PWT 34 2015

rhinoceros weekly transmission

rwt-34

LibÊration, August Days, See n°1

thursday 27 august 2015 : august 1944 uprising

transmission 34 contents : selection of photographs Battle for paris, an english wikipedia article

1-7 8-11

The e-bulletin presents books, albums, photographs and ancient documents as they have been transmitted to us by their creators and by amateurs from past generations.

The physical descriptions, attributions, origins, place and date of printing of books and photographs have been carefully ascertained by collations and comparisons with other prints or comparable samples (from our picture library).

The books and photographs from all around the world are presented in chronological order. It is the privilege of ancient and authentic things to be presented in this fashion, mirroring the flow of ideas and creations.

All the items presented are available at the time of transmission.

The prices are denominated in euro. Paypal is accepted. Priority is given to the first outright purchase, confirmed by email to

studios@robespierre.fr

Rhinoceros & Cie Studios Robespierre 71 rue Robespierre 93100 Montreuil

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ffi snapshots. Paris Uprising days, 22-25 august 1944 Seven (7) vintage silver prints, 130x125 mm, dated August 1945, no credit.

(7) â‚Ź 400

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agence l.a.p.i. uprising street art, paris, august 1944 Vintage silver print, 180x240 mm, stamped

â‚Ź 100

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pierre auradon (1900-1988) Barricade in the 16th, paris, 25 august 1944 Vintage silver print on mat paper, 168x232 mm, stamped and dated. Pierre Auradon photographed the Libération in Avenue Mozart (Les habitants des beaux quartiers du XVIe arrondisssement ont vécu eux aussi les jours de la libération, Cf. BnF). € 200

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agence l.a.p.i. german soldiers surrouded in luxembourg gardens, august 1944 Vintage silver print, 180x240 mm, captioned : “A l'entrée du Luxembourg les soldats allemands fait prisonniers au Sénat attendent leur évacuation" 25 Août 1944”. € 200

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krikor dJololian-araX (1897-1975). preparing Vctory parade, august 1945 Vintage silver print, 180x240 mm, stamped. “On August, 26th, The day after de Gaulle's speech, Leclerc's French 2nd Armoured Division paraded down the Champs-Élysées. German snipers were still active, and ones from rooftops in the Hôtel de Crillon area shot at the crowd while de Gaulle marched down the Champs Élysées and entered the Place de la Concorde.”

€ 200

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celerier, the return from germany, april 1945 Vintage silver print, 180x240 mm, stamped, captioned : “Retour des Prisonniers, 20 avril 1945. â‚Ź 100

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atelier deVal. Départ en colonie de vacances en Forêt Noire occupée, 1945 summer camp in west germany Four (4) vintage silver prints, 235x175 mm, stamped, captioned. “Le Comité des œuvres sociales des organisations de Résistance (COSOR)... Le 5 juin 1945 sont définies les limites des zones qui seront occupées par les Alliés: l'URSS, la partie Est; la Grande Bretagne, le NordOuest; les Etats-Unis, le Sud-Ouest; la France, l'Ouest. Mais les Américains vont céder à la France le Palatinat, puis le sud de la Rhénanie. Ils partagent avec elle le Pays de Bade et le Wurtemberg. ... Pendant la période d'été, de nombreux enfants de la banlieue parisienne sont également invités à prendre leurs vacances en Forêt-Noire. Chaque régiment se doit alors de recevoir un contingent de petits Français”.

(4) € 200

Paris FFI Uprising As Seen In

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An English Wikipedia Article

“Although the Allied strategy emphasized destroying German forces retreating towards the Rhine, the French Resistance (French Forces of the Interior), led by Henri Rol-Tanguy, staged an uprising in Paris.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force of the European theatre of World War II, did not consider the liberation of Paris to be a primary objective. The goal of the U.S. and British Army was to reach Berlin before the Soviet Army, and therefore end World War II in Europe, which would allow the Allies to concentrate all their efforts on the Pacific front.

General Eisenhower stated that it was too early for an assault on Paris. He was aware that Adolf Hitler had ordered the German military to completely destroy Paris should the Allies attack. Paris was considered to have too great a value, culturally and historically, to risk its destruction. General Eisenhower was keen to avoid a drawn-out battle of attrition, such as the Battle of Stalingrad or the Battle of Leningrad. It was also estimated that, in the event of a siege, 4,000 short tons (3,600 t) of food per day, as well as significant amounts of building materials, manpower, and engineering skill, would be required to feed the population after the liberation of Paris. Basic utilities would have to be restored, and transportation systems rebuilt. All of these supplies were desperately needed in other areas of the war effort.

General Charles de Gaulle of the partially resurrected French Army threatened to order the French 2nd Armored Division (2e DB) to attack Paris.

On 15 August, in Pantin, the northeastern suburb of Paris from which the Germans had entered the capital in June 1940, 1 654 men (among them 168 Allied airmen captured after their aircraft had been shot down), and 546 women, all political prisoners, were sent to the concentration camps of Buchenwald (men) and Ravensbrück (women), on what was to be the last convoy to Germany. That same day, employees of the Paris Métro, the Gendarmerie, and police went on strike; postal workers followed the next day.

On 16 August, 35 young FFI members were betrayed by an agent of the Gestapo. They had gone to a secret meeting near the grande cascade in the Bois de Boulogne. There, they were executed by German machine-guns and then finished off with hand grenades.

On 17 August, concerned that the Germans were placing explosives at strategic points around the city, Pierre Taittinger, the chairman of the municipal council, met Dietrich von Choltitz, the military governor of Paris.[8] When Choltitz told them that he intended to slow the Allied advance as much as possible, Taittinger and Raoul Nordling attempted to persuade Choltitz not to destroy Paris” (Cf. Volker Schlöndorff’ 2014 movie : Diplomacy).

Paris FFI Uprising As Seen In

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An English Wikipedia Article

“All over France, from the BBC and the Radiodiffusion nationale, (which had been in the hands of the Vichy propaganda minister, Philippe Henriot, since November 1942 until de Gaulle took it over in the Ordonnance he signed in Algiers on 4 April 1944), the population knew of the Allies' advance toward Paris after the end of the battle of Normandy.

On 19 August, continuing their retreat in direction of the east started at the beginning of August, columns of German tanks, half-tracks, trailers towed by trucks, and cars loaded with troops and material moved down the Champs Élysées. Posters calling citizens to arm had previously been pasted on walls by FFI members. These posters called for a general mobilization of the Parisians, arguing that "the war continues"; they called on the Parisian police, the Republican Guard, the Gendarmerie, the Garde Mobile, the Groupe mobile de réserve (the police units replacing the army), and patriotic Frenchmen ("all men from 18 to 50 able to carry a weapon") to join "the struggle against the invader".

Other posters assured that "victory is near" and promised "chastisement for the traitors", i.e.

Vichy loyalists, and collaborators. The posters were signed by the "Parisian Committee of the Liberation", in agreement with the Provisional Government of the French Republic, and under the orders of "Regional Chief Colonel Rol" (Henri Rol-Tanguy), the commander of the French Forces of the Interior in the Île de France region.

Then, the first skirmishes between the French and the German occupiers began. Parisians went out into the streets spontaneously...

On 20 August, as barricades began to appear, Resistance fighters organized themselves to sustain a siege. Trucks were positioned, trees cut down, and trenches were dug in the pavement to free paving stones for consolidating the barricades. These materials were transported by men, women, and children using wooden carts.

Fuel trucks were attacked and captured. Civilian vehicles, such as a Citroën Traction Avant sedan, were commandeered, painted with camouflage, and marked with the FFI emblem.

The Resistance would use them to transport ammunition and orders from one barricade to another...

Skirmishes reached their peak on 22 August, when some German units tried to leave their fortifications. At 09:00 on 23 August, under von Choltitz' orders, the Germans opened fire on the Grand Palais, an FFI stronghold, and German tanks fired at the barricades in the streets.

Hitler gave the order to inflict maximum damage on the city.

It is estimated that between 800 and 1,000 Resistance fighters were killed during the battle for Paris, and another 1,500 wounded.

Paris FFI Uprising As Seen In

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An English Wikipedia Article

On 24 August, delayed by combat and poor roads, Free French General Leclerc, commander of the 2nd French Armoured Division, disobeyed his direct superior, American field commander Major General Leonard T. Gerow, and sent a vanguard (the colonne Dronne) to Paris, with the message that the entire division would be there the following day.

The 9th Armored Company, composed mainly of veterans of the Spanish Civil War, were equipped with American M4 Sherman tanks, M2 half-tracks, and General Motors Company trucks from the United States.

They were commanded by Captain Raymond Dronne. In 1944, he became the first uniformed Allied officer to enter Paris.

Near the end of the battle, Resistance groups brought Allied airmen and other troops hidden in suburban towns, such as Montlhéry, into central Paris. Here, they witnessed the ragged end of the capital's occupation, de Gaulle's triumphal arrival, and the claim of "One France" liberated by the Free French and the Resistance.

The Free French 2nd Armoured Division suffered 71 killed and 225 wounded. Material losses included 35 tanks, six self-propelled guns, and 111 vehicles, "a rather high ratio of losses for an armoured division", according to historian Jacques Mordal.

Despite repeated orders from Adolf Hitler that the French capital "must not fall into the enemy's hand except lying in complete debris", which was to be accomplished by bombing it and blowing up its bridges, von Choltitz, as commander of the German garrison and military governor of Paris, surrendered on 25 August at the Hôtel Meurice, the newly established headquarters of General Leclerc.

Von Choltitz was kept prisoner until April 1947. In his memoir Brennt Paris? ("Is Paris Burning?"), first published in 1950, von Choltitz describes himself as the saviour of Paris...

Pierre Taittinger and Raoul Nordling claim it was they who convinced von Choltitz not to destroy Paris as Hitler had ordered. In 1958, Taittinger published ...et Paris ne fut pas détruit (... and Paris Was Not Destroyed) describing the event, and was awarded the Broquette-Gonin Prize from the Académie Française.

German losses are estimated at about 3,200 killed and 12,800 taken as prisoners of war.

On 25 August, the same day that the Germans surrendered, Charles de Gaulle, President of the Provisional Government of the French Republic, moved back into the War Ministry on the Rue Saint-Dominique. He made a rousing speech to the crowd from the Hôtel de Ville :

Paris FFI Uprising As Seen In

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An English Wikipedia Article

”Why do you wish us to hide the emotion which seizes us all, men and women, who are here, at home, in Paris that stood up to liberate itself and that succeeded in doing this with its own hands?

No! We will not hide this deep and sacred emotion. These are minutes which go beyond each of our poor lives. Paris! Paris outraged! Paris broken! Paris martyred!

But Paris liberated! Liberated by itself, liberated by its people with the help of the French armies, with the support and the help of all France, of the France that fights, of the only France, of the real France, of the eternal France!

Well! Since the enemy which held Paris has capitulated into our hands, France returns to Paris, to her home. She returns bloody, but quite resolute. She returns there enlightened by the immense lesson, but more certain than ever of her duties and of her rights.

I speak of her duties first, and I will sum them all up by saying that for now, it is a matter of the duties of war. The enemy is staggering, but he is not beaten yet. He remains on our soil.

It will not even be enough that we have, with the help of our dear and admirable Allies, chased him from our home for us to consider ourselves satisfied after what has happened. We want to enter his territory as is fitting, as victors.

This is why the French vanguard has entered Paris with guns blazing. This is why the great French army from Italy has landed in the south and is advancing rapidly up the Rhône valley. This is why our brave and dear Forces of the interior will arm themselves with modern weapons. It is for this revenge, this vengeance and justice, that we will keep fighting until the final day, until the day of total and complete victory.

This duty of war, all the men who are here and all those who hear us in France know that it demands national unity. We, who have lived the greatest hours of our History, we have nothing else to wish than to show ourselves, up to the end, worthy of France. Long live France!”

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34th week 2015

Number Thirty-four of the Weekly Transmission has been adapted to a new format for iphones and mobile devices uploaded on Thursday, 27th August at 15:15 (Paris time).

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