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          HITLER ORDERS THE DESTRUCTION OF PARIS

          The defense of the Paris bridgehead is of decisive military
          and political importance. In history the loss of Paris always
          means the loss of France. Therefore, the Fuehrer repeats his
          order to hold the defense zone west of the city.

          Within the city every sign of incipient revolt must be
          countered by the sharpest means, including public execution
          of ringleaders.

          The Seine bridges will be prepared for demolition. Paris
          must not fall into the hands of the enemy except as a field
          of ruins.

          Adolf Hitler


          * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
          *                                                     *
          *    LIBERATION OF PARIS: ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME     *
          *                                                     *
          * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

          When Sgt. Schroeder awakened me early in the morning of
          August 25, we had no idea of the drama unfolding around
          us. All we knew was that the 4th Division had orders to
          advance into Paris. Although that day and the next were
          filled with exciting events, it was only many years later
          when I read Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre's Is Paris
          Burning? that I began to understand what had been
          happening. Even this fascinating account, however, did not
          tell the full story. It was necessary to read Martin
          Blumensen's account of the liberation in Breakout and
          Pursuit and Don Cook's biography of de Gaulle before a
          fuller picture emerged.

          The drama had four major players. In addition to Hitler,
          there were Eisenhower and de Gaulle. Caught in between
          was General Dietrich von Choltitz, the commander of the
          German forces in Paris. He was in fact the key actor, since
          it was he who would decide whether Hitler's order to destroy
          Paris would be carried out.

          As the allied forces approached Paris, Eisenhower originally
          intended to bypass the city. He had the German forces on
          the run and was anxious to destroy them before they could
          regroup. Once the Germans in Paris were isolated, he felt
          sure they would surrender.

          De Gaulle, on the other hand, had other preoccupations and
          was eager to liberate Paris as soon as possible. This was not
          just to satisfy his ego. As he explained to Eisenhower, he
          was concerned that he could arrive in the city and find the
          Communists in charge. He wanted no repetition of the 1870
          Paris Commune.

          Fortunately, von Choltitz had decided Germany would lose
          the war. He commented at a dinner one evening, "Ever since
          our enemies have refused to listen to and obey our Fuehrer,
          the war has gone badly." Feeling like this, he had no desire
          to go down in history as the man who destroyed Paris.
          Hence, he carried out only the part of his orders which
          called for defending the city to the west and south. He also,
          with the help of Swedish Consul General Raoul Nordling,
          negotiated an agreement with the French Resistance for a
          cease fire in the sporadic fighting which the Communists
          had precipitated.

          Several factors led Eisenhower to change his mind about
          entering Paris. De Gaulle was pressing him hard and at one
          point threatened to order French forces into the city. In
          addition, reports from the Resistance suggested that the way
          to Paris was open and that it would fall without a struggle.
          Eisenhower, therefore, authorized General Omar Bradley to
          take Paris. Bradley in turn gave the mission to the V Corp,
          commanded by Maj. Gen. Leonard T. Gerow.

          At that time, the 2nd French Armored Division and the 4th
          Infantry Division were in the V Corp. Gerow ordered Maj.
          Gen. Jacques Leclerc, commander of the French division, to
          move into the city from the west, through Versailles. When
          the French forces ran into resistance before reaching this
          historic site, Leclerc ordered one of his units to move south
          and attack from that direction. This brought the French
          forces into the 4th Division area.

          General Bradley became impatient and on August 24
          authorized Gerow to have the 4th Division help the French
          liberate the city.

          Fortunately, at about that time von Choltitz ordered the
          German forces to retreat to the eastern side of the Seine,
          which most of them did. Had he not done this, our entry
          into the city would not have been the cake walk it turned
          out to be.

          I have given you here the barest outline of what was going
          on at the higher echelons. The French are always prickly
          allies, and de Gaulle had an ego as large as France. When
          this was mixed with American military commanders who just
          wanted to get on with fighting the war, conflict was
          inevitable. Had Hitler put one of his stiff necked SS generals
          in Paris, Parisians would today recall the liberation as a
          traumatic experience. As it was, after leaving Paris, I was
          able to write a very cheerful letter home about our entry
          into the city.


          MY LETTER HOME ABOUT OUR ENTRY INTO PARIS

          Dear Folks, August 29, 1944

          Well, this division has now been in on three of the most
          important phases of the French campaign: (1) the landings
          on D-Day, (2) the break thru on the St. L-Periers road, and
          (3) now the freeing of Paris.

          This has been one of the most exciting times we have had
          since arriving in France. I won't go into the military details,
          but perhaps you would be interested in the purely "non-
          military" points.

          We started into the city late one morning. The infantry
          battalion with which I travelled was one of the first to enter
          the city from its particular side of entry. It was a grand
          welcome the people gave. They lined the streets for mile
          after mile, thousands of them. All were shouting, "Vive
          l'Amerique" or Vive la France," literally wild with joy. We
          were the first Americans they had seen, the first sign of
          freedom after four years of domination.

          As we rode through the streets, the crowd would surge
          about us until it was impossible to move forward. People
          would crowd about and onto our vehicles. Women, men, and
          girls flung their arms about us, insistent on kissing us on
          both cheeks. Mothers held up their babies for us to kiss. We
          were literally showered with fruit of all kinds, wine, and
          flowers, until our vehicle resembled a garden. At street
          intersections the crowd was so thick it was impossible to
          move forward, with the street solid with people as far as the
          eye could reach. We moved only with loud use of the horn
          and insistent urging.

          There were thousands of pretty girls, all dressed in their
          Sunday best. It seemed to me I'd never seen so many
          beautiful women. Until they spoke, one would think he was
          in America.

          At last we stopped and set up our headquarters in an ex-
          German army building. The people crowded about the gates
          to watch these "Americans." It was impossible to work
          because of the kisses, handshaking, and shouting. Our men
          were having a wonderful time.

          That night there was singing, drinking, and dancing until
          the wee hours of the morning. The hardships of occupation
          were forgotten, even though it was difficult to convince them
          that the Americans, unlike the Germans, would permit them
          to dance, collect in crowds, and enjoy themselves.

          It was a big moment in the city's history, and the French
          are the ones to demonstrate it. For the moment at least, the
          Americans were the finest persons who ever existed. Paris
          was liberated.

          And so it has been for days as we move from one part of
          the city to the other. Crowds, kisses, and celebration. A new
          kind of war.

          But the fighting will come again. There are many Germans
          between here and Berlin. They haven't given up and are not
          defeated by any means.

          In another letter I will tell you of the FFI, the French Forces
          of the Interior, and their fight to help free Paris. Also of the
          "little war" I got into at the Place de la Concorde in the
          center of the city, with more shooting than I've seen at the
          front.

          Love, John

          This letter captures pretty well, if briefly, the atmosphere of
          our entry into the city. Whatever feelings Parisians have
          today about Americans, on August 25, 1944 we were heroes
          who had helped end four years of humiliation and anguish.

          Since then, I have visited Paris many times and never fail
          to experience a special sense of identification with that
          wonderful city. When coming to Oslo, I arranged to be in
          Paris on July 14, 1969. (This was not only Bastille Day but
          also my birthday.) That was the first Bastille Day after de
          Gaulle stepped down from power. We went to the Place de
          la Concorde to watch the parade. In the evening, we climbed
          up to the Church of the Sacred Heart at the top of
          Montmartre to watch the fireworks display.

          It was a memorable day. After all, this was the Paris which
          I had helped to liberate.


          WHILE THE SOLDIERS FIGHT, THE GENERALS QUARREL

          In retrospect, I am glad we did not know in 1944 about the
          struggle going on behind the scenes among the generals.
          Although genuine differences were involved, there was also
          a certain pettiness, which would have taken the edge off the
          pure joy we experienced.

          This pettiness did not end after French and American forces
          had occupied the city. Although the French captured the
          German headquarters at the Hotel Meurice, a 4th Division
          unit also reached the center of the city. General Gerow
          selected the 12th Infantry Regiment for this honor, as a
          reward for all the casualties it had suffered in repulsing the
          German counterattack at Mortain.

          The French commanders were not happy with Bradley's
          decision to employ the 4th Division. General Raymond O.
          Barton, the division commander, learned this the hard way.
          This incident is best told in the words of Martin Blumensen,
          based on an interview with Barton.

          "Leclerc had installed his command post at the
          Montparnasse railway station, but he himself went to the
          Prefecture of Police. Barton, who was in Paris and wanted
          to co-ordinate the disposition of the divisions with Leclerc,
          located him there having lunch. Holding his napkin and
          appearing annoyed at being disturbed, Leclerc came outside
          to talk with Barton. Without inviting him to lunch, Leclerc
          suggested that Barton go to the Montparnasse station.
          Barton, who was hungry as well as irritated by Leclerc's
          attitude, finally said, `I'm not in Paris because I want to be
          there but because I was ordered to be here.' Leclerc
          shrugged his shoulders. `We're both soldiers,' he said.
          Barton then drove to Gare Montparnasse, where he found
          General Gerow already taking charge of the enormous
          responsibility of Paris." (Martin Blumenson, Breakout and
          Pursuit, page 617.)

          While this scene was unfolding in the center of Paris, the
          8th Regiment was guarding two bridges over the Seine,
          south of the center of the city. The 12th had the task of
          mopping up resistance to the north of us, and the 22nd had
          established a bridgehead over the Seine to the south.
          However, a holiday mood prevailed where we were.

          Capt. Jack Tate, who commanded A Battery of the 29th
          Field Artillery Battalion, came by in a jeep. "Come on, John,
          let's go into the center of the city and see what's going on."
          This struck me as a good idea, and off we went. We had
          been moving so fast across France that we were no longer
          getting the detailed maps we were used to, but somehow we
          found our way. I later described what happened in another
          letter home.


          JACK TATE AND I FIND OUR WAY TO THE CENTER OF PARIS

          Dear Folks, September 1, 1944, Somewhere in France

          Remember my mentioning getting into a "revolution" in
          Paris? Well, it was really something. Ernie Pyle in his
          columns tells of our entry into the city and describes it
          quite well. But this affair was indeed something unusual.

          Capt. Jack Tate and I decided to go into the center of Paris
          proper to see what it looked like. We got into our jeep and
          took off, driving thru the streets. This was the day after we
          entered the city, but there was still a great deal of cheering
          and clapping as vehicles passed along.

          We stopped at an American bar on one boulevard, went in,
          and were treated to drinks on the house. There we met two
          French girls, one of whom wanted to go to the Place de la
          Concorde to see de Gaulle. She spoke quite good English.
          Off we went to the Place de la Concorde. This, you'll
          remember, is at one end of the Champs-Elysees, at the end
          opposite the Arc de Triomphe.

          In the Place was collected the largest crowd I've ever seen,
          thousands of people, all there to see de Gaulle pass and to
          celebrate the liberation of their city. They were dressed in
          their Sunday best, all the girls looking very pretty. Many
          were carrying cameras, still and movie. Jack said, "Do you
          realize that we are watching history in the making?"

          The crowd was tense with excitement. They had waited four
          years for this day, and even the danger of snipers in the
          buildings did not discourage them. People ebbed and flowed
          from one side of the Place to the other. The square was
          filled with tanks and machine guns. Many Frenchmen,
          members of the FFI, were armed with rifles and pistols.

          I do believe Tate and I were the only Americans present,
          since this part of the city was occupied by French army
          troops. Thus we were quite a curiosity. When we climbed on
          a tank to watch the show, a crowd collected about it. In a
          moment, one of them led the crowd in a cheer. A tanker,
          who spoke English, said, "That is for you."

          A moment later a shot was heard. There was a sudden
          silence. Then all h--- broke loose. Either a gun had been
          discharged accidentally or a sniper had fired at de Gaulle
          from one of the buildings. Which we will probably never
          know. Someone probably then thought he saw a sniper at
          a window in one of the buildings surrounding the square.
          Firing by the FFI started. Machine guns joined in. Then
          tanks opened up with high explosive shell against the
          buildings.

          It was the damndest sight I've ever seen. There was
          absolutely no controlling the crowd. At perhaps one sniper
          a terrible amount of fire was poured into every building in
          the vicinity. These buildings were filled with people watching
          the parade. It was really disgusting. Hundreds of civilians
          wounded by their own fire. Had I not seen it, I'd never have
          believed it.

          Tate and I decided there was no reason for our staying
          around to get killed by this bunch of wild Indians, so we
          started to make our way over to our vehicle. We made it a
          point to take our time to prevent starting a riot. It was
          perfectly safe, as long as you stayed out of the line of fire
          the crowd was throwing at the buildings. I didn't even hear
          a single round come our way.

          All over the place, on the cement, behind statues, vehicles,
          and tanks, and under them people were sprawled, scared to
          death. Grown men acted like frightened old women. A few
          remained unexcited. They were the officers, commanding the
          French troops.

          As I walked along, suddenly I felt a cloth gloved hand grasp
          mine. It was a very attractive blonde. She said not a word
          but just walked along with me, scared to death. Apparently
          she felt safer with us out in the open than under a tank,
          perhaps because we were Americans, perhaps because we
          appeared unexcited. (Actually, we were more frightened than
          they, because we have seen more fighting than they.) When
          we passed a safe corner, we left her there.

          When we got to our vehicle, or where it had been, it was
          gone, because the driver and another enlisted man had
          taken the girls out of the square. After a bit of discussion,
          we decided it was best to wait until they returned. About
          this time the crowd decided to leave the Place. And they
          really moved. Tate and I found a place well out in the
          center, figuring it was better than getting trampled in the
          rush.

          The crowd would move along in a half bent over position. A
          rifle would fire somewhere. They would all hit the ground.
          A veteran of the last war came up and showed me a Croix
          de Guerre with trembling fingers.

          Then in the midst of all this, a girl of about twenty came up
          to us. She was leisurely pushing a bicycle. She said, in
          English, "Isn't it a pity what happens when people become
          afraid. In their own streets, when fighting has gone on the
          past week, they have remained calm. Here in a crowd, they
          are frightened."

          So we stood there and talked to her for about fifteen
          minutes, while the Place cleared. She had learned English
          during the German occupation, so as to be able to talk to
          us when they were freed. Very interesting person.

          She departed, and a young Frenchman came up, looking for
          an American soldier for his commanding officer in the FFI
          to kiss at a public celebration. We finally convinced him we
          weren't interested.

          Love, John


          MY RECOLLECTIONS ABOUT THAT STRANGE DAY

          My letter only partially reflected the mad scene which Tate
          and I witnessed. In later years, I have stood in the Place de
          la Concorde many times, trying to recapture in my mind
          what happened. Several incidents come to mind which I did
          not relate in my letter home.

          On each side of the obelisk which stands in the center of
          the Place there was a line of tanks. When the firing began,
          Tate and I were standing near one of them. The tanks on
          the other side swung its guns around and began to fire at
          the nearby Ministry of Marine. The marks these shells made
          are still visible. Distressed by this sight, I said to the French
          officer commanding the tanks we were near, "You must stop
          this. You are killing and wounding your own people." He
          shrugged his shoulders and replied, "They are not my tanks
          which are firing. Besides, you are an American and do not
          understand. This is Paris and liberation day."

          Suddenly a naval officer appeared in one of the windows of
          the Ministry of Marine and held up his arms. The firing
          stopped. After a brief pause, it began again. The officer
          wisely withdrew from the window.

          At one point, I was near the wall that borders the Seine. I
          saw a half drunk GI kneeling down and pointing his rifle at
          a building across the river. Men were running on the roof.
          I asked the soldier what he thought he was doing. He
          replied, "Helping the French kill those snipers." I told him
          they were surely not snipers and advised him to sober up
          and return to his unit. He wandered off, looking back
          angrily at me. I had spoiled his fun.

          After the Place had cleared, Tate and I found our way back
          to the bar where we had been. We had told our driver to
          meet us there if we got separated. Finding the bar was not
          easy, since we had not realized that many bars in Paris are
          called American bars. Nevertheless, we found it, and there
          was our driver, looking rather sheepish about having
          abandoned us. Today, I am glad he did, since otherwise we
          would have missed a great deal.

          Later accounts of this episode agree that no one knows what
          started the shooting, and there is indeed disagreement about
          where and when it began.

          Since there were still at that time several thousand Germans
          in the Bois de Boulogne, who had artillery, de Gaulle's
          insistence on marching from the Arc de Triomphe to Notre
          Dame was a foolhardy venture. It could have led to far more
          deaths than it did. According to Forrest C. Pogue's The
          Supreme Command, de Gaulle later expressed his regrets.
          This incident also convinced de Gaulle that the sooner the
          FFI was disarmed the better, particularly since it included
          Communists. He called the Resistance leaders together,
          thanked them for their contribution to the liberation of the
          city, and told them to turn in their arms. Those who wanted
          to fight would be integrated into the regular French units,
          using uniforms de Gaulle had obtained from Eisenhower.

          Finally, it was not entirely true that Tate and I were the
          only Americans at the Place de la Concorde that day. At one
          point, the photographer Robert Capa drove up in his jeep.
          (I knew it was Capa because his name was printed in large
          letters just below the windshield.) We chatted for a bit about
          the strange events going on around us, and he drove off.

          I also learned from Is Paris Burning? that several other
          American soldiers were witnesses to the shooting which took
          place.


          BUT ANOTHER ADVENTURE LAY AHEAD THAT EVENING

          It was with relief that I returned to the headquarters of the
          First Battalion after Tate's and my adventure. These were,
          however, not over, for that night a dance was held in a
          nearby square. I did not write home about this and must
          therefore rely on my memory.

          Early in the evening of our second day in Paris word spread
          that there would be a dance in the Choisi le Roi town
          square. Curious, I wandered over and found an amazing
          scene. All the lights were blazing brightly, and an orchestra
          was playing. I soon found a girl to dance with and began to
          have a good time. As night fell, the tempo picked up, since
          the wine was flowing freely. During a pause in the music,
          I detected a strange humming noise. As it grew louder, I
          realized that aircraft were approaching. Suddenly, there was
          the crunching sound of bombs falling nearby.

          Pandemonium broke loose, as people scattered in all
          directions. I suggested to the girl I was with that we go into
          a nearby air raid shelter. When we entered it, however, we
          found that people had been using it as a toilet, and the
          stench was terrible. She insisted that she wanted to go to
          her home, which was nearby. We ran several blocks. I
          deposited her on her doorstep and began to run back to our
          headquarters, which had an air raid shelter.

          There was a loud explosion, and the sky lit up. I looked up,
          to see an aircraft falling to the ground. There were also
          several parachutes. I began to run faster and suddenly
          found myself pinned against a wall by two Frenchmen, with
          a tommy gun pressed into my stomach. I pleaded, "Je suis
          Americain. Je suis Americain." One of the Frenchmen
          laughed and said to the other, "Yes, he is American. You
          can tell from that terrible accent." They ran off in search of
          the Germans who had parachuted from the aircraft.

          After getting back to our headquarters, I did not venture out
          again until the next day, when we left Paris.

          When reading Is Paris Burning?, I learned what had
          happened. Hitler was furious when he found out that
          Choltitz had not carried out his commands to destroy Paris.
          He then ordered that a rain of V-1s be showered on the
          city, but this was thwarted by Lt. Gen. Hans Speidel, who
          as a result spent the rest of the war in prison. Lt. Gen. Otto
          Dessloch, who commanded a Luftwaffe unit near Reims,
          decided to run no such risk. He sent the bomber unit which
          made the attack which I witnessed. Fortunately for the
          people at the dance, most of the bombs fell on the other
          side of the Seine. Others were less lucky. The bombs killed
          more than two hundred people, injured nearly a thousand,
          and destroyed almost six hundred buildings.

          This reminder that the war was not over did not end the
          game between the generals. According to Forrest Pogue,
          General Gerow sent General Pierre Koenig, the senior French
          commander, a letter. In this, he noted that he was leaving
          Paris and was turning command of the city over to the
          French. In his reply, Koenig commented that the French
          authorities had administered Paris since its liberation.


          SOME COMMENTS ON THE QUESTION OF WHO LIBERATED PARIS

          As Martin Blumenson said in Breakout and Pursuit, "In
          retrospect, the liberation of Paris was as much a Franco-
          American conflict as an Allied-German struggle." As to the
          subsequent French reluctance to concede that the 4th
          Division played a role in the liberation, Blumenson says,
          "Certainly it was simpler to believe the legend that emerged
          afterwards: the French Resistance in Paris had liberated the
          capital without outside help."

          For the men of the 4th Division, it has not been so simple.
          There is still resentment that, unlike the Belgians, the
          French have not seen fit to recognize officially the
          contribution the division made to the liberation of France.
          (French authorities only gave their fouragere to some of the
          American divisions which made the assault landings in
          Normandy.)

          After a visit to Normandy in 1992, I took this question up
          in an article in the International Herald Tribune. You will
          find it on page 162.

          It is, however, the veterans of the French 2d Armored
          Division who should be most unhappy with the myth that
          the Resistance liberated Paris unaided. They saw 225 of
          their comrades wounded and 71 buried as a result of their
          combat with the German units which had been occupying
          the city.