FRANCE: The Forest, 22 Years After

So still was the clearing that correspondents standing beside the old dining car 2419D could hear the beat of a thrush’s wing, the sound of a woodpecker tapping against a beech tree in the Forest of Compiégne beyond. A warm June afternoon sun beat down on the clearing and cast purple shadows across the avenue leading through the forest from the clearing to a road. It was Friday, June 21, 1940. At exactly 3:15 o’clock, German summer time, from a touring car that had stopped at the far end of the avenue stepped a small man with a catlike tread and a supreme sense of the drama that is history.

This was Adolf Hitler’s first visit to the Forest of Compiégne, where Louis XVI received Marie-Antoinette and Napoleon received Marie-Louise, where 510 years ago Joan of Arc surrendered to the Duke of Burgundy and 22 years ago a delegation of Germans signed an armistice dictated by France’s Marshal Ferdinand Foch. Before Adolf Hitler as he stepped out of the car stood France’s monument to Alsace-Lorraine. German war flags covered the sculptured sword thrust into a limp German eagle. Swastika banners hid the inscription beneath: To the Heroic Soldiers of France, Defenders of the Country and of Right, Glorious Liberators of Alsace-Lorraine.

Adolf Hitler gazed at the monument, then walked slowly down the avenue 200 yards to the clearing. He wore a double-breasted, grey field uniform with the Iron Cross hanging from his left breast pocket. Behind him walked the six highest officials of the German Third Reich: Field Marshal Hermann Wilhelm Göring in the blue uniform of the Air Force, his Field Marshal’s baton in his right hand; Colonel General Wilhelm Keitel, Chief of the German Armed Forces, his cap cocked jauntily on one side; Colonel General Walther von Brauchitsch in field grey; Grand Admiral of the Fleet Erich Raeder in a blue naval uniform and upturned stiff collar, also carrying a baton; Deputy Nazi Leader Rudolf Hess in a grey Party uniform; Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop in the grey uniform of the Foreign Office. As the group reached the clearing, at 3:18, Hitler’s personal standard was run up.

Near the flagstaff a great granite block stood some three feet above the ground. Hitler marched to it, followed by the others. One after another the seven men read the inscription on the stone. It said in French (which Hitler is not very good at): Here on the Eleventh of November, Succumbed the Criminal Pride of the German Empire, Vanquished by the Free Peoples Which it Tried to Enslave. None of the Germans spoke, or even changed his expression, but next day that stone was ordered removed.

To a smaller stone, set between a pair of rusty railroad tracks, Hitler led his followers. This stone, marking the spot where a railroad car containing the German delegation stood from Nov. 8 to Nov. 11, 1918, was inscribed simply: The German Plenipotentiary. From there Hitler and his aides walked straight to Car 2419D. For two minutes they stood outside, chatting in the sunlight that sent a lengthening shadow of the old wagon-restaurant slanting across the grass. Then Adolf Hitler stepped nimbly aboard the car. It was 3:25 p.m.

The Dining Car. In this same car, in this same spot, in the bleak November dawn of another Friday 22 years ago tough old Marshal Foch received the German delegation with these words: “Qu’est-ce que vous désirez, messieurs?” (“What do you want, gentlemen?”) Said the chief of the German Delegation, Mathias Erzberger:* “We have come to receive the proposal of the Allied Powers for an armistice.” Foch (sharply): “I have no proposal whatsoever to make.” Count Alfred von Oberndorff: “Tell us, Herr Feldmarschall, how you wish us to express ourselves. Our delegation is prepared to ask you the conditions of an armistice.”

Foch: “Do you ask formally for an armistice?”

The Germans: “Yes, we do.”

Foch: “Then please sit down and I will read the conditions of the Allies to you.”

Last week German Army engineers removed the old car from a museum 75 yards away (built by Arthur Henry Fleming of California, who received the Légion d’Honneur for his beneficence) and rolled it down the track to the spot where Adolf Hitler wanted it for reasons of historical drama. Through the dusty windows the correspondents peered, saw Hitler sit down in the chair Foch had used, before a statue of the Marshal. At his right and left sat Göring and Keitel; at one end of the table Brauchitsch and Hess; at the other end Raeder and Ribbentrop. The far side of the table was empty, with four vacant chairs waiting.

At 3:30 p.m. four Frenchmen alighted from a car before the Alsace-Lorraine memorial. They were: General Charles Huntziger, wearing a khaki field uniform; Air General Jean Marie Joseph Bergeret and Admiral Maurice Athanase Le Luc, both in dark blue; onetime Ambassador to Poland Leon Noel, an old pro-totalitarian, neatly dressed in mufti. The French delegates gave the swastika-draped memorial a brief glance, then marched quickly down the avenue, escorted by three German officers. As they passed, the German guard snapped to attention..

As the French delegates entered the car, the German leaders rose, stiff with punctilio. Adolf Hitler gave the Nazi salute to each Frenchman in turn. Göring and Raeder raised their batons. Brauchitsch and Keitel gave the military salute, Hess and Ribbentrop the Nazi salute. The Frenchmen returned military salutes. Then Hitler sat down and nodded to

General Keitel. In a deeply solemn voice the German commander began reading, in German, Adolf Hitler’s revision of history:

“On November n, 1918, there began in this train the time of suffering of the German people. … On September 3, 1939 . . . England and France again declared war against Germany without any grounds. Now the decision of weapons has required that the Reich Government make known the German conditions for an armistice.

“If historic Compiégne Forest has been chosen for the handing over of these conditions, then it was done in order, once and for all, through this act of just retribution, to eradicate the memory which was not a glorious page of French history and was felt by the German people to be the deepest shame of all times. France has been beaten in a series of bloody battles, after heroic resistance, and has collapsed.

“Germany does not intend, therefore, to lend to the armistice conditions or armistice negotiations the character of abuse of so valiant an opponent.”

At 3:42 p.m. Adolf Hitler rose, saluted again, and left the car. With him went all the German leaders but General Keitel. As they passed the guard of honor, a band struck up Deutschland über Alles, followed by the Horst Wessel Lied. A moment later they were in their cars, driving under the beeches and oaks of the Forest of Compiégne back toward victorious Germany. In Car 2419D, across the green baize table, General Keitel continued to read terms to four men of conquered France.

The Tent. At 4:26, as the sun lay behind the trees of the forest and most of the clearing was in shadow, the French delegates left the dining car and were conducted to a small tent which had been set up on the edge of the glade. Inside were a table, four chairs and a washstand. Telephone and telegraph lines had been strung through to Bordeaux, where old Marshal Henri Philippe Péain and his Government waited anxiously for news of the terms. Those terms were laid down in detail in a 30-page manuscript, in French, which General Keitel had given the delegation. As the delegates sat down to confer, General Keitel left the dining car and went for a stroll in the forest.

The Defeat. For 26 hours France waited. In Bordeaux, Marshal Péain broadcast word to his people that France would not accept “shameful” terms, but made it clear that if the terms were honorable, France must accept them. In their new humiliation, some Frenchmen blamed their misfortune on the nation’s Godlessness, greed, irresponsibility, blindness, softness—and many other things. They spoke bitterly of their erstwhile leaders, many of whom fled the country. Events suggested more & more that the formation of the Péain Government had been a coup, engineered by the Army, Rightists and appeasers, against the Reynaud Government, which had wanted to move to Algeria.

Appeaser Pierre Laval became Vice Premier in the Péain Cabinet. In defeat, France turned to those men who might wring mercy from her enemies.

Truth was that France was not conquered. France collapsed. The French had defeated themselves, and they knew it.

They had defeated themselves because for too long they had tolerated a bureaucratic, corrupt, slothful leadership. The debacle began the day the Government fled Paris, leaving the people to take care of themselves. After that officers deserted their men, soldiers deserted their regiments, factory managers deserted their plants, civil authorities deserted their cities. The virus of flight infected all France, until Frenchmen stampeded in panic; and, far from having to attack refugees, the Germans circulated freely among them. Cried one soldier when news of peace was first heard: “We’ve been led by men with the hearts of rabbits!” Against men with the hearts of rabbits France was ripe for revolution. Perhaps old Marshal Péain knew it, when he submitted his country to the Germans.

The Car Again. That night the French peace delegates were driven 52 miles southwest to Paris, through streets that were deserted after the 9 o’clock curfew, to a hotel where they slept fitfully. Next morning they returned to their tent in the forest clearing. General Keitel turned over the dining car to them, where, with five secretaries, they went over the terms article by article. Article by article they discussed them with Bordeaux from the tent. Article by article they tried to get concessions from General Keitel, who was courteous but firm. Late in the afternoon of the second day, General Keitel sent word to them that their time was nearly up. General Huntziger sent word back that the French were ready. Once more Frenchmen and Germans faced each other across the green baize table.

“Before carrying out my Government’s order,” said General Huntziger, “the French delegation deems it necessary to declare that, in a moment when France is compelled by fate of arms to give up the fight, she has a right to expect that the coming negotiations will be dominated by a spirit that will give two great neighboring nations a chance to live and work once more. As a soldier you will well understand the onerous moment that has now come for me.”

General Keitel: “I acknowledge your declaration. … I can only reply that it is honorable for the victor to honor the vanquished.”

In the moment that followed, Admiral Le Luc wiped tears from his cheeks. There was a sound of a pen scratching, a sentence spoken in French: “Monsieur le General, la plume,” the scratch of a second signature. It was 6:50 p.m.. German summer time.

The Terms. No official text of the terms was published last week, but in London the British released a summary.

Main provisions:

> Germany will occupy roughly all territory north and west of Tours in west-central France, will thus control Paris as well as all western seaports. All rights of occupation except local administration are to be maintained by the troops stationed there, with France to pay the costs of occupation.

> The French Government may choose for itself a capital from which to continue its administration of unoccupied France, must see to the repatriation of the occupied territory.

> Naval, military and air forces must be completely demobilized and disarmed, with the exception of troops needed to preserve order. Except for such portions as are needed to safeguard French colonial possessions, the Fleet is to be collected in specified ports—under the assurance that Germany will not employ it for its own purposes, except for coastal surveillance and minesweeping. No Frenchman may serve against Germany in the service of other powers.

> German prisoners of war and all German subjects in France or French overseas possessions must be handed over to Germany. All French prisoners in German hands are to remain there until the conclusion of peace.

> Land and coastal defenses must be handed over intact, as well as plans of fortifications, mine charts, etc. The French are to carry on minesweeping.

> All offensive and defensive weapons must be turned over to Germany, and all war supplies, no more of which are to be manufactured. In the occupied areas all military supplies, fortifications and communications are to be turned over.

> No French merchant shipping is to leave harbor and all merchant ships outside of France are to be recalled or sent to neutral ports until further notice. No French aircraft is to leave the ground; airdromes are to be under German or Italian control. All French radio stations are to stop operation. The Government is to prevent the transfer of valuables and stocks abroad. The French Government is to facilitate the transport of merchandise between Germany and Italy across unoccupied territory.

> The armistice will continue in effect until the conclusion of a final peace treaty.

It can be denounced at any moment if Germany decides that France has not lived up to its provisions.

The Second Armistice. From Compiégne the four tired French delegates drove to Munich, where Hitler and Mussolini had agreed to their joint peace terms (TIME. June 24). There they spent the night. Next day German planes carried them to Rome to hear Italy’s conditions.

They were received at the null Villa Incisa, twelve miles from Rome, by Foreign Minister Count Galeazzo Ciano, Chief of Staff Marshal Pietro Badoglio, Admiral Domenico Cavagnari and General Francesco Pricolo. Although acceptance of Italy’s conditions was inevitable, it took the delegates 24 hours to study the terms and discuss them with Bordeaux. Meanwhile the armies still fought.

At 7:15 p.m., Italian summer time (which is the same as German), two days after the armistice with Germany, General Huntziger and Marshal Badoglio signed the second armistice.

The End. At 1:35 a.m., German and Italian summer time, June 25, 1940, fighting ended in France. “In humility,” proclaimed Adolf Hitler, “we thank God for His blessing. I order the beflagging of the Reich for ten days, the ringing of bells for seven days.” France proclaimed a day of mourning.

France had not only been defeated in battle; her institutions had been discredited. Said Le Petit Gironde of Bordeaux: “Thus came the end of 20 years of errors and faults. We shall not say of crimes, since we still believe that those who have brought us to this pass were merely ignorant and blind—but they have drawn us into an adventure that dumbs us with stupor.” So shattered was France’s strength, so humbled her prestige, that a greater miracle than Germany’s rise after Versailles would be needed ever to restore them.

The best that Frenchmen could hope for was to be allowed to live in peace in Adolf Hitler’s Europe. And in Hitler’s Europe France faced an unknown future, blaming for the past, not Hitler, but her own people and leaders who had let slip through their fingers the heritage of Louis XIV.

*Assassinated Aug. 26, 1921, by two German veterans to avenge the Armistice.