PARIS LIBERATION UNEXPECTED

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 282, 25 August 1944, Page 5

PARIS LIBERATION UNEXPECTED

(By Telegraph-—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Received August 24, 10.20 p.m.) LONDON, Aug. 24. Part of the 1 2th Army Group, the French Second Armoured Division, under General Leclerc, entered Paris yesterday before the expiration of an armistice between the French Forces of the Interior and the Germans, says a Columbia Broadcasting System correspondent, who is believed to be in Paris.

The chief of the F.F.I. staggered into General Bradley’s headquarters and reported that the armistice with the Germans was expiring at noon yesterday. The armistice had been concluded at the Germans’ request because they had been hounded by the rising of the Parisians. The F.F.I. leader told General Bradley that the German commander wanted to withdraw his troops from road blocks to the west and south of Paris, where they were facing the Americans, and pass his troops through Paris.. General Bradley decided that the Allies must enter Paris. The revelation that the Germans had sued for an armistice caused a sensation at General Bradley’s headquarters, because though it was known that rioting had been going on in Paris since Saturday. they had not realized the extent of the Parisians’ terrorizing of the Germans. General Bradley at a moment's notice set in motion the machinery to occupy the world’s third largest city by noon yesterday, when the armistice expired, lie therefore ordered the Second French Armoured Division to move eastward to Paris. American forces followed.

FIGHT FOR PARIS

Railwaymen’s Heroic Part LONDON, August 23. The first sketchy details of the liberation of Paris reaching French official quarters in London reveal that S.S. troops during the last tense days machinegunned Maquis units along the stretch between the Place de la Concorde and the Place de la Bastille. Germans in the Rue de Rivoli running from the Place de la Concorde turned cannon against the patriots, but fired only a few rounds. The F.F.I. on the first day of the battle occupied the police headquarters, but the Town Hall and the Ministry of the Interior were occupied only yesterday morning. The Town Hall, situated on the right bank of the Seine, covered the approaches to the He de la Cite. It is revealed that the railwaymen’s strike played a vital part in the final liberation. It began on August 17. two days before tlie general insurrection. The railwaymen showed exceptional courage, not only tearing up rails, but lying on the remaining rails at various places in order to prevent trains running on the day before the insurrection. The Germans opened fire in several other parts of the city against patriots immediately the Maquis came out into the open.

JOY TINGED WITH SADNESS

French In New York (Received August 24, 11.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, August. 24. New York celebrated the liberation of Paris with streets beflagged and a special ceremony at Rockefeller Plaza. The liberation was celebrated in American style when from thousands of skyscraper windows, a blizzardof confetti, ticker-tape, and torn paper showered down in a preview of V-day. Grimness tinged the joy of the French in New York, who celebrated with impressive restraint. Their hearts are still weighed down with worry over kin from whom they have not heard for years.

Celebrations were held all over the continent. The greatest enthusiasm was evinced at Buenos Aires, where, many thousands thronged the Plaza Franeia and literally buried the French monument beneath flowers. Crowds sang the “Marseillaise,” “God Save the King,” and the Argentine anthem. At Quebec, French Tricolors were on all Government buildings, and many homes and buildings were decorated.