouillet this evening and to see you there. I embrace you.”52
UNDOUBTEDLY THE RESISTANCE’S MAIN FEAT on 23 August was capturing a German train between Place Gambetta and Les Buttes-Chaumont. During the early morning, medical student Madeleine Riffaud, a member of the FTP’s Saint-Just company, who had been captured by the Gestapo a few days before and released thanks to Nordling, received a telephone call. “Attention! ” said a voice she knew. “There is an armoured train [not armoured in fact], we do not know how many Germans there are inside but, in any case, it’s on its way from Ménilmontant to Belleville-Villette. It is evident that they are coming to take us by surprise.”
Paris '44: The City of Light Redeemed Page 40