Eleven Days in August by Matthew Cobb

Author:Matthew Cobb [Cobb, Matthew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780857203199
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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The arrival of the 2e DB meant that the final phase of the liberation of Paris would be determined by an army, not by the Resistance or by the population. As a result, the political forces that had created the conditions for freedom found themselves completely sidelined. Throughout the day, the members of the Conseil National de la Résistance and the Comité Parisien de la Libération sat in the Hôtel de Ville. They waited. Long stretches of boredom were interspersed with brief peaks of excitement as they heard that de Gaulle was about to arrive, and then he did not.9 In the morning, the CNR and the CPL issued a declaration in the name of ‘the French nation’ that praised ‘our uniformed and our non-uniformed soldiers, who have met up at the crossroads of a city where everyone has risen up’. Empty of anything except rhetoric, the declaration made no mention of de Gaulle even though it was also signed by Parodi in the name of the Provisional Government.10 This declaration turned out to be the swan song of both the CNR and the CPL. The embryonic state apparatus controlled by Parodi and Luizet was now fused with the armed might of the 2e DB – everything that the Free French needed to take control of the capital was now in place. The CNR and the CPL could have done nothing to oppose this even if they had possessed the political will, which they did not. Despite its long underground struggle, the Resistance had not created any alternative forms of civil power and its military forces were weak. Above all, it was not a united force that politically wished to stem the rising tide of the Free French. Although the Resistance had forced the Allies’ hand by launching the insurrection and obliging them to enter Paris, the Gaullists would come out triumphant, and the Resistance would soon disappear as a force, to become part of French mythology. But first, Paris had to be liberated.

For many Parisians, it was still a normal Friday, or as normal as it could be in a city that had been in the throes of insurrection for a week. Many of the city’s schools were providing childcare and participated in the amazing events that were taking place.11 In the 11th arrondissement, primary school children made tricolour rosettes to celebrate; at 09:00, the headmaster of the boys’ school on the rue Keller climbed onto the first-storey roof above the entrance and put a tricolour flag into the empty grey metal flag-holder, which has the letters R and F (République Française) on either side. The pupils stood neatly in a row and sang the first verse of the ‘Marseillaise’ in piping voices, while a crowd of parents, teachers and onlookers joined in the rousing and bloodthirsty chorus, so appropriate for a day of liberation:

Aux armes, citoyens!

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