Accompanied by a nineteen-year-old metalworker called Guy, a middle-class student called Max and a third carrying between them two Sten guns, several hand-grenades, some light rockets and some fuse cable, Madeleine set off for the Pont de Belleville-Villette, which overlooks the track from Les Buttes-Chaumont.
“We combined the hand-grenades as we had been told that this is what dynamiteros had done in Spain during the Civil War,” wrote Madeleine. “When the train emerged from the tunnel, as well as firing machine-gun bursts we began to throw grenades and rockets on the track, and at the locomotive. We threw and fired so much that the Germans, being startled by the noise, could only think that there were a hundred of us. The train withdrew back inside the tunnel.”
While this happened more FTP from the Saint-Just company and other Resistance groups sent by the CPL, following fast liaison work, arrived on the scene.
“It was here that an elderly cheminot committed an act of great courage,” wrote Madeleine. “We had already lost a copain killed because he got too close to the opening of the tunnel. The cheminot, who had retired from the railways, courageously entered the tunnel, mounted the engine and detached it. Then, bottled up in the tunnel and not knowing what to do, the Germans surrendered. There were eighty of them, with weapons and baggage, plenty of fuel, lots of food and cigarettes, which were all very welcome.”53
According to Georges Maurice, the whole Ménilmontant incident lasted five hours. On the French side three résistants were killed. André Tollet, the President of the CPL, noted that résistants from the 19th and 20th Arrondissements were most enthusiastic in attacking the Germans, particularly those guarding supplies and logistics.54
In the meantime, with no refuse collection for several days, parts of Paris became untidy; stale waste odours being worsened by summer sunshine. Affiches advised Parisians to burn their rubbish. Then Rol-Tanguy’s HQ advised that refuse lorries and tipper trucks, filled with earth, could make excellent battering rams or low-level wrecking balls for use against German pill-boxes. The obvious question of how the driver escaped was circumvented by reversing the vehicle towards its target. Luckily for whoever cleaned up once Paris returned to normal, this idea was rarely used, not that Paris lorries were safe from requisition. To avoid leaving their vehicles unattended, many food haulers sold their wares in the street.
Where food was concerned, demand far outstripped supply, leading to brief but acute price hikes. Salad stuffs, an important part of French summer diet, rose to thirty francs a bag, while seasonal fruit reached fifty francs a kilo. To prevent flagrant profiteering, Gardiens were sent from the Préfecture to order traders to lower prices and prevent customers from buying large amounts to hoard. Water was stored in baths in case the water mains were destroyed, although von Choltitz never intended any such action. On the contrary, that morning he supplied Red Cross officials with detailed lists of Wehrmacht stores to facilitate distribution.55
EVEN IF VON CHOLTITZ HAD BLUFFED NORDLING that a hundred and fifty tanks would reinforce him, the sight of Panthers circling the Préfecture and the Hôtel de Ville was intimidating to résistants. After four days, most were becoming exhausted. But, despite the burning of the Grand Palais and the train at Ménilmontant, that Wednesday was less eventful than others.56
Thanks to the Red Cross and Raoul Nordling, prisoners were exchanged in quantities of between one and two hundred per day at the Préfecture and the Hôtel de Ville in central Paris, or at Clichy, Saint-Denis and Parreux in the banlieues. While some Wehrmacht officers still expected to exchange one Frenchmen for two or more Germans, few still insisted on such a bias. Most Germans captured by the Resistance expected to be shot; one officer immediately requested a pencil and paper to write to his family before anyone even mentioned shooting him. Wounded Germans captured by the Resistance sometimes refused medication, fearing they might be poisoned. However, once they realised that most insurrectionists were observing the Geneva Convention, several German prisoners avoided being exchanged and having to continue the war. Several Germans held at the Préfecture tried to hide when FFIs searched the cells for prisoners to exchange.57 As Lieutenant Harvai observed in the 19th Arrondissement, many Germans happily surrendered to any FFIs who appeared “official”. From his post on Rue Jourdain, Harvai reported Germans in civilian clothes roaming the 19th Arrondissement looking for someone to take them prisoner. Some Germans, sickened by Nazi crimes, actively turned traitor. In Folie-Méricourt a German joined the Resistance under a pseudonym, helped them raid a German armoury, and then trained them to use German weapons.58
As von Choltitz well knew, belief in the war was receding among ordinary German soldiers just as much as among the officer corps. “Certainly some soldiers submerged themselves by wearing civilian clothes, and human weakness appeared in all its most hideous forms. I was obliged to send out patrols commanded by officers to combat disorder.”59
By 1944, the German military executed on average fifteen men per day for offences ranging from cowardice and desertion to sleeping on guard duty, and the number reprimanded for writing home criticising the Nazi war effort exceeded 10%. The temptation to escape a train hurtling to Götterdämmerung and melt away into la France profonde became enormous. At the Hôtel Crillon, Sonderführer Robert Wallraf was packing. Looking around his room, its 1930s tourist pictures targeting Americans, and then at his well-tailored clothes, Wallraf was tempted to slip out of feldgrau and become a dapper civilian. But the moment passed and he pushed his valise under the bed. That evening he shared his last bottle of Cognac with friends, acknowledging Germany’s imminent collapse.60
AFTER ESCORTING ROLF NORDLING’S PARTY across the German lines, Bobby Bender returned to Paris. He spoke in depth with Colonel Lelorrain, Chaban-Delmas’ representative, about the value of the truce insofar as it existed. More importantly, following von Choltitz’s extravagant boast that reinforcements were en route, Bender tried to coax out of von Choltitz which Panzer divisions were coming, and what the German commander’s personal concerns were.61
Later that evening von Choltitz informed Army Group B that General Blumentritt was unable to reach the Meurice due to more barricades. He also reported that the police were loyal but powerless—a downright lie—that German strongpoints were unable to hold out much longer, nor was it possible to carry out public executions to deter the Resistance. Regarding Paris’s bridges, von Choltitz warned Model’s staff that while the bridges were needed, he could not blow them; if he blew them he could not blow them all; and blowing them would ensure that more of the population joined the Resistance. Finally von Choltitz said that OKW should be informed of the gravity of the situation immediately.62
On receiving von Choltitz’s report, Army Group B offered a small armoured force and elements of the 7th Infantry Division, to reach Paris by 25 August. Model asked OKW’s chief of staff General Jodl for clear instructions. When Jodl replied “Hold Paris”, Model angrily wired back, “I am not asking for provisional orders, but clear and precise instructions addressing the possibility that we can not control the situation in Paris.” When Jodl replied that Army Group B was already sending reinforcements, Model replied, “A unit of self-propelled guns, or any other small corps, is far from sufficient to defend either the exterior or interior of a city of over a million souls.” This appreciation was presented to Hitler by nightfall. To defend Paris convincingly required a greater effort than Stalingrad; with the Allies taking position to envelop the city, Army Group B had insufficient means to do that.63
SHORTLY BEFORE LEAVING LE MANS the Constable was updated on Parodi’s arrest, the barricades and the failing truce while the Germans kept to main routes through the city. He was particularly fascinated by von Choltitz’s restraint. “These considerations, weren’t they inspired by his fear of the future, this concern to spare Paris, or through the agreement he made with the Allies whose agents appeared at his HQ rather than that of Oberg and the Gestapo who by then had left the capital?” His view was not far off th
e mark.64
De Gaulle’s homme tout faire, Commandant de Lignières, arrived at Rambouillet ahead of him and began making arrangements. The Wehrmacht had left the château mostly intact, but without electricity. Luckily a local electrician repaired the generator.65 In their tents alongside the drive, Leclerc’s staff prepared the following day’s plans and by 4pm were ready to hold a briefing.66
De Gaulle’s aircraft landed on Rambouillet’s long avenue. At first he waited in the château library, briefly distracting himself with an exquisite edition of Moliere’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. After hastily consuming cold rations he went into conference with Leclerc. Not all of the 2e DB had reached their start lines ready for the morning’s operation. Where contact had been made with the enemy west of Paris, resistance was “entrenched and resolute”, de Gaulle wrote in his memoirs. “It is necessary to pierce these positions,” said Leclerc. GT Langlade would advance towards Toussus le Noble and Clamart while a sub-group under Morel-Deville created a diversion around Versailles. However, GT Billotte would make the main effort into southern Paris via Antony with GT Dio in reserve.
Although these plans revised US V Corps’ orders to head for Versailles, the Constable approved everything. But he advised Leclerc that after entering Paris via the Porte d’Orléans he should make the Gare Montparnasse his HQ; its communications were perfect. Then, looking at Leclerc who had served him unfailingly for four years, de Gaulle said, “How lucky you are!” Next, he told Leclerc, “Go quickly, we cannot have another commune!”67
Did de Gaulle honestly believe a repeat of the 1871 Commune was possible? Decades afterwards his son Philippe told journalist Michel Tauriac, “I remember that, returning to this proposition following the publication of his memoirs, he was inclined to moderate it somewhat. According to him the resistance in Paris was greatly exaggerated for political reasons—which more or less continues today—and this resistance was not only composed of communists, and those were only ever around twelve hundred men under arms. He wanted, above all, to re-establish French sovereignty and impose his authority in the face of the Americans.”68
That night, however, when Commandant de Lignières told him that the President of the Republic’s bedroom was ready, de Gaulle thought, “No.” Preferring not to appear presumptuous, he asked Lignières to prepare a less important bedroom.69
“ATTENTION! ATTENTION! PARIS EST LIBÉRÉ! ” came a BBC announcement at 10pm, repeated in many languages. Pastor Marc Boegner did not believe it. The reappearance of his favourite newspaper, Le Figaro, was joy enough for one day. But, after seeing lightly armed résistants holding government buildings while German anti-aircraft batteries fired at Allied aircraft above the city, Boegner thought premature announcements dangerous.70
The BBC’s error happened as the electricity was reconnected for the evening’s thirty-minute session, permitting cooking, light and radio. Parisians heard Londoners joyfully singing the Marseillaise and thumping out Sambre et Meuse. When that half hour’s electricity ended, plunging everyone back into darkness, they wondered how the normally reliable BBC got it wrong.71
The muddle began when Free French journalist Georges Boris announced on air that the liberation of Paris was “anticipated” and someone composed a premature announcement that “Yesterday, after four days of fighting, the enemy has been defeated. Patriots have occupied all public buildings. Representatives of Vichy have either been arrested or fled. The people of Paris have therefore played a determinant part in the liberation of the capital.” This was mostly true but hardly justified the headline “Paris is free!” It was repeated on “The Voice of America”, becoming worldwide headline news within hours. King George VI sent de Gaulle a premature telegram of congratulation.72
Convinced of his right to regard himself as de facto head of the French state, de Gaulle pondered how to enter Paris. He sent Dr. Favreau back into the city with his reply to a message received earlier from Luizet. “My intention had been to go first, not to the Hôtel de Ville where the Council of the Resistance and the Parisian Committee of Liberation were sitting, but to ‘the centre’. As I saw it, that meant the Ministry of War, the obvious place for the French government and High Command. It was not that I did not urgently wish to get into contact with the leaders of the Paris rising. But I wanted it to be established that the State, after trials that had been unable to destroy or subjugate it, was in the first place simply returning to its own dwelling. As I read the papers, Combat, Défense de la France and Franc-Tireur, I was both happy to see the fighting spirit that they expressed and strengthened in my determination not to accept any sort of investiture for my authority other than that directly given to me by the voice of the crowd.”73
De Gaulle finished the evening by receiving Saint-Phalle’s party, whose main purpose was pre-empted by Roger Gallois. Otherwise de Gaulle was fascinated by Nordling’s group: Rolf Nordling, brother of “the Gentleman of Paris”, and Baron von Posch-Pastor, whom de Gaulle misunderstood to be von Choltitz’s ADC. Although Jean Laurent performed an important role supporting the Resistance, de Gaulle was unimpressed that Laurent had not committed himself earlier, especially since they both served Reynaud in 1940.74
AS THE 2e DB ASSEMBLED around the Forest of Rambouillet, the nearest formations to Paris were GT Langlade’s sub-group under Massu, and Morel-Deville’s Spahi recce squadron at Dampierre, being welcomed by the locals with delirious enthusiasm. Langlade’s CP welcomed several civilians describing flimsy German defences, begging him to enter the city. “The civilians were at a loss to understand why roads that were passable to them and where they had hardly seen any serious activity, could not, without serious fighting, be passable for an army.” But Langlade knew it would be a different story once his Shermans advanced down those roads.75
GT Billotte was only just arriving. Irrespective of General Bradley’s criticisms, de Gaulle thought his former ADC’s battlegroup made excellent time, covering two hundred kilometres in a day along difficult roads. After Chartres, dusk and rain combined to reduce visibility forcing vehicles to follow bumper to bumper. “At last we halted,” wrote Dronne on reaching Limours. “We settled down for the night under driving rain that both diluted and made runny the coating or fine dust and film of engine oil inside our clothes so that it ran all over our skin.” But one of Dronne’s platoons fell behind when a half-track threw a track. La Nueve would regain full strength only at dawn.
At 9.30pm, Billotte received the orders drafted four hours earlier and briefed his men. Having been driving for twenty-three hours, many of his officers could barely keep awake. Although chosen for the most important role, GT Billotte was without relevant maps, except for a blood-spattered German map, captured when Spahi armoured cars surprised a German patrol. “Rarely have I had to give orders in such fluid conditions,” wrote Billotte.76
Sleeping in whatever dryness they could find, under tents and bivouac sheets propped against the sides of vehicles, their orders, “S’emparer de Paris” (“To seize Paris”) reverberated in their heads. For Parisians among the troops, anxiety over their families dominated their thoughts. Comparatively speaking, Paul de Langlade was lucky. Although his mother lived in Paris, his family were seigneurs in the Loire, now liberated.77 Having already found his family in Chartres, Alain de Boissieu’s worries were also relieved, but Christian Girard’s parents lived in central Paris, and André Gribius’ family lived in Versailles. Massu, another Parisian, worried for his brothers.78
24 August 1944
“THE ADVANCE CP LEFT RAMBOUILLET IN THE SMALL HOURS,” began Christian Girard’s diary entry for 24 August. “The General was with me in the Jeep. It was a horrid day.” Leclerc was impatient. Inspecting final preparations in pouring rain, his trench coat and trousers became soaked through. Girard offered his American raincoat sporting his new captain’s galons on the cuffs. “Are you demoting me?” asked Leclerc.79
Pierre Billotte was only too aware of the gravity of the moment as the final move toward Paris got un
der way. “Never before had a Frenchman received such an order,” he wrote. “I knew about commanding armoured units in 1940 and the question one asked before such a mission was undoubtedly one was entitled to have answered. What strength were the enemy and where were they?” Billotte was veteran enough to expect the unexpected. At least he could see the Eiffel Tower; his battlegroup had to keep it to their west as they advanced into the city.80
GT Billotte was divided into two sub-groups. Joseph Putz, with two companies of the 501e RCC (Gavardie and Witasse), two companies of the RMT (Dronne and Wagner), a section of engineers (Cancel) and a battery of artillery (Touyeras), would lead the battlegroup into action with the balance in reserve under Cantarel. Contrary to intelligence reports, they found German defences well organised.81
Jacques Branet, leading sub-group Putz’s advance, writes little other than that the 24th was “a tough day”. Dronne, once he received his orders, gathered his platoon commanders, all of whom were very experienced, and marked out the likeliest points of German resistance. He did not like simply advancing up a main road which was inevitably defended with anti-tank guns issuing enfilading fire from side streets. Once in contact with the enemy, Dronne’s way, learnt in Africa, was to bypass opposition and attack from the side and rear.
GT Billotte passed through Arpajon and Montlhéry uneventfully, reaching Longjumeau by 8am. The local population came out of their houses shrieking with delight and were quickly all over Putz’s entire sub-group, singing the Marseillaise and opening bottles saved specially. Then, reaching more built up areas, sub-group Putz came under accurate gunfire from industrial hangars at Ballainvilliers, east of their axis. From la Nueve Elias’ platoon dismounted their half-tracks and, supported by Shermans, closed with the German opposition, setting hangar roofs on fire with incendiary bullets. This opposition was crushed with the cost of a man wounded; Juan Vega was hit by friendly machine-gun fire from a Sherman, causing him many months in hospital.82
Paris '44: The City of Light Redeemed Page 41