After The Battle 170 - Vichy - Government in France

VICHY GOVERNMENT IN FRANCE THE CAPTURE OF SAARBRÜCKEN THE DEATH OF A GREAT ESCAPER No. 170 9

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NUMBER 170

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CONTENTS

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© Copyright After the Battle 2015 Editor: Karel Margry Editor-in-Chief: Winston G. Ramsey Published by Battle of Britain International Ltd., The Mews, Hobbs Cross House, Hobbs Cross, Old Harlow, Essex CM17 0NN, England Telephone: 01279 41 8833 Fax: 01279 41 9386 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.afterthebattle.com Printed in Great Britain by Warners Group Publications PLC, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH. After the Battle is published on the 15th of February, May, August and November.

On May 10, 1940, Nazi Germany invaded France and the Low Countries. Within five weeks the Blitzkrieg offensive had defeated the French armies and on June 14, 1940, the Germans entered Paris. Propaganda-Kompanie photographer Otto Kropf pictured a German military band leading troops down the Champs Élysées.

PARIS

THE VICHY GOVERNMENT IN FRANCE 2 GERMANY The Capture of Saarbrücken 32 IT HAPPENED HERE The Death of a Great Escaper 52 Front Cover: An American M24 Chaffee light tank set up outside the French village of Spicheren in northern Alsace, close to the German-French border. It was donated to the commune by the US 70th Division Veterans Association on May 8, 1992 to commemorate that division’s battles on the Spicheren Heights in February-March 1945 and its subsequent capture of the nearby German city of Saarbrücken. (Karel Margry) Back Cover: Squadron Leader Roger Bushell, executed after the mass escape from Stalag Luft 3 on March 24/25, 1944, now buried in Grave 9.A in Poznan Old Garrison Cemetery. (The War Graves Photographic Project) Acknowledgements: For help with the Vichy story the Editor and Jean Paul Pallud would like to thank the French Ministère de la Justice, the Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Alain Carteret, Antoine Jézéquel, François de Lannoy, Bruce Levy and Sabrina Youbi. Photo Credit Abbreviations: BA — Bundesarchiv; ECPAD — Médiathèque de la Défense, Fort d’Ivry; NIOD — Nederlands Instituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie, Amsterdam; SZ — Süddeutsche Zeitung Photo, Munich; USNA — US National Archives.

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VICHY

Article 2 of the Armistice signed on June 22 provided that ‘to assure the interests of the German Reich’, German forces would occupy the northern and western parts of France (known in French as the ‘Zone Occupée’), while the territory south of the demarcation line, the Free Zone (‘Zone Libre’), would be administered by the French government. Nearly 1,200 kilometres long, the demarcation line between the two zones ran from the Spanish border, passing through Mont-de-Marsan, Angoulême, Moulins, Chalon-surSaône and Dole before reaching the Swiss border near Bellegarde.

From June 1940 to November 1942 the unoccupied part of France was administered by a government headed by Maréchal Philippe Pétain, the aged and venerated hero of Verdun, with its administration based at the small spa and resort town of Vichy in central France, some 400 kilometres south-east of Paris. Many French people supported the regime, putting their faith in Pétain and his slogan ‘Work, Family, Nation’. Hoping to obtain concessions and an honourable peace treaty, the Vichy administration showed itself increasingly prepared to collaborate with the Germans, remaining in place even after the German army crossed the Demarcation Line to take over the Free Zone in November 1942. While Pétain slowly receded into the background, Premier Pierre Laval and other more-radical collaborationists came to the fore, maintaining an ever-more-compromised and increasingly hated regime until the liberation of France in the summer of 1944. However, Pétain himself remained popular, being seen by many as the symbol of French unity. Right: The old Maréchal being cheered by children, lined up with their mothers in the Rue du Parc in the spring of 1942. With him is Raymond Grasset, at that time Secretary of State for Health and Family.

THE VICHY GOVERNMENT IN FRANCE Both men were enthusiastic over the idea and they arranged to meet in Brittany the following day to work out further plans with their military and naval advisers. The French Cabinet met again later in the afternoon when Reynaud read out the proposal of the Franco-British Union. It was the worst possible timing as a message had just come in from the French High Command reporting on the despairing military situation. A hotly contested debate followed but in the end the vote was 14 to 10 in favour of the defeatists. That evening, Reynaud handed in his resignation and Président Albert Lebrun immediately asked Pétain to form a government. This was quickly done and the new government held its first meeting later that evening. At 1 a.m. on June 17, in the dead of night, Paul Baudouin, the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, telephoned the

By Jean Paul Pallud Spanish ambassador to ask him to transmit a request for an armistice to Germany. Later that day, Pétain informed the French people in a radio broadcast that he had asked the Germans to discuss an armistice. Général Charles de Gaulle was UnderSecretary of State for National Defence and War in Reynaud’s last government, and had just returned to Bordeaux from London late on the morning of the 17th when he heard that the French government had asked for an armistice. De Gaulle lost no time deciding his position and he immediately boarded the aircraft of Major-General Edward L. Spears, the British Liaison Officer, which was about to leave for Britain. After a stop at Jersey for refuelling, it

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After eight months of ‘Phoney War’ on the Western Front, the Wehrmacht launched their attack on May 10, 1940, quickly outmanoeuvring the French armies by a surprise thrust across Belgium. French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud soon relieved the Commander-in-Chief, Général Maurice Gamelin, and summoned Général Maxime Weygand from his command in the Levant to replace him. Reynaud also recalled Maréchal Philippe Pétain — the ‘Victor of Verdun’ of First World War fame — from Madrid where he was the French Ambassador. He returned to become Vice-Premier. Within three weeks the German offensive had led to the surrender of the Netherlands and Belgium; wiped out three French armies, and forced the British Expeditionary Force to retreat. On June 5 the Wehrmacht launched the second phase of the campaign — Operation ‘Rot’ — designed to break through a new hastily-established French line. Then, on June 10, Italy declared war on France and Great Britain. As German troops threatened Paris, the French government pulled out south-westwards, finally reaching Bordeaux on June 14. Prime Minister Reynaud held to the policy of continuing the struggle, favouring the idea of a ‘redoubt’ in Brittany, but Général Weygand rejected the plan as completely unrealistic and insisted that an armistice was imperative. Pétain backed him. At a Cabinet meeting on the morning of June 16 Reynaud read out the reply he had received from US President Franklin D. Roosevelt to his appeal for help: it was unequivocally negative. Still confident, he proposed to transfer the government to North Africa and continue the war from there. Pétain then stood up and declared that he could no longer remain a member of a government that refused to bring an end to hostilities and which contemplated leaving the soil of France. Reynaud appealed for time for a last conference with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to which Pétain agreed. That afternoon Reynaud talked on the telephone with Churchill about a proposal for the creation of a ‘Franco-British Union’.

The picture was taken across the street from the Hôtel du Parc. The covered walkways bordering the Parc des Sources remain to this day. 3

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Left: As senators and deputies assembled in Vichy, the theatre in the Grand Casino ([1] on the plan on page 10) was adapted to house the two assemblies that formed the French Parliament. On July 10, after several days of debate, they passed a resolution granting full powers to Pétain. The Vichy regime was established the following day with Constitutional Act No.

The armistice with Germany was signed on June 22 (a separate agreement was also reached with Italy) and hostilities ceased three days later. The armistice divided France into

two parts: an Occupied Zone which comprised northern France and the length of the Atlantic Coast, while the remaining two-fifths of the country, south of a ‘Demarcation Line’, would

Particularly vocal in those critical days of 1940 was Pierre Laval, Independent Senator for the Seine region and former Prime Minister (1931-32 and 1935-36), who urged the senators and deputies to vote full powers to Pétain. Here he addresses the National Assembly. Behind him, chairing the debate, is Jules Jeanneney, President of the Senate.

A plaque on the theatre’s outer wall records that it was here on July 10, 1940, that the National Assembly granted plenipotentiary powers to Marshal Pétain stating: ‘Thus ended the Third Republic’. However, the wording on the plaque turns the facts around, praising the minority that refused to vote for the resolution instead of condemning the majority — 569 — that voted in favour. It reads: ‘80 members of the National Assembly through their vote affirmed their attachment to the Republic, their love for freedom, and their faith in victory [over Germany]’.

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reached London that afternoon. The next day, June 18, de Gaulle broadcast over the BBC that France had lost a battle but that the war was not lost.

2 ‘defining the authority of the Chief of the French State’. Right: Opened in 1902, shining bright in ivory, yellow and gold, Vichy’s theatre is one of the most-stunning examples of Art Nouveau. Today, it offers over 20 shows a year, with a winter season dedicated to theatre and dance and a summer programme featuring music and opera.

Parliamentarians leaving the Grand Casino after the fateful meeting. The original caption to this Press photo stated that the Ambassadors of the United States, Spain, Japan and Brazil had attended the debate. 4

The former Grand Casino is now in use as a convention centre. Its Art Nouveau glass entrance canopy (added in 1900) projecting from its Napoléon III façade is another of Vichy’s architectural treasures.

be under the French government. The border territory of Alsace and Lorraine, which had been annexed by the German Empire in 1871 following its victory in the Franco-Prussian War and returned to France in 1919, was taken back and put under direct German administration, while a sliver of French territory in the Alps came under Italian administration. At the cessation of hostilities the Germans held some 1.6 million French soldiers as prisoners of war.

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Whilst Pétain and his government resigned themselves to the defeat and requested the Armistice on June 17, Général Charles de Gaulle, the Under-Secretary of State for National Defence and War in Paul Reynaud’s last government, flew to England and on the 18th launched an appeal over the BBC to continue the fight against Nazi Germany.

The Germans decreed that the Demarcation Line could only be crossed at a small number of official checkpoints, and only by those who could present an Ausweis (free pass). This document was only issued after many formalities had been approved. This is the checkpoint set up at the bridge over the Valserine river at Bellegarde, near the Swiss border.

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VICHY CAPITAL Since Bordeaux fell within the Occupied Zone, the French government left the city on June 29 to relocate to Clermont-Ferrand but that town proved to have poor communications and lacked adequate housing and office space. The cities of Lyon, Toulouse and Marseille were all considered as alternatives but each was rejected, either for political reasons (the mayors of the first two were key figures in the Third Republic) or because of the fear of social unrest. The name of Vichy was then proposed. Situated within the Free Zone but reasonably close to Paris (just over four hours by train), Vichy was an ideal location. A top-ofthe-line resort town, it possessed 300 hotels that could be requisitioned for government purposes and offered a modern infrastructure and communications system by road, rail and telephone. Senators and deputies began to congregate in Vichy from June 30, Pétain arriving that evening. The Grand Casino — an Art Nouveau theatre with 1,500 seats — was quickly adapted to house the National Assembly — the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate assembled together. Pétain named politician Pierre Laval, who had been Prime Minister in the early 1930s, as VicePrime Minister, and on July 7 he formally directed Laval to represent him at the debate of the assembly. While Laval and his friends were particularly vocal in urging senators and deputies to vote full powers to Maréchal Pétain, the senior political leaders were too overwhelmed by the turn of events to propose alternatives. To make things worse, another blow hit unexpectedly on July 3 when Churchill ordered the Royal Navy to destroy the French naval squadron at anchor at Mersel-Kébir in Algeria. (In June, the French fleet had withdrawn her ships from France and sent them to harbours beyond Germany’s reach.) Not only was a battleship sunk and five other ships damaged, but it also cost the lives of 1,300 French sailors. This ill-advised attack by an ally resulted in tremendous resentment in France towards Britain, and in turn dealt a major counter-blow to de Gaulle’s efforts to continue the war, consequently boosting Pétain’s authority.

The Germans also pressurised the Vichy government by thwarting the return of refugees — the millions who had fled the invading German armies in May and June 1940 – back to the occupied northern zone. Each person had to obtain a repatriation certificate from the French administration, with

access from 1941 onwards being limited to just four crossing points: Langon, Vierzon, Moulins and Chalon-sur-Saône. Right: The checkpoint at the latter town was at the eastern end of the Pont des Chavannes, the bridge over a branch of the Saône river. 5

The new government, formed by Pétain on July 16, included all the participants of the defeatist faction. L-R: Général Charles Huntziger, commanding the armed forces; Raphael Alibert, Minister of Justice; Marshal Pétain, Head of State and Prime Minister; Paul Baudoin, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Admiral François Darlan, Secretary of State for the Navy; Pierre Caziot, Minister of Agriculture; Marcel Peyrauton, Minister of the Interior; Pierre Laval, Vice-Premier; Yves Boutillier, Minister of Finance; and René Belin, Minister of Industrial Production and Labour. The picture was taken in October that year.

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After several days of preliminary debates, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate met separately on July 9 and each assembly voted for a revision of the constitution. The following day the National Assembly passed a resolution with a majority of 569 to 80, with 20 abstentions, granting full power ‘to the Government of the Republic under the authority and signature of Marshal Pétain’. The legality of this vote was later contested by historians and by all post-war French governments because over a quarter of the senators and deputies were absent.

image that was to become the symbol of French collaboration with Nazi Germany. Standing with them is Dr Paul Schmidt, interpreter in the German Foreign Ministry. At the short conference that followed, Pétain adopted a line of prudent reticence and Hitler left disappointed, having gained nothing from him. Right: The brick shelter is now no more, and even the platform was removed after the station was closed to passenger traffic.

Left and above: With the National Assembly suspended and the elected deputies and senators sent home, in January 1941 a National Council (Conseil National) was nominated to study the

administrative re-organisation of the country. Composed of 213 officials, it was established in the Villa Strauss [2] at No. 4 Rue de Belgique. Right: The gate to the villa stands unchanged today.

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Left: The same month the Germans organised a meeting between Hitler and Pétain and on the 24th, as the Führer was on his way back across France from the Spanish border where he had met Generalissimo Francisco Franco, his train stopped at Montoire-sur-le-Loir. Arriving by car, Pétain was led across the rail tracks and met Hitler on the platform where the two Heads of State shook hands as a matter of protocol — an

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Pétain and Laval moved into the Hôtel du Parc [3], together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The latter occupied the first floor; Laval’s residence and offices were on the second floor and Pétain had four rooms on the third, his office being Room 124 and his bedroom 125. Left: On July 14, 1940 —

faction. Pétain was Head of State and Prime Minister (President of the Council of Ministers); Laval was Vice-Prime Minister and Pétain’s designated successor; Raphaël Alibert Minister of Justice; Paul Baudouin Minister of Foreign Affairs; Yves Bouthillier Minister of Finances; Général Weygand Minister of National Defence. The National Assembly was suspended and the deputies and senators sent home, as was Albert Lebrun, the former Président of the Republic, pressed to leave Vichy on July 15. Général de Gaulle was summoned to return and, as he did not obey, a military tribunal condemned him to death in absentia for desertion on August 2. Ex-Prime Minister Reynaud was arrested in September, put on trial, and sentenced in 1941 to life imprisonment. In Vichy, governmental offices took over

all available premises and each of the major hotels transformed itself into a ministry. Pétain, Laval and Baudouin moved into the Hôtel du Parc; the Justice and Finance Ministries lodged themselves at the Carlton; the Ministry of War established itself at the Hôtel Thermal; the Marine at the Hôtel du Helder; the Colonies at the Hôtel Britannique; while the Hôtel des Ambassadeurs accommodated most of the foreign diplomats. Civil servants progressively arrived, bringing with them what records they had been able to save, and more than 30,000 civil servants of the various ministries and government agencies were soon established in Vichy. Nevertheless, throughout the summer months, everyone was convinced that the government, officials and services would all be back in Paris before long.

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The Vichy regime was officially established on July 11 with Constitutional Act No. 2 ‘defining the authority of the Chief of the French State’ signed by Maréchal Pétain. This stated that the Head of State (Pétain himself) ‘shall have full governmental powers’; he ‘shall exercise legislative power until the formation of the new Assemblies’; ‘he shall promulgate laws and assure their execution’; ‘he shall have full power over the armed forces’; and ‘envoys and ambassadors of foreign countries shall be accredited to him’. At the same time, all provisions of the constitutional laws of the Third Republic of 1875 that were ‘incompatible with this act’ were hereby abrogated. Formed on July 16, the government included all the participants of the defeatist

France’s National Day — the Maréchal attended a Mass before laying a wreath at the First World War memorial. He then appeared on the hotel balcony. Right: Like so many of Vichy’s hotels, the Hôtel du Parc has now been converted into apartments.

Left: Laval leaving the hotel with Fernand de Brinon, a dedicated collaborationist who was the Vichy representative to the German High Command in occupied Paris. The four-year sojourn of the Pétain regime at Vichy resulted in that today the name of the city is, first and foremost, synonymous with the

collaborationist government. However, the city as such bore no particular responsibility for the criminal behaviour of this administration. Whatever was done by the Vichy government was France’s responsibility, not that of the city. Right: The façade of the Hôtel du Parc has been re-modelled. 7

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The once-tranquil Rue du Parc soon saw endless comings and goings of officials, and became the venue for frequent parades. Here the 2ème Régiment d’Infanterie Coloniale marches past in the autumn of 1942.

In 1940, the Rue du Parc was renamed Rue du Maréchal Pétain while an already existing Rue du Maréchal Pétain elsewhere in town (near [6] on the town plan) had its name changed to Rue du Maréchal Lyautey. In 1945, the former street had its old name restored while Rue du Maréchal Lyautey retained its new name.

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RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE ALLIED POWERS Following the aggression at Mers-el-Kébir, on July 5 the Vichy government unsurprisingly broke off diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom. However, discreet contacts were re-established from September 1940 when ambassadors Robert de la Baume and Sir Samuel Hoare met at Madrid. These unofficial contacts were maintained at least until it became apparent to London that Laval intended collaboration with Germany. In the summer of 1940, several of the overseas colonies of France went over to the Free French like most of French Equatorial Africa in August. However, worried that some strategic French overseas territories remained under Vichy control, Britain decided to mount military operations to take them over. Operation ‘Menace’ was launched in September to seize the Vichyheld port of Dakar in French West Africa (now Senegal). However, the attempt to encourage the French military there to join the Allies failed miserably. A sharp firefight broke out and, shaken by the resolute defence, the British and Free French task force withdrew. The invasion of Syria and Lebanon was launched in July 1941 by a small Free French force but there, too, the Vichy defenders fought back yet the Syrian capital, Damascus, was captured on the 17th and the campaign ended with the fall of Beirut. In 1942, fearing that Japanese forces might use Madagascar as a base to disrupt trade and communications in the Indian Ocean, the British command initiated Operation ‘Ironclad’ aimed at the seizure of the Vichycontrolled island. The landing at DiégoSuarez in May 1942 was relatively easy but it still took British forces a further six months to gain control of the entire island. In the meantime, the French colonies peacefully and progressively switched to support the Free French in response to persuasion and to changing events. This took some time however, and Guadeloupe and Martinique in the West Indies, as well as French Guyana on the northern coast of South America, did not join with the Free French until 1943. When the French government left Paris in mid-June 1940, the American embassy staff followed while the ambassador, William C. Bullitt, remained in the capital to oversee the evacuation of American and British civilians. The embassy staff was with the French government in the vicinity of Clermont-Ferrand when Bullitt rejoined it on or about June 29, before departing on July 11. The American embassy relocated to Vichy in the summer of 1940 and a new ambassador, William D. Leahy, presented his credentials to Pétain in January 1941.

The Maréchal occasionally went for a walk accompanied by security officers. Here he returns from a stroll along the bank of the Allier river which runs through the city. 8

The comparison view today looking south-west along Boulevard des États-Unis, two blocks away from his headquarters in the Hôtel du Parc.

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The American Embassy relocated to Vichy in the summer of 1940 and a new Ambassador, William D. Leahy, presented his credentials to Pétain at the Pavillon Sévigné in January 1941, with the Embassy staff standing on the right behind Leahy. L-R: Lieutenant Commander Roscoe D. Hillenkoeter, naval attaché (and in 1947 to become the first director of the CIA); Major Robert A. Schow, military attaché; Lieutenant Commander Cato D. Glover, naval attaché; William C. Trimble, Vice-Consul, and Douglas MacArthur II, embassy secretary (a nephew of General Douglas MacArthur).

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While Great Britain’s attitude towards Vichy was straightforward, American policy was remarkably ambiguous. The Roosevelt administration consistently cultivated the Vichy regime, even after the Anglo-American invasion of French North Africa in late 1942. Right until 1944 Roosevelt and his administration remained consistently hostile to de Gaulle and the Free French, a position they backed by disregarding him as an ‘apprentice dictator’. Together with the US, most countries, from the Soviet Union to the Vatican, and including Canada, Australia and Japan, granted the Vichy government full diplomatic recognition and delegated ambassadors. Thus, amazingly, Canada, Australia and the US maintained their embassy in Vichy even though they were at war with Germany! The Soviet Union broke off diplomatic relations on June 30, 1941, after Vichy approved the German attack on them but all the other countries continued their relations with Vichy. Ambassador Leahy was recalled to Washington for consultation in the spring of 1942 when Laval was recalled as Prime Minister, leaving S. Pinkney Tuck as American Chargé in Vichy, and it was Vichy that finally decided to sever diplomatic relations with the United States following the AngloAmerican invasion of French North Africa in November 1942. Tuck then left and the Swiss Ambassador, Walter Stucki, took over the interest of the United States at Vichy.

The Pavillon Sévigné was a luxurious hotel ever since the early 1900s. After the Armistice it was requisitioned in early July 1940 as the residence of Albert Lebrun, the last President of the Third Republic. Left: Citizens gather in front of the building in the hope of seeing Pétain or one of the many personalities who visited him. Right: The establishment was located at what is today No. 50 Boulevard du Président Kennedy but it closed in 1995 and is now a private residence.

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In 1942 Pétain established his private residence at the Pavillon Sévigné [26] on Boulevard des États-Unis, though he stayed there mainly in the summer, preferring to live at the Hôtel du Parc during the winter. The house owes its name to the writer Madame de Sévigné who followed thermal treatments at Vichy in 1676-77 and popularised the town through her famous letters to her daughter. However, although it was implied in the past, it is believed that she never actually lived in the building.

Following the sudden death of Sotomatsu Kato, the Japanese Ambassador at Vichy, in February 1942, Takonobu Mitani was

appointed as his successor. Left: In May he visited Maréchal Pétain at the Pavillon Sévigné to present his credentials. 9

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Taken over by the government, each of the major hotels in Vichy was transformed into a ministry. However, the organisation of the Pétain administration was adjusted many times between 1940 and 1944, with offices changing names. Also, as time passed and missions evolved, ministries might move from one hotel to another or occupy additional space in other buildings. For easy reference, the addresses given

here for the buildings are the present-day ones. There are two cases where the street name was different during the war: Boulevard du Président Kennedy (Pavillon Sévigné and Hôtel Bellevue) was still part of Boulevard des États-Unis, and Avenue Walter Stucki (named after the Swiss Ambassador to Vichy), where Admiral Darlan lived, was then called Avenue des Cygnes.

VICHY GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS 1 2 3 4

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Grand Casino (Opera) Villa Strauss Hôtel du Parc Hôtel Carlton

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Hôtel Thermal Hôtel des Célestins Hôtel Albert 1er Hôtel Plaza Hôtel des Princes Hôtel de la Paix Hôtel du Helder Hôtel Radio

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27

Hôtel Britannique Castel Flamand Hôtel de Grignan Hôtel Florida Hôtel des Bains Hôtel Algéria Hôtel Bellevue Hôtel de Séville Hôtel Moderne Cecil Hôtel Hôtel des Ambassadeurs Villa ICA Hôtel des Lilas Villa Hôtel du Portugal Pavillon Sévigné Villa

National Assembly National Council Pétain, Laval, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Finances, State Secretary for Industrial Production, State Secretary for Labour War Ministry Ministry of the Interior Ministry of Agriculture Ministry of Education State Secretary for Family and Health State Secretary for Information State Secretary for Marine, Admiralty, Merchant Navy State Secretary for Aviation, State Secretary for Family and Youth State Secretary for the Colonies State Secretary for Communications State Secretary for Information and Propaganda State Secretary for Supply Army General Staff Commissioner for Jewish Affairs Sureté Nationale Légion Française des Combattants Milice Radio Nationale and Voix de la France Diplomatic Corps Rue du Parc US Embassy, later Swiss Embassy Various Embassies German Embassy Sicherheitspolizei and SD (KdS) Pétain private residence Darlan private residence

4 Rue de Belgique 23 Rue du Parc 26 Rue du Président Wilson 7 Rue du Parc 125 Rue Maréchal Lyautey 35 Rue Sainte Cécile 9 Rue du Parc 11 Rue du Parc 13 Rue du Parc 13 Avenue Thermale 15 Boulevard de Russie 25 Rue Lucas 2 Rue de Belgique 7 Place Sévigné 20 Rue de la Source de l’Hôpital 32 Rue du Président Wilson 22 Boulevard Carnot 46 Boulevard du Président Kennedy 9 Boulevard de Russie 8 Rue Durand Fardel 13 Boulevard de Russie 1 Rue du Parc 114 Boulevard des États-Unis 11 Avenue Victoria 31 Boulevard de Russie 121 Boulevard des États-Unis 50 Boulevard du Président Kennedy 1 Avenue Walter Stucki

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Left: A still from a newsreel in the summer of 1940 featuring the Ministry of Agriculture which had been installed in the Hôtel Albert 1er (note the early makeshift sign). In July and August, this hotel [7] housed the Belgian Prime Minister

position was initially styled ‘Plenipotentiary of the Foreign Office to the Military Commander’. An unofficial chain of contact was quickly established from Abetz in Paris through de Brinon to Laval that soon superseded the official discussions held at the armistice commission at Wiesbaden. In August, Abetz was appointed German ambassador to France although he could not be formally accredited to the French government as the two countries were still officially at war. His office was in Paris but from the end of 1941 he established a liaison office at Vichy (Zweigstelle der Deutschen Botschaft bei der Vichy-Regierung) under Roland Krug von Nidda.

When General Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel took over as military commander in France in February 1942, he called for a clear separation between his own military responsibilities and the political ones. This met the plans of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler as to his own sphere of influence in the occupied territories, and in March he appointed SS-Brigadeführer Karl Oberg as Höhere SS- und Polizeiführer (Higher SS and Police Leader) for occupied France. Oberg quickly established SS-Hauptsturmführer Hugo Geissler at Vichy with a small team of the Sicherheitsdienst, styled the Deutsche Polizei-Delegation (German Police Delegation).

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GERMAN OFFICES IN FRANCE The Germans soon established a Military Commander in France — the Militärbefehlshaber Frankreich — with the responsibility of controlling the occupied French territory. The first commander was General Otto von Stülpnagel with an office in the Hôtel Majestic, Avenue Kléber, in Paris. Consequently, to liaise with him, the Vichy government had to establish a delegation in the capital. It was supposed to be a simple administrative office to deal with affairs in the occupied territories but its leader, Fernand de Brinon, was a dedicated collaborationist and he quickly established strong contacts with Otto Abetz, a diplomat whose

Hubert Pierlot and some of his ministers before they went to London via Spain. Right: Still featuring the name associated with its past, the building at No. 35 Rue Sainte Cécile has also now been turned into separate apartments.

Left: The War Ministry — at first styled Ministry of National Defence — was established at the Thermal Palace [5] at No. 7 Rue du Parc. Here, Général Huntziger, the commander of the Armed Forces, and Général Jean Bergeret, Secretary of State

for Aviation, are pictured entering the building on June 25, 1941. Right: The only one of the old Vichy palaces still functioning as a hotel, the Thermal Palace is now the four-star Aletti Palace Hôtel. 11

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Left: At first, the Interior Ministry had its offices in the Grand Casino [1], its new function illustrated by another still from the 1940 newsreel. This is the eastern entrance to the Casino

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In a touch of irony, the Hôtel des Ambassadeurs [21] at No. 1 Rue du Parc housed foreign diplomats. The Swiss Embassy initially had two rooms on the first floor but was given another two rooms, and then an additional four, as it progressively took over the interests of other countries: Egypt in 1941, Iran and South Africa in 1942, and South American countries in 1943. The picture (left) dates from 1942.

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COLLABORATION To ensure that a government-in-exile was not formed in North Africa or London to further prosecute the war, and that the French fleet remained neutral, the Germans were determined to set up a French government of France. Also, they needed an efficient French administration to run the country, and the co-operation of the French police to keep order, so that they could leave the smallest possible force occupying the country, as by the summer of 1941 there were only around 40,000 second-rate German troops in France. Yet the Germans were not ready to give more than necessary to assuage the French government. While the French pressed their demands that prisoners of war should be released immediately, the Germans quickly moved them to camps in Germany in the autumn of 1940. As to the occupation costs provided by Article 18 of the armistice, the Germans decided in August 1940 that they would require 20 million Reichmarks per day — a huge amount totalling 400 million francs at the highly unfavourable exchange rate imposed on France. French delegates negotiated fiercely to have the figure set at a more reasonable level, and in January 1941 the cost was finally reduced to 300 million francs per day. This huge payment to Germany quickly resulted in a sharp increase of the cost of food products in France. Although the future of Alsace and Lorraine was not covered in the armistice, the Germans took measures to practically annex the contested provinces to the Third Reich.

looking at the extension which had been added on in 1901. Right: Wholly renovated in 1995, the building is now primarily used as a congress hall.

Also converted into apartments, the former hotel cannot be visited, although a glimpse of its grandeur can be had in the lobby.

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Notwithstanding the difficult times and regardless of having had to relocate to unusual venues, the French Navy kept its head high, keeping to normal routines and regulations as much as possible. This smart sentry is a Fusilier Marin. against England . . . and Pétain’s monosyllabic utterances during the discussion had clearly been meant as a rebuff.’

The meeting was also a disappointment for Pétain and for that he laid the blame on Laval. Realising that the ‘meeting caused

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By mid-July 1940, guards began to be deployed along the ‘border’, and from November 120,000 French-speaking people were summarily expelled from the two provinces, being forced to leave all their belongings behind. In the meantime, the Germans were content to let the official peace talks by the commissions at Wiesbaden rumble on, making no progress at all. Some in the German military, like Grossadmiral Erich Raeder, the Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine, believed that France might well serve as a positive asset in Mediterranean strategy. Though the actual Mediterranean was only of second interest to Hitler — his one and only strategic aim lay in the East for the acquisition of Lebensraum and the defeat of the Soviet Union — he considered the idea, and in October 1940 he decided to take the opportunity of his planned conference with General Francisco Franco, the Spanish leader, on the Franco-Spanish border to organise a meeting with Pétain. On October 24, on his way back across France from the meeting with Franco, Hitler broke his journey at Montoire-sur-leLoir, some 80 kilometres west of Orléans. Having learnt of the summons to meet the Führer late on the 22nd, Pétain and Laval adopted a line of ‘prudent reticence’; consequently the conference bogged down. Hitler was ‘profoundly disappointed’ as witnessed Dr Paul Schmidt, his interpreter at the meeting: ‘The French said not a word about his hint that they should enter the war

No. 13 Avenue Thermale — another still from the same newsreel. Right: This too is now an up-market apartment block.

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Left: The Naval Ministry, together with the Admiralty and the Merchant Navy, were installed in the Hôtel du Helder [9] at

To provide links with the Navy’s regular communication network, signal lorries were parked in a side street alongside the hotel.

Looking down Rue de la Grande Grille today with the former hotel’s main entrance just around the corner to the right. 13

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Journalists gathering outside the Hôtel de la Paix [8] at No. 13 Rue du Parc which in 1942 accommodated the State Secretary for Information.

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some hopes and some concerns’, he addressed the French people on the radio on October 30: ‘A collaboration was envisioned between our two countries. I accepted it in principle. The methods will be discussed later on.’ In reality, the Germans never gave any substance to the idea of ‘collaboration’ with the French, and the whole event turned into a one-sided initiative from Vichy in the hope that they could obtain concessions and a more-favourable peace treaty. With hindsight, it appears that the efforts of Vichy to obtain concessions finally allowed the Germans to put into action their plans for the economic looting of France; the removal of French workers to Germany, and the deportation of France’s Jews. With the relatively small occupation force at their disposal, the Germans would never have succeeded in managing such a large developed country without the active support of the French government, its administration and police. From the beginning, the Germans suspected that Pétain was double-crossing them by dealing secretly with the Allies and having the French army re-arm itself for a future insurrection. Meeting Mussolini in October 1940, Hitler said that he was convinced that Pétain and de Gaulle had a secret agreement. Consequently, German intelligence was particularly active in spying on Vichy and the number of their operatives in southern France more than doubled in the year following the signing of the armistice. They infiltrated the Vichy administration, including the army, the paramilitary organisations, the police, and even the units assigned to guard Pétain and Laval. They reported worrying signs like the secret stockpiling of arms by the armistice army; proposals to reconstitute the air force in North Africa, and the training of soldiers in guerrilla warfare. In turn, the Vichy counter-intelligence service strove to uncover and arrest German spies, about 2,000 being caught between 1940 and 1942, many being executed. In December 1940 Pétain decided to dismiss Laval as the latter’s attempts to obtain concessions from the Germans had still not achieved anything positive, and he was put under house arrest in his private residence at Châteldon. Laval’s sudden sacking enraged the Germans and the new Prime Minister, Pierre-Etienne Flandin, quickly proved unacceptable to them and he had to resign early in February 1941. A new government was formed under Admiral François Darlan, who decided to hold all key positions personally: Vice-Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Interior and

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Left: The Hôtel Ruhl had been requisitioned as Military Hospital No. 75 during the First World War. From 1940, by then named the Hôtel Radio [10], it lodged the State Secretary for Aviation and State Secretary for Family and Youth. Here a parade passes the building in May 1942. Above: The building at No. 15 Boulevard de Russie is now residential apartments.

No longer a hotel, the building had its front door boarded up with work going on inside when Jean Paul visited Vichy in the spring of 2015.

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shown here in a postcard from the 1920s. Right: Although now converted to apartments, the façade of the building at No. 9 Boulevard de Russie still features the name associated with its historic past.

Left: The General Commissariat for Jewish Affairs was created in March 1941 to implement the anti-Semitic laws enacted by Pétain’s government. Xavier Vallat was appointed its first director. Hotels were allotted to ministries on the basis of rank

and status and, because of the uneasiness associated with this particular office, it was buried in the Hôtel Algéria [16] (right) at No. 22 Boulevard Carnot, one of the city’s least attractive hotels, and far removed from Pétain.

Minister of the Navy, and in August he also assumed the post of Minister of National Defence. As Laval had done, Darlan also tried to obtain concessions from Germany, going to see Hitler at Berchtesgaden on May 11, but again he met only German intransigence and his efforts to progress towards a formal peace treaty failed. On December 1, Pétain met Hermann Göring to try to further the French demands but the Reichsmarschall told him that he was only willing to discuss one point: the support that might be given to the Afrika-Korps from Tunisia. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7 (see After the Battle No. 38), four days later Germany declared war on the United States. Darlan was reluctant to break off relations with the US and the Germans put no pressure on him to do so. By the spring of 1942, it was clear that Darlan’s policies had failed to obtain any positive steps from the Germans towards peace so Pétain decided to replace him. He consulted with Admiral Leahy but the latter made clear that the United States would not tolerate the return of Laval. However, not having found a better candidate, in April Pétain recalled Laval, which led to Leahy being summoned by Roosevelt to Washington for ‘consultation’.

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Left: The Légion Française des Combattants was an organisation set up by Vichy in August 1940 to rally the country’s war veterans behind the regime. It initially set up headquarters in the Carlton but in April 1941 moved to the Hôtel de Séville [18],

Renamed Hôtel Carnot after the war, the building has been closed for a long time and is now deserted with no reference whatsoever to its criminal past. Therefore, it was interesting when the former New York Times reporter Adam Nossiter chose to call his 2001 book on reflections on how France today lives with its wartime past, The Algeria Hotel. 15

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The State Secretary for the Colonies set up office in the Hôtel Britannique [11] at No. 25 Rue Lucas.

than a Republican government. On the other hand, there were those who pushed for various reforms that the Third Republic had failed to achieve. Genuine fascist elements had but minor roles in Vichy. Also, some members of the Vichy administration were ‘insiders’ who used their positions to further the goals of the Resistance movement. The government of Maréchal Pétain undertook a program of reform under the

title of National Revolution — the goal being the total restructure of French society. The National Revolution emphasised religion, patriotism, the importance of the family, and each person’s work. The motto of ‘Work, Family, Nation’ replaced the republican slogan ‘Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood’. In the summer of 1940 the regime created the Légion Française des Combattants, an organisation dedicated to disseminate the

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THE VICHY REGIME Officials in the Vichy government were a mixed bag, from reactionaries to liberal modernisers. Many, including the old Pétain, were reactionaries who considered that the Third Republic was responsible for France’s unfortunate fate. They thought it would be preferable to have an authoritarian government similar to that of General Franco’s Spain, albeit under Germany’s yoke, rather

Another hotel transformed into apartments, the former Britannique still has the same iron porch over the entrance.

French West Africa was attacked by a British and Free French naval task force. Right: The venue was the Place de l’Hôtel de Ville, in front of the Town Hall (off the plan on page 10).

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Left: On September 25, 1941, Darlan, Vice-Premier since February, presided over the anniversary celebration of Vichy’s successful resistance at Dakar in September 1940 when the strategic port in

Left: On February 19, 1942, Pétain left the Town Hall after he had officiated at the swearing-in of newly nominated prefects. With him were Darlan (left) and Jean-François Jannekeyn (right), a fighter ace from the First World War soon to be appointed Minister of Aviation. Right: From 1942 . . . to 2015 . . . the same stairway today. 16

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The ideology of the État Français (French State) — the term coined to differentiate the Vichy state from its precursor, the Third Republic — included an impressive personality cult for Pétain. The Marshal’s portrait was omnipresent, printed on money, stamps and posters, painted on walls or represented in bust sculptures. A song to his glory, Maréchal, nous voilà!, even became an unofficial national anthem.

Built in 1902, the palace was considerably modified in 1928 with a diamond-shaped central part featuring huge windows.

tion of middle-aged men was lacking vigour so the Service d’Ordre Légionnaire was created in January 1942 to recruit younger members. Suspicious that the National Revo-

lution was designed to encourage French patriotism, the Germans banned the Vichy veterans’ and youth groups from the Occupied Zone.

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ideas of the National Revolution. It rallied veterans of the First World War who were, naturally, faithful supporters of Pétain, the ‘Victor of Verdun’. However, this organisa-

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In April 1942, Pétain, in company with Général Jean Bergeret, Secretary of State for Aviation, inaugurated Aviation Week at the imposing Palais des Sources.

Left: Pétain, accompanied by Admiral Darlan and Admiral Marcel Gensoul, commander of the Vichy-French fleet, leaving the Hôtel France et Pasteur after having inaugurated an

exhibition dedicated to the Navy in May 1941. Above: Another hotel converted to apartments, the building still stands at No. 19 Avenue Aristide Briand. 17

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France (inset right). Its plaque was originally mounted inside the hotel in 1990 but protests from its inhabitants forced it to be moved, an indication of the unease that still surrounds the war period in present-day Vichy.

In April 1942, Pétain recalled Pierre Laval to be Vice-Premier, and in January the following year the regime created the Milice, a paramilitary force that soon began helping the Germans to combat the Resistance movement. Left: Its headquarters was in the Hôtel Moderne [19] located at No. 8 Rue

Durand Fardel. Here Laval is seen leaving the building together with Francis Bout de l’An, the organisation’s SecretaryGeneral, and (behind) Joseph Darnand, its leader. Right: The Hôtel Moderne is still in business today but, as far as the Milice were concerned, they were held to account in 1945.

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Pétain and Vice-Premier Darlan taking a walk in the Parc des Sources just across the street from their office. Near this spot now stands the memorial bearing witness to the Vichy regime’s responsibility for the deportation of 76,000 Jews from

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Above: In May 1941, following the major round-up of foreign Jews in Paris by the French police, 1,700 of them were interned at a camp in Pithiviers, 75 kilometres south of Paris (in the German-occupied zone). Here the column of detainees arrives at the camp gate having been marched there from the railway station escorted by armed French policemen.

The notorious camp was razed after the war and houses built on either side of the street, which today is aptly named Rue de l’Ancien Camp. A memorial now stands at its junction with Rue Jules Morin, close to where the camp entrance had been.

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VICHY AND THE PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS As soon as it was established, the Vichy government took measures against so-called ‘undesirables’, and in July 1940 it set up a special commission charged with reviewing naturalisations granted since the 1927 reform of the nationality law. Between June 1940 and August 1944, the commission examined 500,000 cases and denaturalised 15,000 persons, 40 per cent of them Jews. In September 1940, a German ordinance instructed all Jews in the Occupied Zone to identify themselves as such to the local police but Vichy protested against this German interference on the Jewish question. The Vichy government then promulgated its own Statute on Jews. This discriminated against Jews and excluded them from, or strictly restricted access to, the administration, the armed forces, entertainment, arts, media, and certain professions, such as teaching, law, and medicine. Vichy further distinguished between foreign and French Jews, and ruled that the former could be interned at the discretion of the local authorities. These anti-Semitic measures were initiated by the Vichy government alone, without any pressure from the Germans — in fact Vichy’s measures practically opposed German plans for at that point the Nazis’ intention was more to expel Jews to France and other destinations. In late October, 7,000 Jews arrived in France having been expelled from Germany, in spite of strong protests from Vichy. A Commissariat Général aux Questions Juives (General Commissariat for Jewish Affairs) was created in March 1941, initially directed by Xavier Vallat, and in May that year the first major arrest operation was mounted when French police summoned foreign Jews in Paris to attend police stations, allegedly to clear up their administrative situation. Over 3,700 were promptly arrested. French police organised another major operation on August 20, cordoning off the 11th Arrondissement in Paris and arresting 4,200 persons. They were interned, mainly at Drancy, north-east of Paris, but also at Pithiviers and Beaune-la-Rolande in the Loiret département, south of the capital. Camps were already available in France for several had been opened in the late 1930s to house Republican refugees fleeing Spain after the victory of Franco’s forces. In mid1939, following the German-Soviet NonAggression Pact, the pre-war French government outlawed the Communist Party and its prominent members were interned, quickly followed by German citizens resident in the country after France declared war on Germany on September 3. Then came the arrest of French fascists who supported Nazi Germany, and from June 1940 Italian citizens.

New arrivals in the camp being registered by the French police. In the summer of 1942, six train-loads left Pithiviers directly for Auschwitz carrying a total of 6,097 persons.

A first memorial was built on the site in 1957. This was progressively enlarged, and in 2012 panels were added listing all those who could be identified from the deportations sent to Auschwitz. 19

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Led by a SdKfz 250 half-track, the column passes through the checkpoint at the eastern end of the Pont des Chavannes — the same one as seen on page 5. Vélodrome d’Hiver, an indoor cycle stadium in Paris. There they were held for five days without sufficient food, water and sanitary facilities prior to their transfer to transit camps during the following week. The following month French police arrested 7,000 Jews in the southern zone, most transiting through the Camp-des-Milles near Aix-en-

Provence before reaching Drancy. By the end of September virtually all of those arrested had been sent to Auschwitz for extermination. By the year’s end, about 42,000 Jews had been deported. In January 1943 a major round-up took place in Marseille. Vichy intended to redevelop the area of the Old Port that was an

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The introduction of the National Revolution soon widened the scope of the undesirables, and now gypsies, homosexuals and prostitutes were interned in addition to foreign Jews and any stateless persons. To accommodate the influx, more camps were opened. The police oversaw the confiscation of telephones and radios from Jewish homes and enforced a curfew on them starting in February 1942, together with requirements that Jews not appear in public places and only ride on the last carriage on the Parisian metro. On January 20, 1942, at the Wannsee Conference, the Nazi regime officially formulated the policy of the extermination of all European Jews. From the spring the policy was implemented in all occupied countries and in France the first train of deportees left Drancy on March 27 bound for Poland. In June the Germans informed Vichy that they had decided to deport all Jews residing in France, making no distinction between Jews of French nationality and foreign or stateless Jews. The French government protested and, as a compromise, French Jews were excluded from the deportations. In June 1942, the Germans directed that it was now mandatory for Jews in the Occupied Zone of France (and also in Belgium and the Netherlands) to wear a yellow star, although Vichy refused to have the measure implemented in the non-occupied zone and in French North Africa. During the night of July 16/17, the French police organised a massive round-up of foreign and stateless Jews in Paris, arresting some 13,000 persons, including 5,000 women and 4,000 children. They were taken to the

10. Panzer-Division was pictured symbolically crossing the demarcation line at Chalon-sur-Saône. Right: The Saint-Laurent bridge over the main branch of the Saône river, looking north today.

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On November 11, 1942, in reaction to the Allied landings in North Africa, the Germans invaded southern France. Left: Tasked to drive south to the Mediterranean coast, a battle group of the

By the evening of the 11th, German forces had reached the Mediterranean coast. On the 27th they tried to seize the demobilised fleet at Toulon but the French managed to scuttle nearly all their ships, so preventing three battleships, seven cruisers, 28 destroyers, 12 submarines and 70 other 20

ships from falling into the hands of the Axis powers (see After the Battle No. 76). Left: PK-photographer Hans-Theodor Wagner pictured a platoon of PzKpfw III reaching the heart of Marseille. Right: Looking down the Canebière, the famous historic high street of Marseille, today.

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FORCED LABOUR By the time Laval returned as Prime Minister in April 1942, Germany was finally committed to the idea of a long war. Albert Speer was appointed as armament minister in February to nationalise war production and eliminate inefficiencies. Conscription into the armed forces had put extreme pressure on German industrial labour so Gauleiter Fritz Sauckel was brought in during March as Generalbevollmächtigter für den Arbeitseinsatz (General Plenipotentiary for Labour Deployment). His task was to recruit foreign labour and he soon turned to forced recruitment, thousands of workers being transported to the Reich from the Eastern territories, especially Poland and the Soviet Union. An appeal was issued in France for volunteers to go to work in Germany where good wages were offered, but the number was largely insufficient to satisfy the German demands of manpower. Sauckel went to Paris in June where he threatened Laval with forcible requisition of labour. To dodge the issue, Laval announced the institution of the ‘relève’, whereby workers were encouraged to volunteer to work in Germany in exchange for the release of prisoners of war.

Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt, the German C-in-C in the West, went to Vichy to give Pétain formal notification of the occupation. The latter answered with a note of solemn protest. Here Generalmajor Hermann Niehoff is seen leaving the Vichy War Ministry in the Thermal Palace [5], having discussed details of the invasion with French officials.

Above: The same entrance of what is today the Aletti Palace Hôtel. Von Rundstedt soon appointed General major (retired) Alexander von Neubronn as his liaison officer to Vichy. Von Neubronn later testified how this was only a matter of courtesy and that he ‘was to abstain from any active or passive attempt to exert a political influence’. Both he and his staff wore civilian clothes and for a reason: ‘The atmosphere of Vichy was strikingly different from that reigning in other parts of the country. At the request of Marshal Pétain, Generalfeldmarschall von Rundstedt had given orders that Vichy was to be kept free of German soldiers, and that in fact no German uniforms were to be shown there, but on the other hand, all the more diplomats and French governmental officials.’ Left: However, as this picture of German Ambassador Otto Abetz taken in November 1942 shows, diplomats did not give much heed to von Rundstedt’s directive. Right: Rue du Parc, in front of the former Hôtel du Parc.

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unhealthy slum neighbourhood with small narrow streets. An ambitious plan had been prepared by French architects to rebuild the whole area, but the Germans considered it a ‘terrorist nest’ and an ideal opportunity to arrest all the Jewish people living there. Oberg personally came down from Paris with René Bousquet, the Vichy Secretary-General of Police, and the German police forces took over the whole operation. Commencing on January 22, for three days house-to-house searches were made to every property in the Old Port. The identities of 40,000 people were checked, 2,000 being singled out for arrest and transportation to camps. Then the remaining population — some 30,000 souls — was excluded while 1,500 buildings were demolished by explosives. Vichy’s policy was not driven by the desire to exterminate the Jews. The leadership used the so-called Jewish problem as it did with other issues: to gain wider political advantage from the Germans and a place for France in the ‘New Order’. As far as the Nazis’ ‘final solution’ was concerned, the truth is that Vichy simply did not want to know. Laval told cabinet meetings and foreign diplomats that the Jews were going to a new state in Eastern Europe where they were building an agricultural colony, and he never pressed the Germans on whether this was true or not.

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Surprised in Algiers by the Allied landings, Admiral Darlan, the Commander-in-Chief of Vichy Armed Forces, soon issued orders for a cease-fire whereupon the Allies recognised him as High Commissioner for North and West Africa. Left: Darlan’s

OPERATION ‘TORCH’ On November 8, 1942, the Allies launched Operation ‘Torch’, the invasion of French North Africa with landings in Morocco and Algeria. The strategic aim was to open a second front, fulfilling Roosevelt’s promise to the Soviet Union to do this by the end of 1942. From the early planning of the operation, the Allies sought to find a French leader who could rally the Vichy armed forces in North Africa. This could not be de Gaulle for, in addition to American hostility, harsh feelings against him and the Free French existed among the forces in North Africa. At the insistence of the Americans, the leader of the Free French was not informed of the operation before the actual landing took place. The Allies first decided to support Général Weygand, the leader of the defeatist faction in 1940, who was by now Vichy’s general delegate for Africa. However, this plan failed when Weygand was recalled to France so the Allies turned to Général Henri Giraud, who had just escaped from Königstein Castle in Germany. He had been held there as a prisoner of war and managed to sneak into France via Switzerland. Giraud was picked up near Toulon by HMS Seraph and taken to Gibraltar to meet General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the C-in-C

of Operation ‘Torch’. He arrived on November 7, just a few hours before the landings, only to discover that his demand for a French C-in-C was not to be granted. Consequently, he decided to remain ‘a spectator in this affair’. On November 8, all three landings — at Casablanca, Oran and Algiers — took place without serious opposition from French forces. That evening a cease-fire was sounded at Algiers after a meeting between Général Alphonse Juin, Commander-inChief of the French forces in North Africa, and Major General Charles W. Ryder, the commander of the US 34th Infantry Division who also led the Eastern Task Force during the landing phase. Much to their surprise, the Allies found that Admiral Darlan, the C-in-C of the Armed Forces of Vichy, was also in North Africa (He had flown to Algiers three days earlier to see his son who was ill in hospital.) Darlan first ordered the French army to resist but, pressed by Major General Mark W. Clark, Eisenhower’s deputy, he issued orders for a general cease-fire on November 10. An agreement was soon signed with Clark to formalise the deal and the Allies recognised Darlan, a very senior man from Vichy, as High Commissioner for North and West Africa.

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The Germans promised that for every three workers sent over, they would release one prisoner. In a memorable speech that same June, while pleading for the ‘relève’, Laval went as far as saying that he desired a German victory. In the event, the measure failed to raise the number of volunteers required by Sauckel — only 17,000 men had volunteered by the end of August 1942 — which led Vichy to pass a law that required all males born between 1920 and 1922 to the Service du Travail Obligatoire (compulsory work service). The STO finally enlisted and sent between 400,000 and 450,000 forced labour workers to Germany. However, this measure did more harm than good to Germany for thousands young men went to hiding in the countryside to escape the conscription, so strengthening the Maquis and the Resistance movement with potential fighters. Also, as the measure was seen by the population as clearly being proGerman, it greatly undermined the credibility of the Vichy government. Altogether 650,000 Frenchmen went to work in Germany between June 1942 and July 1944, France being the third-largest provider of manpower to the Third Reich, behind the Soviet Union and Poland, but the first provider of qualified workers.

private residence in Vichy was at No. 1 Avenue des Cygnes [27] on the corner with Quai de l’Allier. Right: The street name has changed to Avenue Walter Stucki but the view from the boat ramp along the river quay has remained the same.

Left: Following the invasion of North Africa, Vichy severed diplomatic relations with the United States and the Swiss Ambassador, Walter Stucki, thereafter represented US interests at Vichy. The Swiss took over the former US Embassy, based in the Villa ICA [22] at No. 114 Boulevard des États-Unis, 22

which they then used to house their ‘Section B’ in charge of foreign interests. This left the eight rooms in the Hôtel des Ambassadeurs for their ‘Section A’ to deal with their own interests (see page 12). Right: The beautiful villa still stands at the junction of Boulevard des États-Unis and Rue Prunelle.

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In January 1943 a major round-up of Jews took place in Marseille. Vichy intended to redevelop the Old Port which was an unhealthy slum neighbourhood with small narrow streets and an ambitious plan had been prepared by French architects to rebuild the whole area. Also, the Germans considered it a ‘terrorist nest’ and an ideal opportunity to take into custody all the Jewish people living there. SS-Brigadeführer Karl Oberg, the Höhere SS- und Polizeiführer (Higher SS and Police Leader) for occupied France, personally came down from Paris to supervise the operation. Commencing on January 22, for the next three days house-to-house searches were made to every property in the Old Port and the identities of 40,000 people were checked. Right: The following day René Bousquet (second from right in the fur-trimmed coat), who was the Vichy Secretary-General of Police, was pictured inside the town hall with (L-R) Oberstleutnant der Polizei Bernhard Griese, commanding SS-Polizei-Regiment Griese; regional prefect Marcel Lemoine; SS-Obersturmbannführer Rolf Mühler, chief of the German security police in Marseille, and Pierre Barraud, delegate to the prefectural administration of the city.

While German forces completely closed off the Old Port area, French police checked identity cards.

VICHY WITHOUT PÉTAIN As Christmas approached, Churchill reminded Roosevelt of Darlan’s ‘odious record’ and added: ‘We must not overlook the serious political injury which may be

done to our cause, not only in France, by the feeling that we are ready to make terms with local Quislings.’ Amazingly the problem was solved by a young Frenchman, Fernand Bonnier de la

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GERMAN INVASION With France’s Mediterranean coast now vulnerable to Allied attack, a take-over of the still-unoccupied southern part of France was the logical German military response to Operation ‘Torch’. Orders were quickly issued, the units readied, and H-hour set for 7 a.m. on November 11. Pétain and Weygand had long discussed the possibility of a German entry into the unoccupied zone with the commanders of the small Vichy army. (Article 4 of the armistice allowed France to retain an army of some 95,000 officers and men.) Both agreed however that there was no possible way of resisting a German take-over and French outposts were accordingly ordered not to try to oppose the Axis invasion. However, Pétain did give a broadcast during the day, angrily reproaching the Germans and Italians for violating the terms of the armistice. By the evening of November 11, the German advance parties had passed Toulouse, and they reached the Mediterranean coast the following day. At Toulon they halted in front of an enclave held by French troops around the harbour where the French fleet was moored. Two weeks later, on November 27, the Germans finally made an effort to seize the fleet. This Operation, ‘Lila’, ended in a complete failure as the French sailors managed to scuttle almost the entire fleet — about 80 ships — and to sabotage most of the coastal batteries (see After the Battle No. 76).

The Quai du Vieux Port, seen from just in front of the Brasserie de la Samaritaine, which has survived unchanged since 1943.

As men of SS-Polizei-Regiment Griese visited each street, children kept on playing as usual, unaware of the drama that was unfolding all around them. 23

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German police carrying out searches further down Quai du Vieux Port. Visible in the background is Marseille’s famous Pont Transbordeur (ferry bridge). Designed by engineer Ferdinand Arnodin and completed in 1905, it carried a 20-ton gondola suspended between two towers across the Old Harbour in a minute and a half.

Blown up by the Germans in August 1944, the iconic bridge was never rebuilt although some today propose that it should be reconstructed.

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Chapelle, when he shot the admiral to death in his headquarters in Algiers on December 24. The perpetrator was arrested and immediately tried and convicted by a French court, being executed by firing-squad on December 26. Officially, the man acted alone. Unofficially, there has been no end of speculation as to the secret intrigues at work and who might have manipulated the young idealist. Sir Stewart Menzies, the wartime head of MI6 who hardly ever left London, happened to be in Algiers at the time but no solid evidence has ever surfaced to prove any British involvement, nor that de Gaulle ordered the assassination. In any case, as Churchill admitted in his history of the Second World War, ‘Darlan’s murder relieved the Allies of their embarrassment for working with him and left them with all the advantages he had been able to bestow.’ Général Giraud then took over as High Commissioner. In January 1943, President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill met for the ‘Symbol’ Conference in Casablanca, French Morocco, to plan Allied strategy for the next phase of the war in Europe. At first, consistent in his rejection of de Gaulle, Roosevelt informed Churchill that he did not wish the Frenchman to even be present at the conference. However, he soon reconsidered his position when it was pointed out that the public acceptance of de Gaulle and Giraud might help bring the American public and media round as they had reacted badly to the President’s decision to back Darlan. At first, de Gaulle refused to come but he finally acceded to Churchill’s pressing summons, and at the conference the two French generals were encouraged to shake hands for the benefit of the Press. For months now it was ‘Vichy without Pétain’ in North Africa. Giraud maintained the regime, even failing to remove the racist laws or to liberate prisoners of the South Algerian camps. Though Eisenhower reported that Giraud was ‘reactionary and old-fashioned’ and had ‘no, repeat no, political acumen whatsoever’, Roosevelt still refused to support the leadership of de Gaulle. On June 3, 1943, the French Committee of National Liberation (FCNL) was finally established in Algiers under the leadership of co-Presidents de Gaulle and Giraud. In August President Roosevelt sent a message recognising the French Committee of National Liberation ‘as functioning within specific limitations during the war,’ after which ‘the people of France will proceed in due course to select their own government and their own officials to administer it’.

During the whole operation, nearly 6,000 people were taken into custody for further scrutiny of whom some 4,000 were soon released. In the end, 1,642 — almost all of them Jews — were deported to the camp at Royallieu, near Compiègne, and then to Drancy, from where they were sent to the extermination camps. Meanwhile, back in Marseille, the population of the Vieux Port — 24

some 30,000 souls — was expelled ready for the next stage. Starting on February 1, German engineers began to flatten the area, dynamiting over 1,500 buildings. This evacuation of the Old Port, and the deportations from it, was a notable case of the French police collaborating with the Germans. Left: Men of SS-PolizeiRegiment Griese and (right) a French Garde Mobile policeman.

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Following the Allied liberation of France in summer 1944, the Germans transferred the Vichy officials to south-west Germany and held them in the castle of Sigmaringen in Baden-Württemberg. Left: Pétain’s suite was on the seventh floor, Laval and his cabinet ministers were lodged on the sixth, and the hierarchy descended floor by floor. With troops of the French 1ère Armée approaching the castle

ment to Belfort in eastern France, but he refused to go and resigned his post of Prime Minister. All but a very few of the ministers followed, making clear that they considered themselves virtually prisoners, and that the Vichy Government had ceased to exist. The Germans started the forced transfer of the government during the evening of the 17th. The same day, Cecil von Renthe-Fink, the special diplomatic representative at Vichy since December 1943, informed Pétain that because of the current military situation, the German government was inviting him to leave Vichy for eastern France. Pétain refused this request whereupon von RentheFink presented him an ultimatum expiring 7 a.m. on August 20: either to go or be transferred against his will. The old Maréchal summoned Nuncio Valerio Valeri, the Vatican’s diplomatic representative at Vichy, and Swiss Ambassador Walter Stucki to hear and witness the German threat. At 6.45 a.m. on August 20, German troops sealed off Vichy and broke down the doors of the Hôtel du Parc which French guards had symbolically closed. Pétain was awakened and taken to his car with his wife. The German media claimed that Pétain and his government went willingly to Belfort but Nuncio Valeri and Mr Stucki were there to observe how the Maréchal had been kidnapped. The German statement was quickly contradicted in a Swiss broadcast from Bern which reported what Stucki had seen: that the Germans forced Pétain to follow them against his own will.

At Belfort, Pétain was installed at the Morvillars château, 12 kilometres south of the town, from August 24, while Laval was installed at the Préfecture with his ministers and officials. However their stay would not be long. Early on September 7, when gun-fire could be heard approaching, the French officials were once again relocated, this time to Germany. The convoy left at 5 a.m., driving via Mulhouse to Freiburg-im-Breisgau where they stopped for the night. The journey resumed next morning, the convoy crossing the Black Forest to reach the Danube at Donaueschingen. This they followed until reaching Sigmaringen, where all were installed in the local castle. Pétain’s suite was on the seventh floor of the castle, above Laval and the ministers on the floor below. Laval soon spent the first part of each morning preparing and practising his defence for the day when he would face the High Court of Justice in France on charges of treason. Meanwhile both Pétain and Laval wrote to Hitler to state that they refused to participate in any sort of ‘government-in-exile’ although Fernand de Brinon soon established an office styled the ‘Commission Gouvernementale Française pour la Défense des Intérêts Nationaux’ (French Government Commission for the Protection of National Interests). Only a few senior Vichy officials — Eugène Bridoux, Marcel Déat, Jean Luchaire and Joseph Darnand — accepted an offer to join with him. On October 29 Pétain wrote a letter to de Brinon forbidding him to use his name in any connection with this commission.

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LIBERATION AND THE SIGMARINGEN COMMISSION In January 1943, the Service d’Ordre Légionnaire was transformed into the Milice, a paramilitary force that soon participated in helping the German forces and police in the repression of the Resistance movement. The organisation’s formal head was Prime Minister Laval, although its de facto leader was Joseph Darnand. Towards the end of 1943, the mounting threat of the French resistance from within, and of de Gaulle and the Free French from outside, pushed Pétain to try to replace Laval — unsuccessfully. He then attempted to make the defunct National Assembly his successor, not Laval, but the Germans refused to allow it. To deal with the Resistance, the Germans pressed Pétain to name Joseph Darnand, the chief of the Milice, as secretary-general for the maintenance of order, something he reluctantly agreed to in December 1943. Thereafter Pétain virtually went on strike although he climbed down when the Germans threatened him with dire consequences. In the end, after Marcel Déat, a dedicated collaborationist, joined the government in March 1944 Pétain ceased to attend its meetings. Following the Allied landings in Normandy in June, and after two months of battle, the Wehrmacht started to withdraw from France, yet the Germans could not risk the Vichy government joining the Allies. Thus, on August 16, Otto Abetz directed Laval to move with his govern-

in late April 1945, the Germans again relocated their French ‘guests’, moving them further east into southern Bavaria. Right: Schloss Sigmaringen as seen from the north-east, rising high above the Danube on a towering cliff. Originating from the 11th century, the mediaeval castle was almost entirely destroyed in a fire in 1893 and then rebuilt in the eclectic style that was common at the time.

Left: Combat Command 1 of the 1ère Division Blindée cleared Sigmaringen on April 22, pushing on eastwards to reach Ulm on the 24th. Général Jean de Lattre de Tassigny was curious to see Pétain’s quarters so the 1ère Armée commander soon paid

a visit to the castle. Right: The same spot in front of the main gateway (off to the left). Access to the castle today is by guided tour only, visitors being shown Laval’s quarters but not those of Pétain. 25

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Switzerland and Liechtenstein having refused him access, at the end of April Laval turned to Spain. The Spaniards stalled for time but on May 2 the Germans provided a Junkers Ju 188 that took the former French Prime Minister to Spain. The Spaniards put their unwanted guest under house arrest and then in July told him to leave Spain for whatever destination he preferred. Laval was hoping to reach neutral Ireland but the German aircrew on standby (Oberfeldwebel Gerhard Böhm, pilot, and Unteroffizier Helmut Funk, the radio operator) wanted instead to return home and on July 31 the Junkers with Laval and his wife on board flew back to Austria, landing at Hörsching near Linz (above). The airfield was the base of the US 79th Fighter Group (note the P-47s in the background right) and Laval’s arrival created a mêlée of interest. The group history describes how ‘the base swarmed with brass and reporters; for weeks afterward, the men were swamped with clippings out of papers and magazines in the States, showing the 79th capturing Monsieur Laval’. Left: Laval was promptly handed over to the French authorities and flown back to France on August 1. The aircraft landed at Le Bourget near Paris in the afternoon after a stop at Strasbourg for refuelling, Laval’s arrival being kept secret to avoid possible demonstrations. As soon as he stepped down from the aircraft he was arrested in the presence of Pierre Béteille, an examining magistrate from the High Court of Justice. Then the one-time Prime Minister was whisked away to Fresnes prison. raised daily over the castle to a roll of German drums with a guard of honour from the Milice presenting arms. The French had their own radio and press at Sigmaringen, and the newspaper La France, edited by Jean Luchaire, was published right up until March 13, 1945. On April 5, Pétain wrote another letter to Hitler expressing his wish to return to France. He received no answer but beginning on April 21, the Germans began preparations for the

transfer of their French ‘guests’ to a redoubt they said was being organised around Berchtesgaden. A series of small convoys started out travelling south-eastwards although Pétain expressed his preference to cross into Switzerland from where he would return to France to face trial. On April 24, the Germans finally took him to the border and he entered Switzerland. He returned to France on the 26th when he was immediately arrested.

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By now the French enclave at Sigmaringen amounted to some 6,000 individuals, most of them POWs and civilian forced labourers. The collaborationists were only a few in number together with journalists, writers, actors, and some 500 men from the Milice. The French ‘state’ of Sigmaringen exchanged ambassadors with Germany and Japan, and even that other puppet state, Mussolini’s Republic of Salo. The tricolour was

Switzerland agreed to offer Pétain asylum so on April 24 the Germans took him to Bregenz on the Austrian frontier from where he entered Switzerland the same evening. Left: He was eager to immediately return to France to face trial and on the 26

26th, after just two days in the country, he crossed the border at Vallorbe, some 50 kilometres north of Geneva. He was immediately arrested and taken by train to Paris. Right: The café, on the French side of the border, still stands.

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Above left: Pétain’s trial before the French High Court began on July 23, 1945 in the historic Palais de Justice, located on the Île de la Cité in central Paris. He opened his initial declaration with the words: ‘I spent my life in the service of France’, going on to say that he did not accept the jurisdiction of the court. After this initial statement, Pétain remained silent through most of the rest of the proceedings. Above: He wore only one decoration, the Médaille Militaire awarded to those French generals who had actively commanded at the front against the enemy. After a final plea of his innocence had been presented, Pétain read a final declaration: ‘Dispose of me according to your consciences. Mine does not reproach me anything. I affirm that I had no other ambition but to serve France.’ He was found guilty and sentenced to death on August 15 but the verdict was subsequently reviewed and commuted to life imprisonment. Left: The First Chamber of the Court of Appeal today . . . here the Vichy leader learned his fate. As to Laval, he first sent a request to Switzerland, asking if he could enter the country for a temporary stay, but the answer was a clear refusal. Faced with another refusal from Liechtenstein, he then turned to Spain and approached the Foreign Minister, José de Lequerica, whom he had met in 1940. By 1945 Spain wanted to keep in the good books of the Allies and sheltering Laval was decidedly not a good idea. The Spanish stalled for time, hoping that Allied troops would soon capture the Frenchman but the Germans provided a Ju 188 aircraft that took off from Bolzano in northern Italy with Laval and his wife on the morning of May 2. Also on board were Paul Néraud, Laval’s private secretary; Maurice Gabolde, former Minister of Justice; Abel Bonnard, former Minister of Education, and his son Eugène. Three hours later, the aircraft landed safely in Barcelona where Laval was immediately arrested and interned in Montjuic citadel. The Spanish were eager to get rid of this annoying guest who had been foisted on them so in July they made clear to Laval that he must leave Spain for a destination of his choice, and that he could use the same German aircraft which had brought him. At first Laval wanted to go to neutral Ireland but by now the German crew wanted to return home. On July 31, the Junkers flew back to Austria, landing at Hörsching near Linz in the American zone . . . most probably the last flight by the Luftwaffe!

Brigadier General John E. Copeland, assistant commander of the 65th Infantry Division, promptly handed Laval over to the French authorities in Innsbruck. He was flown to France the following day, August 1, landing at Le Bourget near Paris after a stop at Strasbourg for refuelling. He was immediately put in jail. After he had made several attempts to reach Switzerland, Fernand de Brinon was captured at Innsbruck, Austria, on May 9, while Jean Luchaire was arrested in Merano on May 18. Both were soon transferred to France. Joseph Darnand had been in Italy since April where he had been fighting with his Milicians against Italian partisans near Tirano. Discovered hiding in the mountains dressed as a priest, he was arrested on June 25 and transferred to Paris on July 2. PURGES AND TRIALS Back in August 1943, the Committee of National Liberation issued an edict in Algiers setting out the basis for the judicial purge of collaborationist France. In addition to a normal Court of Justice that was to judge collaborators, a High Court of Justice was specially set up to try Pétain, his ministers, governors and top-level civil servants of the Vichy government. Also, military courtsmartial were to put to trial those French citizens charged with pro-German military acts, and German nationals charged with war crimes.

The main judicial purge against Vichy began in 1944 and continued until 1951, though legal action against implicated individuals continued for decades afterward. According to files produced by the Ministry of Justice in the early 1950s, over 311,000 cases were investigated by the various courts of which some 183,000 were cleared without any indictment. Of those found guilty, the sentence of Dégradation Nationale (loss of civil rights) was meted out to 50,000 people; 38,266 were condemned to life imprisonment or lesser terms; 6,763 were sentenced to death, 3,910 of them in absentia. Of these, 2,086 were commuted to life imprisonment and 767 were executed by the guillotine or firingsquad. The first of the high-rankers to be tried was Pierre Pucheu, former Minister of the Interior, arrested in Algiers after Operation ‘Torch’. A military court found him guilty of treason and sentenced him to death. He was executed on March 20, 1944. By July 1949, the High Court of Justice had found 108 of the top men guilty. Eighteen were sentenced to death including ten in absentia, but only three executions were enacted: those of Joseph Darnand, Pierre Laval and Fernand de Brinon. Joseph Darnand, former head of the Milice, was sentenced to death on October 3, 1944 and faced the firing-squad at the Fort de Châtillon south of Paris on 27

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grave errors, he had always acted under constraint, but Laval would not listen. He was convinced that he was innocent and ‘he acted’, said Naud, ‘as if his career, not his life, was at stake.’ Right: The First Chamber of the Court of Appeal is not open to the public but, fortunately for us, the hallway of the Palace of Justice is, enabling Jean Paul to take this comparison.

Left: At first Laval vigorously defended himself but he soon realised that no one would listen. At that point he gave up, not even attending court anymore, so the trial continued without him. On October 9 he was sentenced to death, the execution to be carried out on the 15th. This picture of him in court was actually taken a few weeks earlier when he was a witness at

Pétain’s trial. Right: The Palais de Justice was originally a royal palace, the oldest surviving buildings including the Sainte Chapelle (built around 1240 during the reign of Louis IX) and the Conciergerie, a former prison, now a museum, where Queen Marie Antoinette was imprisoned before losing her head on the guillotine in 1793.

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Left: On October 4 Laval, seen here arriving with a bulging briefcase, appeared in front of the High Court in the same courtroom. At first, he was quite confident that he would be able to prove that he had always acted in the best interests of France. Nevertheless, Albert Naud, one of his three defence lawyers, urged him to plead that although he may have made

October 10. Fernand de Brinon was tried early in 1947 and executed on April 15 at the Fort de Montrouge in the southern suburb of Paris. The trial of the most-infamous collaborator of all, Pierre Laval, began in the High Court on October 4, 1945. He was charged with plotting against the security of the State and collaboration with the enemy. At first, he believed that he would prove to the court that he had been acting in the best interests of France but, to quote Laval’s lawyers, it was soon clear ‘that the haste which has been employed to open the hearings is inspired, not by judicial preoccupations, but motivated by political considerations as the general election is scheduled for October 21’. Faced with constant hostile outbursts from the jury, and heated exchanges with Paul Mongibeaux, the President of the Court, Laval soon renounced his defence and finally 28

did not even attend. The trial continued in his absence, ending with a death sentence on October 9. The execution was fixed for the morning of October 15 at the Fort de Châtillon but when officials came to take him from his cell in Fresnes prison south of Paris they discovered that he had taken poison from a phial hidden stitched inside the lining of his jacket. However the old cyanide had lost its full potency, and two injections and his stomach pumped revived him. While he was being resuscitated, the firing-squad was summoned from the Fort de Châtillon, and the execution prepared to be held in the rear part of the prison, just outside the main wall. By the time everything was ready, Laval had recovered sufficiently to walk to the post and refuse the chair which was offered to him. His request not to be blindfolded was accepted and he met his death just after midday.

Pétain’s trial in 1945 was held from July 23 to August 15. After an initial statement declaring that he did not accept the jurisdiction of the High Court, the old man remained silent through most of the proceedings. On August 15 he was found guilty and sentenced to death but, on account of his age, the Court asked that the sentence not be carried out. The Court stripped Pétain of all military ranks and honours save for the one distinction of Marshal of France. (That title is conferred on an individual only by Parliament, thus the Court did not have the power to rescind it.) In view of Pétain’s age and his military contributions in the First World War, de Gaulle, who was then President of the Provisional Government of the French Republic, commuted the sentence to life imprisonment. As de Gaulle was concerned over a possible adverse reaction at the announcement of the sentence, he directed that Pétain be immedi-

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Left: Early on the morning of his execution Laval attempted suicide in his cell at Fresnes prison, south of Paris, but was revived after having his stomach pumped. It had been planned to transport him seven kilometres to the Fort de Châtillon, where a firing-squad was waiting, but it was decided not to take the risk of Laval expiring on the journey so instead the squad was summoned to Fresnes. By now Laval had recovered sufficiently to walk to the post which had quickly been set up in the rear part of the prison. He refused to be blindfolded and died just after midday. This is one of the photos that appeared in the Press at the time. [A] Firing-Squad, [B] Officer in charge, [C] Laval. Right: As the execution took place outside the prison walls, the French Ministry of Justice gave permission for Jean Paul to match up the shot.

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Left: The prison water tower, seen in the background of the execution photo, has since been demolished. Right: The entrance ately moved away from the capital to Fort du Portalet in the Pyrénées. Pétain remained there from August 15 to November 16 when he was transferred to the Fort de PierreLevée on the Île d’Yeu, an island off the Atlantic coast. Pétain died there on July 23, 1951 at the age of 95 and was buried in the local cemetery at Port-Joinville. ESCAPE Several of the Vichy personalities escaped arrest and trial. Marcel Déat, the Minister of Labour in Laval’s last government, went into hiding in Italy, successively in Milan, Genoa and Turin where he stayed from 1947 until his death in 1955. Général Eugène Bridoux, Minister of War, was captured in May 1945 but he escaped in June 1947 and took refuge in Spain. Abel Bonnard, former Minister of Education who shared the flight to Spain with Laval, was not expelled and he spent the rest of his life in Spain. Maurice Gabolde, Minister of Justice, also succeeded in escaping to Spain. The High Court sentenced all of

to the prison is on the western side, the execution taking place in the eastern, rear part of the compound.

them to death in absentia but they escaped justice and all died in Spain, the last in 1972. Paul Touvier, a former Milice officer, was also tried in absentia in 1946 and sentenced to death but escaped arrest till he was finally apprehended in 1989. He was convicted in 1994 of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life imprisonment. He died in the Fresnes prison two years later. René Bousquet, the former chief of the national police during the Vichy period, was tried in 1949 but received only the sentence of national indignity. Then, 40 years later, he was charged with his complicity with the Germans in allowing the French police to participate in the Vélodrome d’Hiver roundup of Jews in July 1942, and also the cancellation in August that year of regulations which protected certain categories of Jewish children from these deportations. He was just about to face these charges in court when he was shot and killed in June 1993 by a mentally-deranged person. Maurice Papon, Secretary-General of the

Préfecture in Bordeaux, escaped being put to trial in 1945 due to having served in the Resistance. He had a brilliant post-war career, being Chief of Police in Paris in the 1960s and Minister of Budget in the late 1970s. However, documents uncovered in the early 1980s demonstrated his responsibility in the deportation of 1,690 Jews from Bordeaux between 1942 and 1944. In 1983 Papon was charged with crimes against humanity and, after many years of bitter legal wrangling, he was finally brought to trial in 1997, being convicted and given a tenyear sentence in April 1998. VICHY RESPONSIBILITY? In his History of Vichy published in 1954, French historian Robert Aron put forward a ‘sword and shield’ theory, suggesting that while the Vichy government had been the ‘shield’ which protected the French civilian population from the hardships of the occupation, de Gaulle and the Free French had represented the ‘sword’ of France. This view 29

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The official communiqué giving news of the execution was released at 12.22 p.m. Left: Father Louis Mouren, chaplain of the prison, explains how he ministered to Laval in his last moments. Below left: Laval’s body was immediately transported to the cemetery at Thiais, a southern suburb of Paris, where he was buried in an unmarked grave in the plot reserved for those executed in the 1930s. Above: ‘Laval, the rat, goes to earth’ was the caption when this photo of the burial appeared in Picture Post magazine.

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Covering 103 hectares and with an estimated 150,000 graves, the cemetery is the second-largest of the 20 Parisian burial grounds. Its access gates were designed by architect Charles Halley.

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somewhat legitimated the Vichy state collaboration but the official point of view was that the Vichy regime was an illegal government established by traitors under foreign influence, hence distinct from the French Republic. Indeed, Vichy France eschewed the formal name of ‘French Republic’ and styled itself the ‘French State’. While former Vichy officials were prosecuted, successive French leaders argued that given the illegitimacy of the Vichy regime, the deportation of Jews from wartime France was not the responsibility of the French people. In the 1980s, President François Mitterrand still insisted that ‘France, the Republic, did not exist’ for the 1940-44 period. The fact that a large proportion of France’s Jewish population survived was used as an argument justifying Vichy . . . that the regime protected French Jews. In 1940 there were approximately 300,000 Jews in metropolitan France, half of them with French citizenship, the other half foreigners. Of this total, some 76,000 were deported, one-third being French Jews and two-thirds foreign Jews. Of the total, only some 2,500 survived. Jewish deaths were therefore a quarter of the Jewish population in France whereas, for example, in the Netherlands some 75 per cent of the Jews — some 102,000 — were exterminated. The fact that the Jewish population in France suffered one of the lowest death rates in Europe cannot be credited to the Vichy regime that, while its obstructions enabled the majority

Laval’s family quickly obtained permission to re-inter him in the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris. His wife Marguerite was buried with him when she died in 1959, as was his daughter Josée in 1992, followed by her husband René de Chambrun in 2002. The Laval family tomb is located in the 15th Division of the cemetery in the north-western corner, close to the entrance on Rue Froidevaux.

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of Jews with French citizenship to survive, did not hesitate to meet German quotas for deportations with foreign or stateless Jews. But the large rural country offered hiding places and a sympathetic population helped Jews to hide and evade — France has the

third-highest number of citizens who were awarded the Righteous Among the Nations, an award given to ‘non-Jews who acted according to the most noble principles of humanity by risking their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust’.

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Pétain was first jailed in the Fort du Portalet in the Pyrenées but was transferred to the Fort de Pierre-Levée (above) on the Île d’Yeu, a small island off the Atlantic coast, in November 1945. Right: This snapshot shows him chatting with his jailer, most probably Joseph Simon who held the post until October 1949. However, from the 1970s, the views somewhat legitimising Vichy were increasingly rejected both inside and outside France. Finally, in 1995, President Jacques Chirac recognised the full responsibility of the French State for seconding the ‘criminal folly of the occupiers’.

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A simple plaque on the wall now marks the house where he died in the Rue Jean Yole.

From 1950 his physical and mental condition deteriorated to the point of him requiring round-the-clock nursing care and in June 1951 he was transferred to a house in nearby Port-Joinville. There he died on July 23. Left: On July 25, after a service at the church, the funeral procession made its way to the cemetery with a war veteran walking behind the coffin carrying the Marshal’s képi and Military Medal.

Pétain’s tomb. The white slab carrying the simple inscription ‘Philippe Pétain, Marshal of France’ is surmounted by a cross. In 1973, the coffin was dug up by extremists who demanded that Président Georges Pompidou agree to Pétain being reburied in the First World War national cemetery at Douaumont outside Verdun. A week later, those responsible were arrested, the coffin was recovered, and reburied back in the same grave. 31

THE SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF THE ETO

On March 20, 1945, the US 70th Infantry Division captured the city of Saarbrücken, capital of the Saar industrial and coalmining region and one of the mainstays of Nazi Germany’s war economy. A border town, lying close to the GermanFrench frontier, the city was also one of the traditional gateways into Germany and therefore stood high on the list of objectives to be taken by the Allied armies as they raced across France in the summer of 1944. That it still took over six

months to capture the place was due to several factors, not least of which was that the Siegfried Line fortifications protecting the city were among the strongest along the entire 600-kilometre line. Fighting against a determined foe, through winter cold, mud, mines and difficult terrain, the troops of the Trailblazer Division needed five weeks of grim combat before they could finally cross the Saar and enter Saarbrücken victoriously.

THE CAPTURE OF SAARBRÜCKEN

Right: Looking north up Dudweiler Strasse seven decades later. 32

tain ranges on either side, the corridor between Saarbrücken and the Rhine — known as the Kaiserslautern Gap — is one of the traditional invasion routes between France and Germany. Lying at its western

By Karel Margry entrance, Saarbrücken possesses a natural strategic importance.

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Saarbrücken is the capital city of the Saarland region. Founded in 1322, a fief of the Kingdom of Prussia since 1815, the city became part of the German Empire in 1870. The Saar basin, of which Saarbrücken forms the urban centre, is one of Germany’s industrial heartlands, second only to the Ruhr region, and the area around the city abounds with coal-mines, iron and steel factories and engineering works. The administrative, industrial and cultural centre of the region, Saarbrücken is also a traffic hub, particularly of river and rail transport. The industrial revolution led to a rapid growth of the city and by 1940 its population counted some 130,000. Saarbrücken is also a border town. The River Saar, after which both region and city are named, flows through the city but for most of its length north and south of the town the river forms the frontier between Germany and France (where it is called the Sarre). Apart from being the heart of the Saar region, Saarbrücken is also one of the main gateways to Germany. The axis Metz— Saarbrücken—Kaiserslautern—Worms has through history been one of the avenues leading from northern France to the Rhine. Although canalised by the hills and moun-

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In 1920, as stipulated by the Versailles Peace Treaty, the Saarland had been detached from Germany and put under a League of Nations mandate, a situation disliked by the majority of the population. Fifteen years later, in a plebiscite held on January 13, 1935, the Saar people voted with a massive majority to rejoin Germany. The official implementation was set for March 1 and the following day, March 2, SA troops marched through the city in celebration of the reunion. Here they are on Sankt Johanner Markt, the city’s central square (see page 48). the rear, giving its defences considerable depth (see After the Battle No. 163). Germany’s victory over France in the summer of 1940 had repercussions for Saarbrücken too. The border territory of AlsaceLorraine, disputed with France since the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, was annexed to Germany and its northern part, Moselle (which included the city of Metz), was combined with the Saar-Palatinate into a new Reichsgau named Westmark, governed by NSDAP-Gauleiter Josef Bürckel and with Saarbrücken as its capital. There were other consequences too. Following up from the mass eviction of 23,000 French Jews from Alsace-Lorraine in JulySeptember 1940, on October 22 of that year Bürckel deported the last of the Saarland Jews — 960 persons, mostly elderly people, of whom 123 from Saarbrücken — to the Gurs internment camp in France. Most of them would not survive the war.

AIR RAIDS ON SAARBRÜCKEN Because of its factories and marshalling yards, Saarbrücken was an obvious target for Allied air raids. Like most large cities in Germany, the city had made preparations to protect its citizens against the expected enemy bomber attacks. Located in craggy countryside, with many of its housing districts situated in valleys and upon hillsides, and with its readily available mining expertise, it is no wonder that most of Saarbrücken’s air raid shelters consisted of tunnel galleries excavated and drilled out in cliffs and hillsides, some of them several kilometres long. Though damp and stuffy, these offered ample protection against the heaviest bombs for almost the entire population. The citizens also profited from the over 200 Westwall bunkers near the city. The first Allied air attack on Saarbrücken occurred on the night of July 29/30, 1942, when 291 Wellingtons, Halifaxes, Lancasters,

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After the First World War, the Saarland was put under a League of Nations mandate. Fifteen years later, in a plebiscite held on January 13, 1935, the population voted with a 90 per cent majority to rejoin Germany. Thus the Saarland returned ‘Heim ins Reich’. The Nazi government was quick to mobilise the heavy industry for its rearmament programme. A year later, in March 1936, Germany began the construction of the Westwall to protect its western border. The line of fortifications was to be constructed as close as possible to the frontier, but not in such proximity so as to allow the other side to see them. For this reason, Saarbrücken was originally not included in the defence line, the projected trace passing in a shallow arc behind the city. However, in October 1938 Hitler decreed that Saarbrücken and Aachen — the two big cities that had been left outside the new defensive line — were now to be included in it. He publicly announced his decision in a speech held at the Gau Party Day at Saarbrücken on October 9. This unleashed the so-called Aachen-Saar-Bauprogramm and within the space of a few months numerous fortifications were constructed in the narrow strip of land between Saarbrücken and the German-French frontier. The new line branched off from the existing one in the north and followed the Saar river to Saarbrücken, then circled around the city to include the southern suburb of Sankt-Arnual and rejoin the original line east of the city. The defences included several stretches of dragon’s teeth to protect open areas. Hitler attributed great importance to the Westwall at Saarbrücken, returning to inspect the sector no less than three times between May and July 1939. War was declared in September 1939 and two months later the Westwall at Saarbrücken saw a further reinforcement due to an unexpected development. In early November, the French High Command decided to abandon the Spicheren Heights, a piece of French high ground immediately south of Saarbrücken, judging it safer to pull their forces back to the Maginot Line. Seizing the opportunity, the Germans lost no time in occupying the heights and reinforcing it with a line of bunkers and pillboxes. Known as the Spichern-Stellung, the new extension ran in a 15-kilometre-wide arc across the German-French frontier via Spicheren and Stiring-Wendel to PetiteRosselle. The order to start building was given on January 11, 1940 and the line was completed in the spring. All this meant that Saarbrücken was now enveloped by a triple line of fortifications, two in front and one at

Left: Between July 1942 and January 1945, Saarbrücken suffered 32 Allied air raids which left 75 per cent of the city in ruins. Alt-Saarbrücken, the part of the city south of the Saar river, was almost completely destroyed by fire during the RAF raid on the night of October 5/6, 1944. In this picture taken in 1945, only the burnt-out tower of the Friedenskirche stands.

The view is looking north towards the equally devastated city districts across the river. Right: The photographer was standing in Vorstadt-Strasse, close to its junction with EisenbahnStrasse. With new housing apartment blocks of the rebuilt city masking part of the view, this is the best possible comparison we could take today. 33

ALLIED AIR RAIDS ON SAARBRÜCKEN 1939-1945 Date

Formation

Number/type of aircraft

1942 July 29/30

RAF Bomber Command

August 28/29

Nos. 4 and 5 Groups, RAF Bomber Command

October 8 October 10

RAF Bomber Command RAF Bomber Command

291 Wellingtons, Halifaxes, Lancasters, Hampdens, Stirlings 113 Wellingtons, Halifaxes, Hampdens, Stirlings 118 Wellingtons, Halifaxes, Stirlings 1 Mosquito 2 Mosquitos

1943 October 4

3rd Bomb Division, US Eighth Air Force

47 B-17

1944 February 11 April 30/May 1 May 11 May 23 May 27 June 28 June 28/29 July 13 July 16 July 19 July 21 July 26/27 August 3 August 9 August 11 October 5/6

1st Bomb Division, US Eighth Air Force RAF Bomber Command 1st and 3rd Bomb Divisions, US Eighth Air Force 1st and 3rd Bomb Divisions, US Eighth Air Force 2nd Bomb Division, US Eighth Air Force 2nd Bomb Division, US Eighth Air Force RAF Bomber Command 2nd Bomb Division, US Eighth Air Force 2nd Bomb Division, US Eighth Air Force 3rd Bomb Division, US Eighth Air Force 2nd Bomb Division, US Eighth Air Force RAF Bomber Command 1st Bomb Division, US Eighth Air Force 1st Bomb Division, US Eighth Air Force 2nd Bomb Division, US Eighth Air Force Nos. 1, 3 and 8 Groups, RAF Bomber Command

October 6/7 October 9/10 October 15/16 Oct 31/Nov 1 October 14 November 4 November 9

RAF Bomber Command RAF Bomber Command RAF Bomber Command RAF Bomber Command 1st Bomb Division, US Eighth Air Force 3rd Bomb Division, US Eighth Air Force 3rd Bomb Division, US Eighth Air Force

19 B-17s 28 Mosquitos 58 B-17s 139 B-17s 145 B-24s 331 B-24s 33 Mosquitos 298 B-24s 407 B-24s 51 B-24s 93 B-24s 2 Mosquitos 62 B-17s 34 B-17s 60 B-24s 531 Lancasters, 20 Mosquitos 2 Mosquitos 4 Mosquitos 6 Mosquitos 4 Mosquitos 90 B-17s 35 B-17s 276 B-17s

1945 January 13 January 13/14

No. 3 Group, RAF Bomber Command Nos. 4, 6 and 8 Groups, RAF Bomber Command

January 14

No. 3 Group, RAF Bomber Command

September 19/20 RAF Bomber Command

Hampdens and Stirlings of RAF Bomber Command released their loads on the city. The attack caused severe damage and casualties in the centre and north-western districts, 396 buildings being destroyed and 324 seriously damaged, with 155 people being killed. The US Eighth Air Force joined the bombing campaign in August 1942, but the first American raid on Saarbrücken did not occur until October 4, 1943, when 47 B-17s (out of 53 despatched) from the 44th and 392nd Bomb Groups, 3rd Bomb Division, unleashed 254 tons of explosive on the city and on neighbouring Sarreguemines. Most bombs fell in the north-western districts but damage was limited. This was in fact the only air attack suffered by Saarbrücken in the year 1943. Raids on the city were stepped up from the spring of 1944, beginning a series that would see at least two to four attacks every month right up to November. The USAAF raid of May 11, although carried out by just 58 B-17s, killed over 200 people, 57 of them prison inmates locked in their cells in the Lerchesflur prison and 91 foreign forced labourers billeted in the Cecilienschule girls school. The largest and most destructive raid was that of October 5/6, 1944, when 531 Lancasters and 20 Mosquitos of Nos. 1, 3 and 8 34

158 Lancasters 274 Halifaxes, 20 Lancasters, 12 Mosquitos 134 Lancasters

Groups carried out a major raid which wrought severe damage in the main town area, destroying 5,882 houses, seriously damaging 1,141 others, and killing 344 people. The Alt-Saarbrücken district south of the Saar river was almost annihilated by incendiary bombs. In all, between 1942 and 1945, Saarbrücken was the target of 32 air raids, with the RAF and the USAAF each contributing 16. They killed a total of 1,234 people (1.1 per cent of its population — a percentage that does not deviate much from that of other large German cities), destroyed 11,000 homes and left 75 per cent of the city in ruins. The incessant bombing caused large numbers of the population to flee from the city. The October 5/6 raid alone made 45,000 people — one-third the population — homeless and by early December the great majority of the population had sought refuge elsewhere. On December 6, the city authorities ordered the last 6,000 inhabitants to evacuate the devastated city. Just a few hundred civilians, mostly men, were allowed to stay in order to keep up the power supply, fire brigade and air raid protection and to provide for the Wehrmacht troops in the city. By now Saarbrücken was a ghost city, empty of people and largely in ruins.

THE ALLIED ARMIES APPROACH By August 1944, the Allied armies had broken out of the Normandy bridgehead and were racing across France and Belgium towards the German border. The German army was in full retreat, its battered remnants falling back on the Westwall (Siegfried Line) and other improvised defensive positions. However, in a miraculous piece of recovery and improvisation, helped in no little way by an acute shortage of fuel and other supplies on the Allied side, the Germans achieved the impossible and managed to first slow down and then halt the Allied spearheads all along the Western Front. On September 1, a Hitler decree ordered the mass mobilisation of German civilians to help build field fortifications. At Saarbrücken the work was organised by Gauleiter Bürckel. Like elsewhere along the frontier, thousands of people — mostly old men and Hitlerjugend teenagers, sometimes women too — were assembled, marched off and put to work in a last-minute effort to stem the enemy storm on the Reich. The Allied force racing towards the Saarbrücken sector was the US Third Army under Lieutenant General George S. Patton. However, Patton’s hoped-for dash into Germany and on to the Rhine via the historic Kaiserslautern Gap was rudely halted in the first week of September, a good 60 kilometres short of Saarbrücken, by two obstacles, the Moselle river and the fortress city of Metz. For a full three months — from early September to late November — Metz and its semi-circle of outlying fortresses kept Patton’s army engaged in difficult battles, with heavy losses and little advance being made (see After the Battle No. 161). All this time Saarbrücken was given respite. An important railhead, it merely served as de-training point for divisions assigned to the Moselle front, the 553. Volksgrenadier-Division unloading there on September 1 en route for Nancy. The closest that Patton’s forces came to Saarbrücken was when his XII Corps under Major General Manton S. Eddy launched a new offensive from south of Metz towards the Sarre (Saar) river on November 8. To support the ground attack, the army called in the heavy bombers of the Eighth Air Force and on November 9 a total of 276 B-17s (of 432 despatched) of the 3rd Bomb Division unleashed 848 tons of bombs on the Saarbrücken marshalling yards — one of the larger air raids suffered by the city. However, again, the ground attack made only slow headway, handicapped by mud, mines and dismal weather, and it was early December before the XII Corps was approaching the Sarre. The force coming closest to Saarbrücken was the 80th Infantry Division (Major General Horace L. McBride), which drew up along the Rosselle river (a tributary of the Sarre) near the town of Forbach on the Metz–Saarbrücken highway, some ten kilometres west of the city, on November 29. The next phase of the XII Corps advance was to be an assault to penetrate the Siegfried Line and break into the Kaiserslautern Gap. The main effort would be made further south, between Sarreguemines and Zweibrücken, by the 35th and 26th Divisions, with the 12th Armored Division standing by to exploit a breakthrough. Regrouping for this phase, on December 6 the 6th Armored Division and the 2nd Cavalry Group relieved the 80th Division, which moved back to rest areas in Saint-Avold. Its departure left the armour and cavalry to guard the corps left flank and contain Saarbrücken — which was subjected to a daily pounding by heavy 240mm howitzers and 4.5-inch guns.

STATIC WINTER FRONT For the next two months, the front in the Saarbrücken sector remained static, not only because of the battles raging in the Ardennes to the north but also because Seventh Army itself was fully committed to staving off the German counter-offensive in northern Alsace-Lorraine (Operation ‘Nordwind’), which was launched on December 31 and lasted until late January 1945. Throughout this time, both the American and the German troops in the Saarbrücken sector maintained defensive positions, limiting themselves to aggressive patrolling and raids. The difficulties brought on by January’s bitter cold, heavy snow and frozen ground were matched almost in the extreme by February’s sudden change in weather, bringing rains, thaw and mud. On January 13, a new corps headquarters, the XXI Corps under Major General Frank W. Milburn, was inserted on the Seventh Army’s left flank, taking over part of the line

SAARBRÜCKEN

THE LORRAINE CAMPAIGN

The assault further south, which began on December 8, made only slow progress, even after Patton replaced the battle-weary 26th Division with the fresh 87th Division on the 9th. Even then the two divisions had difficulty clearing the forests and hills held by the Germans as outworks to the Siegfried Line. To relieve pressure on the left wing of the 35th Division, on December 17 Patton ordered the 6th Armored Division to make an attack in the Forbach sector. Had it gone through, this would have been the first frontal assault towards Saarbrücken and into the Kaiserslautern Gap. However, the launch of the German surprise counter-offensive through the Belgian Ardennes on December 16 put a complete stop to any continuation of Third Army’s offensive. Word of the great enemy counterstroke on the 17th led Patton to cancel the 6th Armored’s attack — one of the very few occasions when the Third Army commander called off an attack that he had personally ordered. Following a conference with General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, and Lieutenant General Omar N. Bradley, the commander of the US 12th Army Group, at Verdun on the 19th, Patton halted all his army’s offensive operations. Both the III Corps and the XII Corps were to stop in their tracks and consolidate preparatory to a northward move to Luxembourg and Belgium and a counter-attack against the southern wing of the German offensive in the Ardennes. The divisions just pulled into reserve — the 4th Armored and the 80th and 26th Infantry — were immediately despatched to the north. Only the Third Army’s northernmost corps, XX Corps, was to stay in place, all the rest of the army’s sector was to be turned over to the neighbouring US Seventh Army under Lieutenant General Alexander M. Patch, part of the US 6th Army Group. All the divisions facing the bend of the German frontier and the Siegfried Line in front of Saarbrücken — the 6th Armored and the 35th and 87th Infantry — were to disengage and similarly prepare for a move to the north. Thus, as part of Patton turning his army by 90 degrees and shifting his advance from east to north, the troop dispositions in front of Saarbrücken changed in a quick pace. On December 19-20, the 2nd Cavalry Group and the 6th Armored Division were relieved by the 106th Cavalry Group and the 103rd Infantry Division respectively and started on their way north. At midnight on the 20th, the Seventh Army’s XV Corps took over the XII Corps zone, stretching its lines to just west of Saarbrücken. Commanded by Major General Wade H. Haislip, the corps now was responsible for a front 60 kilometres long, from Saint-Avold to Bitche, and thinly occupied (from west to east) by the 106th Cavalry Group and the 103rd, 44th and 100th Infantry Divisions.

By November 1944, the US Third Army was in the final stages of its reduction of Metz and the army’s XII Corps was driving towards the Sarre (Saar) river, the German frontier and Saarbrücken. from the XV Corps — which was fully engaged against ‘Nordwind’ — and assuming command of the 106th Cavalry Group and 103rd Infantry Division opposite Saarbrücken. A day later, the 103rd Division was relieved by a formation known as Task Force Herren. This comprised the three infantry regiments — the 274th, 275th and 276th — of the US 70th (‘Trailblazer’) Infantry Division, operating under command of the assistant division commander, Brigadier General Thomas W. Herren. The presence of this rump division, without any of its organic combat support or service units, was the result of decisions taken in Washington back in October 1944. With the acute manpower shortage that had developed on the Western Front in the early autumn, particularly in infantry, the War Department had decided to speed up the shipment of the infantry regiments of all the 12 infantry divisions then remaining in the US and scheduled for the European theatre. They would be sent ahead of their divisional supporting and service troop units. This would produce 36 regiments (some 75,000 infantrymen) for use as relief regiments for combat-weary units at the front. The remain-

ing portions of these 12 divisions — divisional headquarters, artillery, engineers, service units, etc — were to be shipped later and marry up with the infantry on arrival. The regiments of three of these divisions — the 42nd, 63rd and 70th — were shipped in late November, assigned to the Seventh Army. Arriving in Marseilles in early December, they formed Task Forces Linden (42nd Division), Harris (63rd Division) and Herren (70th Division), under their respective Assistant Division Commanders, and were despatched to the front. None of these units had completed its full training programme in the United States, so even while they were deployed to the front they received intensive training under Seventh Army supervision in order to bring them up to full combat status. Task Force Herren, which disembarked between December 10-15, first went to hold a portion of the Rhine river line south of Lauterbourg, a quiet sector where it could get used to front-line service. They arrived in the line on December 28 but their acclimatisation lasted just four days for already on January 1 the force was hurried west, to occupy defensive positions at Philippsbourg 35

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In mid-January 1945, a formation known as Task Force Herren took over the line opposite Saarbrücken. This comprised the three infantry regiments of the US 70th Infantry Division and was led by Colonel Thomas W. Herren (left), the assistant division commander. Right: It was not until mid-February, with the arrival of the divisional artillery, engineers, medics and other support units, that the task force dissolved into the 70th Division proper, with Major General Allison J. Barnett taking over from and Wingen-sur-Moder on the eastern and southern rim of the enemy salient carved out by the ‘Nordwind’ attack. The troops had their baptism of fire here. However, Seventh Army felt it better to have an experienced infantry formation hold these important positions and so on January 13, orders were given for Task Force Herren to change places with the 103rd Division. Thus, between January 14-18, Task Force Herren arrived in the Saarbrücken sector. It was only on February 3, with the arrival of divisional commander Major General Allison J. Barnett and his staff, that the task force dissolved into the 70th Division, the remaining organic elements of the division closing in to their respective areas over the next few days. Meanwhile, there had been a temporary change in command structure. On January 24, Milburn’s XXI Corps headquarters was transferred to the south, to control the three American divisions deployed in eliminating the Colmar Pocket (see After the Battle No. 125) and Haislip’s XV Corps temporarily took over command of the forces on the army left wing (106th Cavalry Group, Task Force Herren, Task Force Harris). The Colmar job was completed on February 9 but by the time XXI Corps returned to re-assume control of its former zone on February 28, all its component units had changed name: on February 1, Task Force Harris had dissolved into the 63rd Division; on the 3rd Task Force Herren had become the 70th Division, and on the 11th the 106th Cavalry Group had been relieved by the 101st Cavalry Group. In the defensive lull that followed, all these units pursued a comparatively uneventful, triple-phased programme of improvement of defences, training and periodic raids. Positions were strengthened by the installation of tactical and protective wire, mines and overhead cover for foxholes and emplacements. The 70th Division received an influx of 2,000 reinforcements and, since most of these men had had but a minimum of infantry experience, division instituted a rigorous four-day training schedule, which included basic weapons, map reading, minor tactics and field work. Constant patrolling was carried out as well as nocturnal raids, sometimes of company strength. 36

Colonel Herren. Here, Barnett (second from right) is talking with Major General Wade H. Haislip, the commander of the XV Corps, to which his division was subordinated. On the left is Lieutenant General Jacob L. Devers, commander of the US 6th Army Group, talking with Brigadier General Peter P. Rodes, commander of the division artillery. The picture was taken on February 20, 1945, when Devers and Haislip visited the 70th Division headquarters at Saint-Jean Rohrbach, 25 kilometres south of Saarbrücken.

GERMAN DEFENCES German troops defending in front of Saarbrücken belonged to the 1. Armee, under General der Panzertruppen Otto von Knobelsdorff, which was part of Heeresgruppe G. During Third Army’s drive to the Sarre in November, it was mainly the 1. Armee’s leftwing corps, the XIII. SS-Armeekorps commanded by SS-Gruppenführer Max Simon, that tried to oppose the American advance. Initially comprising the 17. SS-Panzergrenadier-Division, 48. Infanterie-Division and the 559. Volksgrenadier-Division, and later reinforced by the 11. Panzer-Division, 36. Volksgrenadier-Division and 347. Infanterie-Division, the corps did well in delaying the American progress but by early December its battered and depleted units had been pushed back to the hills and ridges west and south-west of Saarbrücken. (By then, the

Generalleutnant Wolf-Günther Trierenberg, commander of the 347. Infanterie-Division, responsible for the defence of Saarbrücken.

remnants of the 48. and 559. Divisions had been consolidated into regiment-sized Kampfgruppe Mühlen, led by the commander of the former, Generalmajor Kurt Freiherr von Mühlen.) Responsible for defence of the Forbach sector was the 36. Volksgrenadier-Division (Generalmajor August Wellm), now down to half its normal strength, which set up its command post in Saarbrücken on December 4. The XIII SSArmeekorps headquarters was at Scheidt, one kilometre east of the city. Assigned to take part in the ‘Nordwind’ counter-offensive, the corps then moved eastwards in late December, taking with it the somewhat rebuilt 36. VolksgrenadierDivision and 17. SS-Panzergrenadier-Division, and handing over the 347. InfanterieDivision and responsibility of the Saarbrücken sector to its northern neighbour, the LXXXII. Armeekorps under General der Infanterie Walter Hörnlein. Commanded by Generalleutnant Wolf Trierenberg, the 347. Infanterie-Division had been committed west of Saarbrücken in midNovember, having come south from the quiet Eifel sector in the Heeresgruppe B area. A static division comprising two regiments, it was at 80 per cent of its authorised strength, poorly equipped and badly trained. Heavy fighting seriously decimated and disorganised the division, so much so that OB West on November 28 ordered the officers responsible for the bad performance of the division to be shot — an order that was carried out. The unit picked itself up, fighting tooth and nail in the rugged and heavily wooded Warndt Forest north-west of Saarbrücken in early December. Having withdrawn into the bunkers of the Westwall around Völklingen on the east bank of the Saar on December 10, on the 26th of that month Trierenberg’s division had to stretch its zone south-eastward to include the Saarbrücken sector. It inherited one regiment from the departing 36. Volksgrenadier-Division and also four local units — Landesschützen-Bataillon XII and three Volkssturm battalions — that had been manning the Westwall fortifications. In addition, Festungs-Artillerie-Abteilung 1313 was attached to bolster up the divisional artillery.

SEVENTH ARMY REPORT OF OPERATIONS

On February 17, 1945, the 70th Division launched a limited objective attack to capture the heights along the south bank of

Meanwhile, efforts were made to strengthen its force. Division set up Ersatz- und Ausbildungs-Bataillon 347, a training replacement unit, in its rear area to train newcomers and carry out training courses for officers, NCOs and enlisted men of the division. It activated an anti-tank battalion of three companies, equipped with 7.5cm PaK anti-tank guns, 3.7cm FlaK machine guns and 2cm FlaK guns respectively. An assault gun company with ten Sturmgeschütze was attached to it. However, by early February 1945, its infantry effectives was still down to approximately

1,500 men. Local defence of Saarbrücken was co-ordinated by the new Gauleiter, Willi Stöhr (Josef Bürckel had died from natural causes on September 28). Meanwhile, there had been another alteration in the chain of command, headquarters of the LXXXII. Armeekorps having been relieved on January 23 by that of the LXXXV. Armeekorps, commanded by General der Infanterie Baptist Kniess. In the line, from north-west to south-east, it had the 719. Infanterie-Division, 347. Infanterie-Division and 559. Volksgrenadier-Division.

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The division now held a front 25 kilometres long, from Ensdorf in the north to Kerbach in the south. In the line, from to north to south, were Füsilier-Bataillon 347, Infanterie-Regiment 861, Infanterie-Regiment 860 and Reserve-Grenadier-Regiment 36 (the latter had been detached from the 36. Division, but was actually organic to the 172. Reserve-Infanterie-Division). Like its American opponents, Trierenberg’s division spent the winter months improving its defensive positions and sending out combat patrols into enemy territory.

the Saar and thus obtain better positions for the final assault across the river and into Saarbrücken.

Left: Crossing the start line at 0430 hours, the 274th Infantry in the centre, despite small-arms resistance and mines, entered the village of Kerbach but further movement was slowed down as the enemy counter-attacked with assault guns. By 1620 hours the village was cleared but it was

shelled intermittently by the Germans during the night. Here vehicles and a maintenance tank (from the supporting 749th Tank Battalion) wait in Kerbach for orders to move on. Right: Rue de Forbach, at its junction with Rue de l’Eglise, looking west. 37

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In four days of heavy fighting, the 274th Infantry took hold — albeit a precarious one — of the high ground north and east of the village of Spicheren, the village itself not being taken until the 21st. On February 22, Signal Corps photographer Tech/5 Brazle J. McCroby, Jr. pictured men of Company I of the 274th who have taken up position in German trenches. The GIs may not have realised it but the Spicheren plateau was actually a famous battlefield from another war. Here on

Settled in the hills and ridges of Lorraine, the 70th Division faced a series of wooded hills dominating wide, uncovered draws. The road network in the valleys connected the many towns and villages with the industrial and mining centres of Forbach, Stiring-Wendel (both on the French side of the border) and Saarbrücken. Through these hills and towns ran the forward belt of the Siegfried Line. The divisional mission was to capture the heights along the Sarre south and southwest of Saarbrücken, located on either side of the Forbach–Saarbrücken main road, pos-

session of which was essential as it gave observation of the city’s defences. The attack was to be made with all three regiments on line, the 276th Infantry left, the 274th centre and the 275th right. One minute after midnight on February 17, the 70th Division moved into the attack through a heavy fog. The 276th Infantry (Colonel Albert C. Morgan) on the left, advancing against enemy small-arms fire and anti-tank mines, quickly overran the Fahrberg and Kelsberg hills but intense fire from four enemy assault guns prevented it

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LIMITED OBJECTIVE ATTACK While under XV Corps control, the 70th Division carried out a limited offensive, designed to shorten the American lines and gain terrain more favourable for the planned great offensive against the Siegfried Line. These objectives mainly concerned its eastern neighbours, the 63rd and 44th Divisions, as the 70th Division itself was already drawn up quite close to the German fortifications. Still, it would necessitate the 70th to keep abreast by moving its entire front forward. Starting date for the attack was set at February 17.

August 6,1870 — in what was the second great battle of the Franco-German War of 1870-71 — the German 1. Armee under Generalfeldmarschall Karl-Friedrich von Steinmetz and 2. Armee under Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia beat the French IIème Corps d’Armée under Général Charles Auguste Frossard. The German victory compelled the French to withdraw to Metz, a critical step towards the humiliating defeat of France that followed.

Despite numerous attempts, the Americans had trouble advancing beyond Spicheren and it soon became clear that the Germans were determined to hold on to the high ground at all cost, launching numerous counter-attacks and sending in new units supported by armour. On February 22, McCroby pictured four men from Company L of the 274th Infantry carrying back a fallen comrade. The soldier in the background is carrying the dead man’s equipment. Not until February 27 did the 274th and 275th Infantry securely hold the disputed high ground. 38

Considering the fierce battles the 70th Division fought for possession of the Spicheren Heights it is only fitting that the commune of Spicheren decided to put a memorial honouring de sacrifices of the Trailblazer Division on the plateau. Unveiled in May 1995 and featuring the division emblem, it stands near the white cross memorial commemorating the Franco-Prussian battle of 1870. Not far away, on the edge of the woods hiding numerous Siegfried Line bunkers, stands an M24 Chaffee tank, presented by the 70th Division Association in May 1997 (see front cover).

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Meanwhile, on the left, the 276th Infantry attacked Forbach, the last large town before Germany on the Metz—Saarbrücken highway. On February 19, the third day of the American offensive, the regiment’s 3rd Battalion assaulted the Schlossberg, the highest hill immediately south of Forbach. Perched on its top was an old red-stone mediaeval castle. Company I had hardly dug in around it when the Germans counter-attacked from all sides, yelling wildly and breaking through to within a

well-camouflaged Siegfried Line bunkers and the advance was repeatedly held up by German artillery and a force of ten assault guns working along the road south of Etzling on the regimental right flank. Anti-tank mines prevented the supporting Sherman tanks from moving up to give pinned-down infantrymen the help they needed. The pressure was somewhat lifted when the 3rd Battalion, 275th, broke through and took Etzling, taking 64 prisoners, and occupied the lower slopes of the Pfaffenberg hill. Further east the 2nd Battalion, 275th, after a sharp fight, took the small town of Grosbliederstroff on the Sarre. On the division’s left, the 276th Infantry took Oeting and then pivoted north-west towards Forbach. In its path lay three small, thickly-wooded hills and on the westernmost one, the Schlossberg, stood an old red-stone

castle, rising high out of sheer rock. An obvious enemy observation post, its had to be taken. Early on February 19, Company I of the 276th cautiously scaled the Schlossberg and, to their surprise, found the castle deserted of enemy. However, almost immediately, heavy artillery and mortar fire began falling in the area, forcing the American troops to dig in. The barrages continued till dusk and at 2040 hours the shelling was stepped up to even greater fury. As it lifted, German troops suddenly came rushing the castle from all sides, screaming wildly. They broke through to within yards of it and Company I was only able to hold on because the company commander, Captain Herbert J. Andrews, called down artillery and mortar fire on his own position. Next morning the Americans counted 40 dead Germans on the hillside.

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from taking the village of Oeting. The 274th Infantry (Colonel Samuel G. Conley) in the centre entered Kerbach but further movement was slowed down when the enemy counter-attacked with assault guns. The 275th Infantry (Colonel John H. McAleer) on the right reduced several strong points and cleared some high ground but German artillery soon found the range and shelled the advancing troops. At the end of the first day the entire division front had moved forward over one kilometre, and 198 prisoners had been taken. Fog, rain and mud had hampered operations, and several supporting medium tanks from the 749th Tank Battalion had bogged down. Next morning, February 18, the attack was resumed. In the centre, the 274th Infantry had difficulty getting forward in the rugged terrain. The wooded ridges were dotted with

few yards of the castle. The attack was only beaten back after the company commander, Captain Herbert J. Andrews, ordered Staff Sergeant Albert M. Crum from Company M (heavy weapons) to call for 81mm mortar fire upon his own position. Lieutenant Henry J. Kwiatkowski, the forward observer of the 884th Field Artillery Battalion with Company I, did the same with his 105mm guns. Some 40 dead Germans were found upon the hillside the next morning.

Left: The castle pictured shortly after the battle. Right: The mediaeval stronghold with its tall tower still soars over Forbach

today. The street leading up to it is now appropriately named Rue du Schlossberg et du 276ème Régiment d’Infanterie US. 39

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Forbach itself was fiercely defend by Infanterie-Regiment 860 and it would take the Americans several days of bitter houseto-house fighting to secure the main part of town south of the Metz—Saarbrücken railway. Here, a combat medic of the

276th Infantry races across an intersection covered by machine-gun fire, as indicated by the white tape strung across the gap. Two other GIs, protected by an M3 light tank, keep watch in both directions, while a third mans the turret gun.

Meanwhile, the assault on Forbach — an elusive objective since the previous September — had begun. While the road between the town and Saarbrücken was bombed and strafed by supporting aircraft of the XII Tactical Air Command to prevent the German from moving up reinforcements, the 276th, assisted by the 3rd Battalion, 274th, forced its way into Forbach. House-to-house fighting continued into the night but, against intense enemy fire and without armour support, the Americans were brought to a halt. The slow systematic reduction was resumed next morning but it took two more days of heavy fighting, until the 22nd, before all

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Right: Looking south-east down Rue Sainte-Croix, the D31 road leading into town from Oeting, and in 1945 the route of advance of the 1st Battalion, 276th. The street leading off on the left is Rue de Verdun.

Left: Wounded by flying shell shrapnel, a civilian woman of Forbach is carried past American troops by three Frenchmen on February 23. The wartime caption states that she is being taken to an American aid station but it is more likely that the Frenchmen were bringing her to the Hôpital Marie Madeleine, 40

the local hospital which stands just a short distance down the road behind the photographer. Right: Taken just a few yards further up the road from the previous picture, the view is looking the other way, towards the junction with Rue de Verdun. The town centre is further down the road.

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and a Jeep, constantly on the alert for enemy counter-action. Right: Rue Sainte-Croix, at its junction with Rue Poincaré, looking north-west towards the centre of Forbach. The church on the left is the Temple Protestant.

Two soldiers from the 276th Infantry (right) peer from a doorway as an enemy shell finds a mark at the intersection in town

on March 3. The long battle for Forbach left large parts of it badly damaged.

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Left: The slow, systematic reduction of Forbach would take nearly three weeks, the section of town beyond the railway not finally being taken until the first week of March. Here three soldiers of the 276th Infantry crouch behind a half-track, a tree,

strong points in Forbach — mostly basements serving as pillboxes — had been reduced. Meanwhile, in the centre, the 274th swept north-east to the high ground between the village of Spicheren and Stiring-Wendel. They took the main line of Westwall fortifications in this area but then met the full fury of the enemy on Spicheren Heights north of the village. Both Reserve-Grenadier-Regiment 36 and a hurried reinforcement, the reconnaissance unit of the 2. Gebirgs-Division, launched fierce counter-attacks to regain the lost ground. Not until February 27 was the 274th Infantry able to stabilise its positions on the heights that overlooked Saarbrücken to the north and Stiring-Wendel to the west. Farther right, the 275th

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Right: The same spot along Rue SainteCroix today. The small house where the soldiers stood has made way for new development but most of the houses across the street remain. 41

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Men of the 1st Battalion, 276th Infantry, walk through the debris-covered streets in a liberated section of the town on February 23. The white sign pinned to the sign board on the

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the approaches to Stiring-Wendel and by the afternoon was fighting in the streets of the town. Departing from Forbach, the 276th Infantry on the left had a stiff fight at the railway underpass on the Imbruch road, with enemy mines, automatic weapons and artillery holding up the advance, but by nightfall had reached positions beyond the tracks. The attack continued for two more days in inclement weather. By March 5, the 276th had reached Marienau, captured the Caserne Nord military barracks and cleared the enemy bunkers in the Forbach Forest north of there. The 274th had similarly overcome the many bunkers and pillboxes in its sector

and finally secured Stiring-Wendel after bitter house-to-house fighting. An unexpected event was the surprise liberation of 951 Allied POWs — Russian, French, Polish, Czech and Yugoslav. Having broken out from a POW hospital, they came hobbling down the main road, chased by German machine-gun fire. (Unknown to the Americans, the camp they came from had from 1943 to 1944 been a small concentration camp for political prisoners and Jews — men and women — run by the Saarbrücken Gestapo. Known as Neue Bremm, its 600800 inmates had been evacuated to the rear by the SS in December.)

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Infantry had by then pushed north along the Sarre river and taken the forested high ground overlooking eastern Saarbrücken. In 11 days of attack — its first offensive action as a division — the Trailblazer Division had penetrated the forward lines of the Siegfried Line and established a foothold on German soil just south of Saarbrücken. More than 1,800 prisoners had been taken. The division’s losses totalled 1,662: 207 killed, 1,224 wounded or sick and 231 missing. Mines and booby traps had taken a high toll, as had the cold wet weather. Over the next few days, the Germans tried in vain to regain the Spicheren Heights. Reserve-Grenadier-Regiment 36 (by now renamed Grenadier-Regiment 880) was largely spent but LXXXV. Armeekorps sent in reinforcements from other units: on February 26, Grenadier-Regiment 1127 of the 559. Volksgrenadier-Division arrived and launched an attack to regain the lost ground but it got nowhere. The 347. Infanterie-Division had suffered dearly under the American onslaught, particularly its left wing. On March 2, GrenadierRegiment 880 was taken out of the line and the 559. Volksgrenadier-Division, back from the ‘Nordwind’ offensive, took over responsibility of the Spicheren Heights sector. On March 13, it was withdrawn again and the 347. Division resumed command of the zone, thinning its units to occupy the line. Although the February attack had been successful, the 70th Division had not reached all the targets of its limited offensive, so on March 3 the division began a local attack to capture the last objectives needed for the final assault on Saarbrücken: the small mining town of Stiring-Wendel and the high ground north-east of the Forbach–Saarbrücken road. Moving off after a ten-minute artillery preparation and in snowy weather, the 274th Infantry on the right overran Siegfried Line bunkers and entrenchments in the woods on

right reads ‘Idaho Ave’ — it was put there by 2nd Lieutenant Bob Brewer, 3rd Platoon leader in Company A, after his men had cleaned out the intersection.

This is in fact the junction of the Rue Sainte-Croix with the Rue Nationale, the main road through the town.

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and all were suffering from malnutrition. For the rest of the day, the men of the 2nd Battalion were busy feeding them and evacuating them to a quarry in Etzling, two kilometres behind the lines, where they could await transportation to the rear. Right: Tech/5 Max Freeman, a medic in the 274th Collecting Detachment, aids one of the POWs, a wounded Russian soldier.

Left: On March 11, Colonel Samuel G. Conley, commander of the 274th Infantry, presented two Silver Star medals and 16 Bronze Star ribbons to men of his regiment — the first awards presentation since the regiment had been committed to battle on December 28, 1944. The ceremony took place at the village

of Behren, three kilometres behind the front lines. Staff officers attended to congratulate the men and the Regimental Band (seen in the church foreyard) played for the ceremony. Right: The battered Saint Blaise Church that served as backdrop for the ceremony has been rebuilt.

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Left: At 0800 hours on the morning of March 5, the men of the 274th in the border town of Stiring-Wendel saw several hundred Allied prisoners of war making their way down the Metz highway towards the Allied lines. They had broken out from a POW hospital camp just to the north. In all there were 951 men — mainly Russians but also Yugoslavs, French, Poles and Czechs. Most of them were crippled or diseased

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right, by the 63rd Division east of Saarbrücken, with the 12th Armored Division waiting to pour through any breach in the Siegfried Line. The 70th Division and the 101st Cavalry Group at Saarbrücken were to hold the enemy in place, patrol across the Saar, and cross if possible. D-Day for ‘Undertone’ was set for March 15. By mid-March, the situation on the German side was basically the same as it had

been since January. The 1. Armee had a new commander, General der Infanterie Hermann Foertsch, but Kniess’s LXXXV. Armeekorps still commanded the southern Saar sector and the units under its command remained the same: the 719. Infanterie-Division, 347. Infanterie-Division and 559. Volksgrenadier-Division — with Trierenberg’s 347. Division still responsible for the defence of Saarbrücken.

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OPERATION ‘UNDERTONE’ The final capture of Saarbrücken was part of the great offensive by two American armies to reduce the so-called ‘Saar-Palatinate Triangle’, the triangular piece of German territory bounded by the Moselle and Saar rivers on the west, the Rhine river in the east and the forested Hardt Mountains in the south. The western leg and bottom end of the triangle were shielded by the fortifications of the Siegfried Line, with Saarbrücken lying in the extreme south-western corner. To reduce this triangle, the Americans planned a joint operation by the US Third and Seventh Armies. They belonged to two different army groups — Patton’s Third Army to the 12th Army Group and Patch’s Seventh Army to the 6th Army Group — so the operation required careful co-ordination between the various headquarters. The idea was that the Seventh Army, lined up along the bottom end of the triangle, would advance on a broad front, smash through the Siegfried Line in a set-piece frontal attack and then drive in a north-easterly direction to the Rhine, thus clearing the southern half of the triangle. Meanwhile, the Third Army would assault across the Moselle, break through the Siegfried Line fortifications on its eastern bank, push eastwards across the Hunsrück Mountains and cut across the Seventh Army front right up to the Rhine, thus reducing the upper third of the triangle. The Seventh Army’s part of the great offensive went under the code-name Operation ‘Undertone’. The army would attack with all its three corps in line: the VI Corps on the right; the XV Corps in the centre, and the XXI Corps on the left. The main effort in XXI Corps’ zone was to be made on the

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Above: By March 15, the 70th Division was all poised for the final attack on Saarbrücken. On that day, from a vantage point on the northern edge of the Spicheren Heights, Signal Corps photographer Tech/4 James W. Todd of the 163rd Signal Photo Company, took a series of six photos showing a panorama of Saarbrücken. The middle two of these pictures showed the stretch of dragon’s teeth anti-tank barrier that ran along the southern edge of the city, protecting the open ground between the Kommunal-Wald on the left and the suburb of Sankt-Arnual on the right. Note the plume of white smoke shooting skyward on the right from a 4.2-inch mortar shell fired by the 99th Chemical Battalion, a corps unit attached to the 70th Division. The monument visible on the slope in the centre foreground is one of the many memorials on Spicheren Heights commemorating the battle of August 6, 1870 — in this case it remembers the fallen soldiers of the 5. Brandenburgische Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 48 ‘Von Stulpnagel’. Right: The same memorial still stands today.

A close-up view of the dragon’s teeth at Saarbrücken. The houses in the background were in fact cunningly camouflaged pillboxes. All had been built in 1938-39 as part of the special Aachen—Saar phase of Westwall construction. This picture was taken by Associated Press photographer Jim Pringle on March 22, two days after the fall of the city.

20-minute preparation. The fire was lifted for ten minutes and then another 20-minute barrage was laid on. Smoke signals shifted the fire 600 yards to the north and a third 20-minute softening-up was fired. At 1610, the 1st Battalion of the 274th Infantry, supported by two platoons of tanks from Company C, 714th Tank Battalion, and a platoon of tank destroyers from the 648th TD Battalion (towed), started an advance towards the Siegfried Line fortifications south of Saarbrücken. The terrain offered little cover and concealment. All approaches were covered by interlocking bands of fire from enemy pillboxes and bunkers. After several hundred yards were won, the advance was halted. For the next few days there was vigorous patrolling of the banks of the Saar. Division artillery and tank destroyers fired hundreds of missions, expending 5,000 rounds to neutralise enemy gun batteries. Bunkers and pillboxes were subjected to intense armourpiercing shell-fire.

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THE ATTACK ON SAARBRÜCKEN Although D-Day for ‘Undertone’ was set for March 15, the 70th Division actually began its advance two days earlier. During the morning of March 13, patrols of the 274th and 276th Infantry noticed a sharp decrease in enemy activity. Pushing forward in the afternoon they met no resistance. Immediately, General Barnett ordered all three regiments to pursue the enemy, push forward to the Saar river and, if possible, establish a bridgehead across. Apart from mines, a few delaying road-blocks and sporadic firing, the troops met no opposition and by noon the following day had cleared all the mining villages south of the Saar river. However, patrols scouting out the riverbank came under heavy smallarms, automatic and mortar fire. The following morning, March 15, ‘Undertone’ was launched all along the Seventh Army front. In the 70th Division zone, a German counter-attack caused the planned assault to be delayed to 1600 hours. At 1510, five battalions of artillery began firing a

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The 274th Infantry crossed the Saar by assault boats near the village of Ottenhausen, two kilometres west of Saarbrücken, early on March 20 and advanced northwards. Jim Pringle pictured Pfc Larry L. Truppo and Pfc Samuel F. Davis looking at the sign erected by the regiment’s 3rd Battalion on the outskirts of Saarbrücken.

A part of the dragon’s teeth seen in Todd’s and Pringle’s pictures survives till this day. Some 700 metres long, and well hidden under trees and bushes that have been allowed to grow up over them, the band of anti-tank obstacles runs along the southern slope of the Petersberg, between Hart-Strasse and the Verlängerte Julius-KiefferStrasse in Sankt-Arnual.

Meanwhile, the neighbouring Third Army was making great progress in its push east. Having attacked from his Moselle bridgehead on March 13 and from a new bridgehead further north on the 14th, Patton had penetrated deep into the Saar region and, wheeling south, thrust at the rear of the German forces facing Seventh Army. At a commanders conference at Lunéville on March 17, Eisenhower asked Patch if he had any objection to Patton pressing forward across the Seventh Army zone of advance to trap as many Germans as possible, The easy-going, uncontentious Patch had none: ‘We are all in the same army’. On March 18, word was received at XXI Corps headquarters that the Third Army was now at Sankt-Wendel, 35 kilometres northeast of Saarbrücken. Clearly, the German troops defending the city would try to escape 45

Right: The Americans finally entered Saarbrücken on March 20, the 275th Infantry moving in from the south-east through Sankt-Arnual and along the Saargemünder Strasse, the main road along the south bank of the Saar. First in was Company L, who reported on the objective — the south bank inside the city — at 1535 hours, soon followed by the rest of the 3rd Battalion. Here a platoon from Company L, led by Lieutenant Alfred E. Schultz, patrols a bomb-ravaged street ‘in search of snipers’.

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from the encirclement that threatened them, so the 70th Division was put on the alert for an enemy withdrawal. New instructions ordered the division to attack and establish a bridgehead over the Saar on March 19 and to be prepared to exploit to the north or to reduce Saarbrücken. For the river crossing all available firepower was brought to bear on the enemy. The divisional 433rd Anti-Aircraft/Automatic Weapons Battalion used its 40mm AA guns and .50-cal multiple machine guns as groundsupport weapons, their fire being used to engage and button up all visible pillboxes. Nonetheless, patrols to the river were met with immediate resistance. Machine guns were fired from the pillbox apertures and enemy mortars and artillery covered the approaches. However, aerial observers flying in light spotter aircraft reported that enemy troops and civilians were withdrawing. Large motor convoys moving eastwards were observed deep in the Saar region. Bridges were being demolished. These were clear signs that the German troops were evacuating the Saarbrücken sector. Indeed, on March 17 the 1. Armee commander, General Foertsch, authorised withdrawal by stages of his westernmost troops, those of Kniess’s LXXXV. Armeekorps. Over a period of three days, units of the corps were to peel back from west to east, redeploying at Homburg, 25 kilometres to the north-east, to block the main highway through the Kaiserslautern Gap. First to move out, on March 18, was the 719. Division, followed by Regiment 860 of the 347.

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Right: Cruising Alt-Saarbrücken, the part of the city south of the river, Karel Margry found the comparison in EisenbahnStrasse, just short of its junction with Hohenzollern-Strasse. Amazingly, the Konrad butchery shop on the left is still in business in the same premises!

Left: The same platoon poses with their trophies — a portrait of the Führer and a Swastika flag. The Café Fretter has since gone but it stood on the north-west corner of Eisenbahn-Strasse and Hohenzollern-Strasse. Right: Richard Boyer, an official photographer from the US Office of War Information (OWI), pictured men of the 275th Infantry also involved in ‘hunting for snipers’ in Saarbrücken. A later caption writer, working for the Keystone press agency, changed this to ‘US troops leaving behind the 46

captured city of Saarbrücken march on in pursuit of the enemy’. Whether the men actually found any snipers in the deserted city is questionable but the claim that they were leaving Saarbrücken in pursuit of the enemy was certainly wrong: the picture was taken south of the river and, if anything, the troops were moving away from the enemy! The church is the Friedenskirche and this spot is actually quite close to where the picture on page 33 was taken.

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Left: The 275th Infantry spent the following day, March 21, mopping up the rest of the city. These troops, pictured by Signal Corps photographer Todd, are marching south down Dudweiler Strasse in the centre of the city, so they must be on the way back after having cleared out the northern city districts. (Of the other infantry units of the division, only the

1st Battalion, 274th, entered Saarbrücken proper, moving in to occupy a district on the western outskirts on the 21st.) Right: Dudweiler Strasse is one of the busiest streets in the town centre. Though damaged by bombs and artillery, quite a few of the original houses on either side have been restored and survive to this day.

Division — its central regiment — that same night. The following night, March 19/20, Kniess ordered Trierenberg to withdraw his entire division to Homburg. And so the 347. Division abandoned the Westwall pillboxes it had occupied for so many weeks and pulled out of Saarbrücken, the withdrawal taking place under heavy enemy harassing fire and constant strafing by American fighterbombers. Gauleiter Stöhr and other party and civil officials fled from the city as well.

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Right: Having reached the intersection with Adolf-Hitler-Strasse, the troops turn left, towards the city’s main square. Note the three Army photographers on the left. The man holding the large Speed Graphic, the standard camera issued to Signal Corps photographers, is almost certainly Tech/4 James W. Todd, who took the previous picture. The man he is talking to is probably Richard Boyer of the OWI (who is also known to have taken a picture on this corner). The soldier with the small camera hanging around his neck may be one of the two divisional photographers, Corporal Chester F. Garstki and Pfc James Bosch, or just a GI making private snapshots.

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The German extraction had immediate effect for the American advance. At 2230 hours on March 19, a patrol from the 276th Infantry — the 70th’s left-hand regiment — crossed the Saar without opposition at Hostenbach, on the extreme west flank of Seventh Army. There were extensive minefields on the opposite bank, and an antimine platoon was sent to clear a path. Pillboxes were found empty. At 0300 (March 20) Company C was ferried across, followed by Company B. A hastily-constructed footbridge was ready at 0700 and the rest of the 276th Infantry went across. Pushing ahead, its battalions secured the towns of Völklingen, Altenkessel and Püttlingen and the high ground west of Saarbrücken. A few kilometres further east, the 3rd Battalion, 274th Infantry, crossed the river by assault boat near Ottenhausen at 0500. By 1000 the 2nd Battalion had cleared the river and advanced northwards, skirting the western edge of Saarbrücken. Left: Adolf-Hitler-Strasse has reverted to Bahnhof-Strasse and the ruined corner building has been replaced with a bland modern structure. 47

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Right: Radically altered by Nazi burgomaster Fritz Schwitzgebel in 1938-39, who wanted to restore its baroque unity, the square became a pedestrian area in 1978. 48

Emerging from the street, the column enters the Sankt Johanner Markt, the city’s central square. Few of the GIs will have realised that they were walking where the SA columns had been marching six abreast almost exactly ten years before!

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Meanwhile, on the division right flank, the 275th Infantry at noon began an advance upon Saarbrücken, the 2nd Battalion passing through the dragon’s teeth at Sankt-Arnual, while the 1st and 3rd Battalions moved into the bomb-shattered city along the main highway. By 1800 hours, the regiment had reached the city centre, established itself on the southern riverbank there and mopped up all districts south of the river. They found the city mostly in ruins and eerily empty of people. No opposition other than ground obstacles was encountered. There had been hard and costly fighting at the approaches to the city in the past days and weeks but, amazingly, the city itself fell without the loss of a single American soldier. Meanwhile, fanning out far ahead of the infantry, the divisional mechanised 70th Reconnaissance Troop met units of the Third Army’s 65th Division at Holz, ten kilometres north of Saarbrücken; of the 26th Division at Neunkirchen, 20 kilometres to the north-east; and of the 80th Division at Sankt-Wendel, another 15 kilometres further on. The following day, March 21, while the 275th Infantry mopped up the districts north of the river, the 276th and 274th pushed north of the city and in turn met up with units of the 65th Division. In effect, the 70th Division was advancing over terrain already evacuated by the enemy and Patton’s forces had already captured all territory in front of it — the division had nowhere to go. Not all units of the General Trierenberg’s 347. Division had managed to escape encirclement. Its entire northern force, InfanterieRegiment 861 and the batteries of ArtillerieRegiment 347 deployed in its sector, was cut off and taken prisoner by the Americans. The immobile Festungs-Artillerie-Abteilung 1313 was likewise captured with all its guns and howitzers. The 70th Division had accomplished its mission and that evening reverted to army reserve. During its March operations it had lost 862 men: 149 killed, 692 wounded and 21 missing. It had taken 668 prisoners. For the Trailblazer troops, Saarbrücken marked the end of fighting. After 86 consecutive days of combat, their war had come to an end. The division remained in the Saarbrücken area for another two days, and on the 25th began moving to a new assembly area near Landstuhl, 75 kilometres to the north-east. That same day, Seventh and Third Armies completed clearing of the entire Saar-Palatinate Triangle. It had been one of the great Allied victories west of the Rhine.

This part of Bahnhof-Strasse has now been pedestrianised and is lined with fashionable shops.

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As the troops continue on down bomb-damaged Adolf-HitlerStrasse, the unknown Keystone photographer follows them.

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Little changed except for the trees, this is the same corner of Sankt Johanner Markt 70 years on.

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Watched by German refugees passing through the city or returning home, the troops turn right into Saar-Strasse.

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Above: Marching on from the town square, the men proceed to cross to the south bank of the Saar via the Bailey bridge that has been thrown across the gap in the stone-arch bridge. The span had been blown by the Germans on March 19. For some reason, almost all wartime captions of Allied pictures of this bridge name it the Bismarck Bridge and identify the equestrian statue as depicting German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. However both are wrong. The bridge is actually called the Alte Brücke (Old Bridge) and the rider on the horse is Kaiser Wilhelm I. (The other road bridge in Saarbrücken, a short distance downstream from this one, is called the KaiserWilhelm-Brücke, which makes the double error even more incomprehensible.) The stone span was built in 1546-47 under Count Philipp II von Nassau-Saarbrücken. The equestrian statue of Wilhelm I by local sculptor Adolf von Dondorff was added in 1904. Right: Today the bridge is open only for cyclists and pedestrians. 49

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Above: The 160-foot Bailey bridge across the blown span had been constructed the day before (March 20) by the 48th Engineer Combat Battalion, a corps unit belonging to the 1150th Engineer Combat Group. The 70th Division’s organic 270th Engineer Combat Battalion was on that day deployed elsewhere, constructing an infantry support bridge across the Saar for the 276th Infantry at Louisenthal west of the city.

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The Americans quickly set up Military Government in Saarbrücken. On March 24 already, military governor Colonel Louis G. Kelly appointed Heinrich Wahlster, a local businessman who had demonstratively resigned from the Nazi party in 1938, to the position of Oberbürgermeister. On May 4, Kelly ordained a local lawyer, Dr Hans Neureuter, to set up a new civil administration for the Saarland.

Captured German officers wait in the park along the river quay to be taken to a POW camp. The Americans found few Wehrmacht troops in the city, the prisoner bag of the 275th Infantry for the whole of March 20 being just 45. Note that the censor has deleted the Bailey bridge in the background. 50

This picture of a captured German police officer eating US rations became one of the iconic images of the total defeat of Germany.

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Above: Signal Corps photographer Todd pictured a truck and trailer of the 48th Engineers rolling across ‘their’ bridge on the 21st. With the main streets through the city reasonably free of bomb debris, the Alte Brücke quickly became part of Seventh Army’s main supply routes. Right: Looking north from the bridge today.

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However, the American presence in Saarbrücken would only last a little over three months. The Saarland fell under the French Zone of Occupation and so on July 10 the US forces left the area and troops of the French 10ème Division d’Infanterie moved in to establish their occupational administration under Général Louis-Constant Morlière. French rule over the Saar would last for 12 years, only terminating with the entry of the region into the German Federal Republic in 1957.

The sign reads: ‘Bruckin’ Saarbrücken with the 274th Inf. Regt.’. Another picture by Richard Boyer of the OWI. The Kaiser statue was removed by the French occupying authorities after the war.

With mopping-up completed, GIs of the 70th Division relax with an impromptu accordion concert. For the men of the Trailblazer Division, the capture of Saarbrücken marked the end of their fighting. Having completed 86 days of combat, they would spend the rest of the war engaged on occupation duty at Frankfurt, Mainz, Koblenz and elsewhere in the Rhineland. 51

Left: Squadron Leader Roger Bushell, the Commanding Officer of No. 92 Squadron, was shot down on May 23, 1940. He became an inveterate escaper and later, as ‘Big X’ at Stalag Luft 3 at Sagan, he master-minded the ‘Great Escape’ of 76 prisoners on the night of March 24/25, 1944. He lost his life with a fellow escapee, Frenchman Bernard Scheidhauer (right). The latter had left France in October 1940 to join the Royal Air Force and had earned his wings by April 1942. He first served with No. 242 Squadron before being posted to No. 131 Squadron with the rank of Sous-Lieutenant. On November 18, 1942, during a mission to attack the railway between Bayeux and Cherbourg, his Spitfire failed to return to Westhampnet, and it was subsequently learned that mechanical failure had forced him down on Jersey where he was promptly taken prisoner and sent to Stalag Luft 3.

THE DEATH OF A GREAT ESCAPER Roger Bushell, born in South Africa in August 1910, was sent to Britain to further his education and to study law. He became a barrister at Lincolns Inn, London, specialising in criminal law, and in a notable case in October 1939, acting as an assistant to Sir Patrick Hastings, he successfully defended two RAF pilots court-martialled for the friendly-fire incident which had taken place the previous month (known as the Battle of Barking Creek — see Volume 1 of The Blitz Then and Now) when Fighter Command suffered its very first casualty of the war. In 1932 Bushell joined No. 601 Squadron of the RAF’s Auxiliary Air Force and by October 1939 had been given command of No. 92 Squadron. In France the following year, he was shot down and captured on May 23, being sent to Dulag Luft for interrogation (see After the Battle No. 106). Squadron Leader Bushell made two attempts to escape, the first around June 1941 when he was recaptured a few hundred yards from the Swiss border. Then in October he reached Prague in Czechoslovakia where he remained in safe houses for nearly eight months until he was apprehended during the manhunt for the assassins of Reinhard Heydrich (see After the Battle No. 24).

By October 1942 Bushell had been sent to Stalag Luft 3 in Poland where he became the escape officer dubbed ‘Big X’, masterminding a break-out of 200 prisoners on the night of March 24/25, 1944, which became known as ‘the Great Escape’. However, things did not go according to plan and only 76 men got away before the tunnel was discovered. Bushell, together with a Frenchman, SousLieutenant Bernard Scheidhauer, managed to catch an early train from the local station before the alarm was raised. They successfully crossed Germany and had reached Saarbrücken on the frontier with France when they were picked up the following day during a police check at the railway station and taken to the prison on Lerchesflurweg. We featured the Great Escape in issue 87 and on page 12 I illustrated the spot where Bushell and Scheidhauer were murdered. just past a bridge on the unfinished autobahn west of Kaiserslautern. To guide us, I used a sketch plan drawn by the SS driver, Walter Breithaupt, and an aerial reconnaissance photo taken by the RAF in September that year which showed the bridge in question . . . or so I thought. However in June 2013 we received a very interesting E-mail from Dr Silvano Wueschner, historian with the 86 Airlift

By Winston Ramsey Wing at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. He revealed that late in the war the Luftwaffe were using the dead straight section of the autobahn west of Kaiserslautern as an airstrip and when that area was captured by the US Third Army in March 1945, the Americans continued using the autobahn as a fighter strip. Dr Wuescher explained that a portion of the old autobahn was eventually encompassed within the huge Ramstein Air Base and that today a section of it is now Kiesling Drive which serves as the boundary between Ramstein and Landstuhl Air Bases. Thus, when work resumed on the A6 autobahn in the 1960s, it had to be re-routed further south so my photo taken in the 1990s was on a section of road which did not exist in 1944! Dr Wuescher said that the RAF aerial photo that we included in the article does depict the actual spot where the execution took place. It is located north-west of the present A6 autobahn near where the Kindsbacher road comes out of Ramstein intersecting with the old autobahn. A roundabout is now located where the bridge once spanned the autobahn.

SAGAN

ATB

SAARBRÜCKEN

In March 1944, Bushell and Scheidhauer broke out of the camp through the tunnel called ‘Harry’ — since excavated and memorialised with the names of those executed by the Gestapo. 52

The two men travelled across Germany to Saarbrücken where an unfortunate slip of the tongue at the rail station caused Bushell to reply to one of the criminal police on duty in English!

ATB

ATB

Left: The prisoners were taken to Saarbrücken jail [1] which still stands on Lerchesflurweg. The following morning — March 29 — Walter Breithaupt, a driver at the Gestapo headquarters located in the left-hand wing of the castle [2] on Schlossplatz, was ordered to prepare a car ostensibly to transBack in 1946, the RAF’s Special Investigations Branch charged with tracking down those guilty of murdering 50 of the escapers, traced the SS driver Walter Breithaupt. His statement of August 10 reveals that he was the Technical Secretary of the automobile service of the State Police in Saarbrücken. ‘I lived in a small room in the building of the garage above the vehicle repair workshop. Early one morning in the spring of 1944 — it might have been around four o’clock — I was wakened by the head of the office, Dr Spann, in my room and he told me to prepare the car for a journey, I believe he said to Mannheim. Escaped prisoners were to be returned to a prisoner of war camp in the interior of the Reich. ‘I got up, dressed and got the car ready. After that I opened the garage door and drove up in front of the entrance to the Gestapo office. Immediately upon this, Kriminalsekretär Emil Schulz came up to me in the car and said he would drive along too. When asked what was the matter, Schulz told me that a few days ago a large number of British airmen had escaped from a POW camp in the east of the Reich. If I remember correctly Schulz said something about 40 men. Two of these had been arrested by the criminal police in a train in the neighbourhood of Saarbrücken. These two men were to be returned to a camp in the Reich. They were still with the criminal police. I was doubtful if the fuel would last out but he

port the two men to a camp in Germany. Right: Partially damaged during the war, and structurally deteriorated, the threat of total demolition was averted and the Schloss was beautifully renovated in the 1980s. One of the Gestapo cells has been preserved in the basement.

thought it would suffice. Schulz then returned into the building to phone the criminal police to ascertain if the two prisoners were ready to be collected. I then returned again to the garage and fetched a 20-litre canister of fuel which I put into the luggage space of the car. ‘After a time Schulz came out of the office building and told me we were to collect the prisoners from the Lerchesflur prison. In the room from which Schulz collected the prisoners, they were standing ready with their luggage. Schulz finished the handing-over formalities with the prison official. It all went very quickly. ‘Schulz and I then returned with the prisoners to the office. Here an official from the criminal police was waiting for us, who probably had to hand over additional luggage of the prisoners, and who went away afterwards. The two prisoners were wearing mufti. On arrival in the office building, Schulz told the two prisoners and me to wait in the lobby on the ground floor. The prisoners put their suitcases down. Schulz went upstairs. I presume he reported his arrival to Dr Spann. When Schulz was away the two prisoners spoke together. I could not understand anything as I do not speak the English language. ‘After a while Schulz returned and showed them by signs that they were to follow him with their luggage. We went through the door and Schulz made the two sit in the car which was standing in front of the door. I

remember that I put the two suitcases of the prisoners into the luggage space of the car. Dr Spann came shortly afterwards. ‘Whilst I was standing by the car, Dr Spann and Schulz went through the stillopen door of the garage yard. They remained there for some time. I could not see them from the car, nor did I hear what they perhaps said. After a few minutes the two of them returned to the car. Dr Spann went again into the office building whilst Schulz fastened the hands of each prisoner in front of the body with handcuffs. During this I heard for the first time that one of the prisoners spoke German. It was the bigger of the two. He said to Schulz that it was not compatable with the honour of an officer. To this Schulz replied while going away (he went back again into the office building) that it was an order. After a short while Dr Spann and Schulz came out of the building again and got in the car. Schulz sat between the two prisoners on the back seat. Dr Spann sat in the right front seat next to me. The car had left-hand drive. Dr Spann then gave the order to drive off. ‘We drove from the office building to the left along Tal-Strasse, then turned to the left over the Saar and then came into Mainzer Strasse which runs from Saarbrücken in the direction Homburg and on to Kaiserslautern. Dr Spann and Schulz wore their SS uniforms, I myself wore civilian clothes and possessed no uniform.

2 4

3

1

With Emil Schulz (left) sitting between the handcuffed prisoners in the rear seat, and Dr Leopold Spann, the Gestapo Chief,

in the front seat, Breithaupt drove out along Tal-Strasse before crossing the Saar river [3] to reach Mainzer Strasse [4]. 53

The route lay via Homburg then along Reichsstrasse 40 to the end of the unfinished autobahn. They entered this shortly before

‘Then they returned again towards the car. I also returned to the car and remained standing on the left beside the car by the driving seat. Dr Spann and Schulz also came to

When I visited Germany to photograph the execution site for issue 87, I had not realised that the Luftwaffe had used the long straight section as an airstrip, and that the Americans continued this until proper runways were built for Ramstein Air Base.

BRIDGE

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE

AUTOBAHN 1944

EXECUTION SITE

AUTOBAHN TODAY

54

the car. One of them, I can no longer remember today who it was, said to the prisoners they could get out and relieve themselves. The bigger of the prisoners thereupon

DR SILVANO WUESCHNER

‘From Saarbrücken we drove first to Homburg, that is 30km, and then a further 10km on the Reichsstrasse in the direction of Kaiserslautern. We then turned left onto the autobahn and drove in the direction of Mannheim-Ludwigshafen. Nobody spoke during the drive. I now remember that Schulz or possible Dr Spann said to the prisoners before we left that they were to be transferred to a prison camp in the interior of the Reich. During the drive on the autobahn Dr Spann said to me only once: “Don’t drive so fast, we have plenty of time”. ‘After having driven on the autobahn for about 4 to 5km Dr Spann stopped the car. He got out of the car with Schulz, they both lit cigarettes and went back on the roadway out of hearing and conversed with one another. I could not hear what was said. When I turned around to them after some while, they beckoned to me. I went up to them. Dr Spann explained to me that he had received the order by teleprint from Berlin to shoot the prisoners. He had the teleprint in his hand. I did not read it. One of them, I cannot remember now who it was, then said: “Remember what happens to our wives and children during the air raids on our cities”.

Landstuhl, heading towards Mannheim, before stopping on the outskirts of Ramstein just short of the Kindsbacher Bridge.

DR SILVANO WUESCHNER

Left: Breithaupt’s sketch shows where Roger Bushell and Bernard Scheidhauer met their deaths (right). At the trial, Schulz tried to implicate Breithaupt in the murder but the latter escaped with a prison sentence. Albert Pierrepoint hanged

one. When I looked again the two prisoners were lying in the grass between small bushes. I did not hear any sound or cry from the prisoners. Dr Spann and Schulz then bent over the prisoners lying on the ground. ‘I turned the car round on the roadway. Dr Spann then got into the car and gave the order to return to the office in Saarbrücken. Schulz remained behind along with the dead men. Dr Spann did not speak during the drive. Only once did he tell me that I was not allowed to talk to anyone about what had actually taken place. Should anyone ask me about the whereabouts of the prisoners, I was to say that they had been shot whilst escaping or whilst trying to escape.’ The RAF investigation team spent three years on the case, tracing 72 of those involved in the murders of the 50 prisoners,

even distributing wanted notices of those being sought. Emil Schulz was discovered in a French camp near Saarbrücken on August 8, 1946, hiding behind the name Ernst Schmidt. Thirty-eight men were brought to trial of whom 21 were executed including Schulz who was hung by Albert Pierrepoint in Hameln jail in Hamburg on February 27, 1948. Dr Leopold Spann escaped summary justice as he had been killed in a raid by the Eighth Air Force on Linz, Austria, on April 25, 1945. The headquarters of the Gestapo at Langgasse 13 received a direct hit, killing 50. On July 10, 1946, Walter Breithaupt was found living at his parents’ home in Frankfurt-am-Main. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in September 1947 but was released on October 24, 1952.

DR SILVANO WUESCHNER

pointed out his manacled hands. Schulz thereupon received the order from Dr Spann to remove their handcuffs. I still well remember today that this happened, as both prisoners got out of the car and recovered from sitting still by moving their arms. ‘Dr Spann and Schulz both had their pistols in their hands and Dr Spann pointed out to them that shots would be fired immediately if they tried to escape. The prisoners then both stood in the grass about five metres behind the car and about two metres off the roadway to relieve themselves. Dr Spann and Schulz stood a little behind the prisoners, so that, as seen from my position, Schulz stood to the left and Dr Spann to the right. When both raised their hands with the pistols I had to look away. I heard the two shots immediately which almost sounded like

Schulz at 11.20 a.m. on February 27, 1948, together with Emil Weil who was found guilty of shooting Lieutenants Johannes Gouws and Rupert Stevens, both of the South African Air Force, beside the autobahn between Munich and Ingolstadt.

The bridge over the autobahn was pulled down — although some stonework remains — and has been replaced with a roundabout. 55