“Everywhere were cars piled high with luggage – from 1918 Cadillacs to 1940 Rolls Royces. But war had become the great leveler. Money no longer mattered – only official coupons that would procure more gasoline. As the distance from Paris increased, tens of thousands were gradually immobilized. The time had come for the weak to help the strong, and little Renaults towed Packards and Lincolns whose tanks had run dry… Only peasants remained in their homes – the rest of France was on the move. Every car was overloaded with personal belongings, even down to bird cages. One car we passed miles inland was towing a motorboat on a trailer. All authority and organization seemed to have vanished. No one would take the responsibility of forcibly clearing the roads and stopping the panic, or else no one cared. Finally, the drivers of military supply trucks and other such vehicles gave up the struggle.”
Some months later this same correspondent was reporting about the war in North Africa – you can read that article here…
Click here to read another eyewitness account concerning the fall of France.
More primary source articles about W.W. II France can be read here…
