Today, exactly 73 years ago. On May 10 1940 began the Westfeldzug The offensive consisted of two consecutive operations:Fall Gelb which finally ended on the Channel coast and the retreat of the British from Dunkirk (Operatie Dynamo) the Germans launched Fall Rot and forced France to a ceasefire. This truce has gone down in history as the Second Armistice at Compiègne and was signed in the presence of Hitler. For this armistice the Germans took on the train unit from the museum where they 22 years earlier, on November 11, 1918 the armistice signed after the loss of the First World War. The wagon was put back in the same place. The French were the truce 60% of their territory to Germany, the remaining 40% including the colonies came under the Vichyregime that was sympathetic to the Third Reich. Last March we visited Compiegne and made this Then & Now series. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjERRm5_z80 The Germans celebrated their victory for a long time, this is a parade of captured French tanks on the Champs-Élysées in 1941 This was the original caption: Parade von erbeuteten französischen Somua-S-35 und Hotchkiss H 38 Panzern mit Deutschen Panzersoldaten auf die Avenue des Champs-Élysées" After signing of the armistice the wagon, the Clairière, was transported to Germany and exhibited there. In March 1945 the car burned out after an Allied air raid, only the base remained and was used with a new structure in the GDR. After an accident in 1986, the car scrapped. This then & now photos we made in the center of Paris The cinema(Boulevard Poissonniére) Citizens shelter from snipers German prisoners (Louvre) A German bookstore on the Rue de Rivoli German tourism ( Arc de Triomphe) Free-French after the fighting (Notre Dame) Rue de Rivoli - Kommandantur du gross-Paris (german headquarters) A German restaurant on the Place Blanche
They are Free-French, you can see the map of France & tricolour markings on it. Excellent Then & Nows . Bit confuisng having 1940 & 1944 photos in same thread though when it's title says 1940 . We had an old thread about Paris in 1940 &1944 http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/6395-paris-1940-1944/
Today is the 80th anniversary of the signing of the armistice at Compiegne. There was an an excellent programme on Sky the other night called Sounds of a Surrender, detailing the events and playing recordings of the negotiations in the railway carriage, secretly taped by the Germans. It's particularly poignant to hear the French plenipotentiary relaying the terms to Petain's fugitive government in Bordeaux. Well worth seeing ... 1940: The Sound of Surrender
