JOY IN PARIS

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 284, 28 August 1944, Page 5

JOY IN PARIS

Grim Battle Before Surrender

LONDON, .August 25. The last Germans have gone froni Paris,, stated Paris radio tonight; a. few minutes after the announcement that the German commander in Paris had surrendered to General Leclerc. The German command, under the terms of surrender, ordered firing to cease and white flags to be hoisted, Weapons will be surrendered intact German troops will be gathered with’ out weapons at a determined place, pending new orders. General de Gaulle arrived in time for the final triumph of the French patriot and Allied forces. He said, “I wish simply, and from the bottom of my heart, ‘Vive Paris.’ ” The Radio Diffusion de la Nation Francaise. in a dramatic hour-by-hour account of the fighting in Paris, said that American parachutists who were dropped in Paris joined up with the French Forces of the Interior early today. The radio quoted' an official statement from “national headquarters” saying that Canadians were included in the Allied reinforcements under General Leclerc which arrived at the Hotel de Ville last night. People Shout for Joy. General Leclerc’s units had a delirious welcome. Men, women ,and children literally rushed the tanks, shouting for joy. This first Allied detachment found Paris in full battle. It had to carry out a definite mission, occupy the Prefecture of Police and the Hotel de Ville, and liquidate several German tanks w ni^ l were still moving about in the area. The Germans set fire to the Navy Ministry and the Hotel Crillon. The sky is ablaze in the direction of. Neuilly and Vincennes. It is the last jerks of the beast receiving the mortal blow. A communique issued by the French Forces of the Interior states: F.F.I. chiefs yesterday received the first patrol of the Second French Armoured Division in the Hotel de Ville, Paris.. The F.F .1. then controlled the main official buildings and most of the public highways. The. Germans, however, were solidly entrenched in several places. The bulk of General Leclerc’s troops entered Pans this morning.” . . -r> • ' “They are dancing for joy in laris today,” said a British United Press dispatch from Paris. “As we entered the city thousands of partisans, young 1< .h .1men. and veterans of the last war hued the streets, joyfully dancing. “Meanwhile, a new French revolution raged. Troops of the French Army are fighting for the barricades and for single houses with rifles and machineguns and sometimes with their bare hands. “Sniping occurred at the Porte d Orleans, through which General Leclerc is reported to have entered the city. Reuter’s correspondent with the forces entering Paris says: “German artillery is at present ensconced on the far side of the city, laying down shells and blanketing our advance column. Shrapnel bursts, shooting, and flames are. everywhere. but unmindful French civilians who stayed up all night to greet the liberators danced amid, the actual fighting, at the risk of their own lives. General de Gaulle spent the night near Paris, listening to radio reports from the front-line troops. “The Germans are reported to be engaging iu wholesale vandalism and de-, struction as revenge against the 1'.F.1., ■ savs the Paris correspondent of. the Associated Press of Great Britain. lhe streets of Paris last night saw scenes ot carnage such as have not. been witnessed since the French Revolution.