The Week France Fell

335 Pages·1976·17.419 MB·English

by  Noel Barber

THE
WEEK
FRANCE
FELL
‘

By the same author
Seven Days of Freedom
Lords of die Golden Horn
N O E L B A R B E R
THE
WEEK
FRANCE
FELL
STEIN AND DAY/Publishers/New York
First published in the United States of America, 1976
Copyright © 1976 by Noel Barber
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Stein and Day/Publishers/ Scarborough House,
Briarcliff Manor, N.Y. 10510
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Barber, Noël.
The week France fell.
1. World War, 1939-1945—France—Chronology.
I. Title.
D761.B331976 940.53'44 75-34398
ISBN 0-8128-1921-7
Q r>t
1 \jr 8434
For Budge and Marcina Fatty

Contents
List of Illustrations 5
Acknowledgements 7
MONDAY, 10 JUNE
1 Paris - the people 15
2 The politicians 24
3 The trains that never ran 35
4 Rome, London, Washington 44
TUESDAY, 11 JUNE
1 Exodus 58
2 The reason why 67
3 The forgotten city 72
4 Churchill at Briare 81
WEDNESDAY, 12 JUNE
1 ‘The country will not forgive you* 90
2 Chaos on the roads 101
3 Poste Restante, Tours 106
4 Paris - open city 112
5 London, New York, Tokyo 119
6 Tours: Madame de Portes vetoes the Breton
redoubt 123
THURSDAY, 13 JUNE
1 ‘Get that woman out of here* 126
2 ‘The hole in the ground* 145
3 Paris - the last day of freedom 149
4 CONTENTS
FRIDAY, 14 JUNE
1 The Germans march into Paris 156
2 Berlin in triumph 171
3 The battlefield 176
4 Destinations unknown 180
5 'You will be submerged in defeat* 185
SATURDAY, 15 JUNE
1 ‘This stinking city* 199
2 Roosevelt's dilemma 212
3 'Never shall I inflict such ignominy upon our
colours* 215
4 'The last quarter of an hour* 224
SUNDAY, 16 JUNE
1 The Gestapo moves in 230
2 The rout 240
3 Laval waits to be crowned 243
4 De Gaulle lunches with Churchill 252
5 'Better be a Nazi province* 255
6 Night falls on Bordeaux 267
7 The morning after 283
The Price 294
What Happened to Them 305
Select Bibliography 308
Index 316