FRENCH ARMY

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25051, 15 November 1944, Page 5

FRENCH ARMY

VISITED BY CHURCHILL REVIEW IN WINTER MIST BATTLES STILL AHEAD (Reed. 6.30 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 14 Mr Churchill and General de Gaulle yesterday visited the French First Army in the field on the Belfort front. General de Lattre de Tassigny, who commands the French forces, met the party, which included Field-Marshal Sir Alan Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Miss Mary Churchill, and General Juin. 1 The party bad a drive of 100 miles through the Vosges Mountains in heavy snow and thick mists, with the cars slithering over twisting icebound road 3 and plunging through snowdrifts. The destination was a divisional command post 12 miles from the front. Parade at Training Camp In the afternoon, there was a parade at a famous French training camp near Besancon. Mist clouded the parade ground. Mr Churchill and General de Gaulle drove slowly in an open car down the ranks, which seemed to stretch endlessly into the.wintry gloom. Then, at a signal from the trumpets, volunteers of the French. Forces of the Interior marched past the saluting base. Sherman tanks rumbled by, and the mist seemed to double their size as they loomed out of it. When Mr Churchill left the field he was visibly tired, but stood to attention beside General de Gaulle in the glare of jeep headlamps as the trumpets in the darkness played the two National Anthems, Hard Battles to be Fought "After the decisive combat which will liberate Europe, other battles will be fought elsewhere—hard battles, too—in which France will take a very important part," said Mr Churchill, in an interview published in the newspaper Libres. Ho added: "If France possessed the weapons in 1940, it is certain her soldiers would have jvon. It is also certain that, if the Germans had then landed in Britain, we would have been beaten. That was General Hitler's first error, and it cost him the war." Mr Churchill said that France could be expected to have a real army within six months,or a year, but she would be in the first rank among the big nations only after the return of the 3,000,000 prisoners and deportees, who formed the vital basis of France's manpower. "We did our best to obtain guarantees for them. French families have nothing to fear if Germany plays fair." "Churchill Conquered Paris" "Mr Churchill has conquered Paris and got away with something no other foreign statesman, however friendly to France, has been able to do," says Reuter's correspondent in Paris. "He has given France advice about internal affairs, and won French approval for doing so." Paris newspapers again last night were of double size in order to do justice to the Churchill-Eden visit. Over half of the space was devoted to Mr Churchill, _ and huge headlines announced liis appeal to "rally around de Gaulle." The newspaper Liberation Soir says: "It is irritating to get advice from a foreign statesman, but when it is Winston Churchill the advice must be received with sympathy, and his words must be heard and understood by every Frenchman." The visit has created an unparalleled atmosphere of British-French unity. Newspapers are full of photographs of Mr Churchill and Mr Eden and their wives. The Communist evening paper said: "Mr Churchill has won our support by his frankness."