Read Online The Bitter Road to Freedom: The Human Cost of Allied Victory in World War II Europe by William I. Hitchcock - Free Book Online

she recalled. “ With wheelbarrows and trucks, the men stole, pillaged, sacked everything, and as the Germans had aban- doned everything there were large stocks. There were disputes about who got what. They snatched clothing, boots, provisions, even money from our strong box. My father was unable to stop them. The furniture disap- peared; they even stole my sewing machine.” This went on for a number of days, and had a predictable effect: the enthusiasm [for the liberators] is diminishing, the soldiers are looting, breaking everything and going into houses everywhere on the pretext of looking for Germans. A soldier who came into our rooms while we were eating searched the rooms, and my gold watch was stolen.

    The locks on the cupboards were all broken, the doors busted open, the closets emptied and underclothes stolen, all the contents thrown on the floor, the towels stolen. And all the time, they drink our Calvados and Champagne, which they haven’t tasted since the start of the war. 45
    On August 8, to the south of Caen, Major A. J. Forrest saw the 7th Battalion of the Green Howards infantry regiment looting and ransacking a farmhouse, sawing up furniture for firewood and feasting on every living creature in the place, from hens to rabbits, ducks and even pigeons. “A disgraceful business,” he thought. “ Three hundred Germans, apparently, had lived here- abouts and respected the owner’s property, livestock and goods. How would he, on his return, react to this outrage except to curse his liberators?” 46 In fact, this sort of behavior continued right on through 1945, in Belgium, Holland, and Germany; looting and theft were constant features of the liberated landscape.

    Pt'Ob    d:ten g.<¢hets und "'f    Amei.C
    Within days of the massacre in the Falaise pocket, U.S. and British divisions were moving rapidly east, across the Seine river and toward Paris; on August 25, they, along with the French 2nd Armored Division under the command of the dazzling lieutenant general Philippe Leclerc, entered Paris. In a mere two weeks more they would be on the Belgian border. At this point in the grand narrative of the Liberation of Europe, historical works normally shift their focus and follow the Allied armies into the grateful, delirious capital city and down the Champs-Elysées. And why not? The arrival in Paris signaled a new phase of the war: Paris, symbol of civili- zation and romance, had been freed unharmed, and its people gave the weary American, British, and French soldiers an unforgettable welcome. The same warmth met the liberators across northern France right up to the Belgian border, where the fighting had been light or had passed by altogether, and where the infantry was at last riding in trucks, moving forty miles a day and more. Here, at last, liberation began to look and feel the way it was always supposed to be: flowers, girls, crowds, cheers. “ The battalion stopped at the village of La Fertie [La Ferté, to the east of Paris],” recalled A. G. Herbert. “ We now felt at last that we had left Normandy and were meeting the real French people for the first time. Unlike the people of Normandy, these folk made us feel welcome, and it seemed worth fighting for their
    freedom.” Major G. Ritchie reveled in the change from Normandy: “I have never before been treated as these French peasants are treating us, and it is a rather amaz- ing sensation and rather brings a lump to one’s throat. Everyone without exception waves to you, flowers are thrown into the vehicles, and I remember particularly the sight of one oldish man standing at his gate with his family waving his arms and shouting ‘merci! merci!’ At every little cottage I have stayed, when the inhabit- ants have been there, they have produced everything of the best, wine, cider, etc., and given