Читать книгу We Were Young and at War: The first-hand story of young lives lived and lost in World War Two - Sarah Wallis - Страница 46

Dear Parents,

We’re now heading for the south of France. All along the roads you see signs of frantic retreat by the French. There’s equipment and all kinds of things lying around everywhere. If it wasn’t essential they just dropped it. We see thousands of prisoners every day, with very few guards. They’re not putting up any kind of defence. Whole units seek out the prisoner-of-war camps and give themselves up. That’s how shattered they are by the strength of the German army. I am shocked again and again by what I see of the streams of refugees. Mothers come and beg us for bread! They are all moved by the honourable behaviour of the German soldiers, they had imagined them to be barbarians.

Fondest thoughts from your Herbert

Four days earlier, the French head of state, Marshal Pétain, urged his countrymen to lay down their arms; and over half the total of French soldiers taken prisoner during the course of the war surrendered in the week that followed. But not everyone complied. Micheline, her mother and Nicole were staying with their relatives, just 150 miles south of Paris, as they anticipated their first encounter with German troops.