After the previous entry about the Parisian Immortal Regiment, a discussion arose: do they celebrate the Victory here, which was the occupation and liberation for the Parisians? I don’t want to give definite answers, nor do I want to draw any conclusions. But I suggest listening to eyewitnesses, looking through their eyes, and thinking about a few numbers.
German soldiers look at Paris from Eiffel Tower, 1940
Robert Capa. Parisians at the victory parade, 1944
Here are some dry numbers.
- France was defeated by the Germans in a month and a half. She fought in World War I for 4 years.
- During the war, 600 thousand French died. There were one and a half million deaths in World War I.
- 40 thousand people took part in the Resistance movement (about half of them were French)
- The troops of De Gaulle’s “Free France” numbered up to 80 thousand people (of which about 40 thousand were French)
- Up to 300 thousand French served in the German Wehrmacht (23 thousand of them were captured by us).
- 600 thousand French were deported to Germany for forced labor. Of these, 60 thousand died, 50 thousand went missing, 15 thousand were executed.
And any large whole is better perceived through the prism of small events. I will give two stories from my good friends who were children in occupied Paris.
Alexander Andreevsky, son of a white emigrant.
Alexander's mother was Jewish. With the arrival of the Germans, the French began to hand over Jews or point out to the Germans people they suspected of being Jews. “My mother saw how her neighbors began to look askance at her, she was afraid that they would soon report her. She went to the old rabbi and asked what she should do. He gave unusual advice: go to Germany, work there for several months and return with documents that the Germans will issue But so that when entering Germany, my mother’s passport would not be checked, the rabbi told her to dump a jar of honey in her bag. She did so, and the German officer at the border disdained to pick up the documents stained and stuck together with honey. For four months I lived with friends. and then the mother returned from Germany and no one else had any suspicions towards her."
Francoise d'Origny, hereditary aristocrat.
“During the occupation, we lived in the suburbs of Paris, but my mother sometimes took me with her to the city. In Paris, she always walked hunched over, quietly, like a mouse, looking at the ground and not raising her eyes to anyone. And she made me walk the same way. But one day I saw a young German officer looking at me and smiled back at him - I was 10 or 11 then. My mother instantly gave me such a slap in the face that I almost fell down. I never looked at the Germans again. We were on the subway and there were a lot of Germans around. Suddenly a tall man called out to my mother, she was very happy, she straightened up and seemed to feel younger. The car was crowded, but an empty space seemed to appear around us, such a breath of strength and independence. Who was this man? The mother answered - Prince Yusupov."
Look at a few photographs about life during the occupation and liberation of Paris, I think they give reason for thought.
1. German victory parade at the Arc de Triomphe in June 1940 
2. Installation of German signs on Concord Square. 
3. Chaillot Palace. Oath of civil servants and police to the new government 
4. Champs Elysees, " new life", 1940
5. German propaganda truck in Montmartre. Broadcast music to commemorate the 30 days of the capture of Paris. July 1940 
6. A German soldier with a French woman on Trocadéro Square 
7. In the Paris metro 
8. German newspaper saleswoman 
9. Andre Zyukka. Hot day, Seine embankment 
10. Andre Zucca. Parisian fashionistas. 1942 
11. Tuileries Garden, 1943 
12. Return to horse traction. There was almost no fuel in the city 
13. Wedding in Montmartre 
14. Pierre Jaan. Remelting monuments into metal. 1941 
15. Sending workers to Germany. 
16. Deportation of Jews, 1941 
17. "Departure from Bobigny." From this station the trains went straight to the death camps. 
18. At the walls of the Louvre. Food was distributed on ration cards, so many people planted vegetable gardens. 
19. Queue at the bakery on the Champs Elysees 
20. Distribution of free soup 
21. Entrance to the Paris metro - air raid warning 
22. Legionnaires of the anti-Bolshevik corps 
23. Volunteer french legion sent to the Eastern Front 
24. Parisians spit on captured British paratroopers, whom the Germans are leading through the city. 
25. Torture of a Resistance member by the German police 
26. Captured members of the Resistance movement are led to execution 
27. Robert Capa. German paratrooper captured by Resistance partisans 
28. At the barricade in Paris in August 1944 
29. Street fighting in Paris. In the center is Simone Seguan, an 18-year-old partisan from Dunkirk. 
30. Robert Capa. Resistance fighters during the liberation of Paris 
31. Shootout with German snipers 
32. Pierre Jamet. Procession of the Leclerc Division, Avenue du Maine. Liberation of Paris, August 1944 
33. Robert Capa. Resistance fighters and French soldiers celebrate the liberation of Paris, August 1944 
34. Parisian woman with allies 
35. Robert Capa. Mother and daughter who were shaved for collaborating with the occupiers. 
36. Robert Capa. Paris welcomes General De Gaulle, August 1944 
P.S. And now the French imagine themselves as the victorious nation in World War II, and participate in Victory celebrations...
Yeah...
They prefer to remember the period of occupation in France as a heroic time. Charles de Gaulle, Resistance... However, impartial photographic footage shows that everything was not exactly as veterans tell and write in history books. These photographs were taken by a correspondent for the German magazine Signal in Paris in 1942-44. Color film, sunny days, the smiles of the French welcoming the occupiers. 63 years after the war, the selection became the exhibition “Parisians during the Occupation”. She caused a huge scandal. The mayor's office of the French capital prohibited its display in Paris. As a result, permission was achieved, but France saw these images only once. Second - public opinion I couldn't afford it anymore. The contrast between the heroic legend and the truth turned out to be too striking.
photo by Andre Zucca from the 2008 exhibition
2. Orchestra on Republic Square. 1943 or 1944
3. Changing of the guard. 1941
5. The public in the cafe.
6. Beach near the Carrousel Bridge. Summer 1943.
8. Parisian rickshaw.
Regarding the photographs “Parisians during the Occupation”. How hypocritical it is for the city authorities to condemn this exhibition for “lack of historical context”! Just the photographs of the journalist-collaborator wonderfully complement other photographs on the same topic, talking mainly about everyday life Wartime Paris. At the cost of collaboration, this city avoided the fate of London, or Dresden, or Leningrad. Carefree Parisians sitting in a cafe or in a park, boys roller skating and fishermen on the Seine - these are the same realities of wartime France as the underground activities of members of the Resistance. It is unclear why the organizers of the exhibition could be condemned here. And there is no need for city authorities to become like the ideological commission under the CPSU Central Committee.
9. Rue Rivoli.
10. Showcase with a photograph of Marshal-collaborator Pétain.
11. Kiosk on Avenue Gabriel.
12. Metro Marboeuf-Champs-Elysees (now Franklin-Roosevelt). 1943
13. Shoes made of fiber with a wooden last. 1940s.
14. Poster for the exhibition on the corner of rue Tilsit and the Champs Elysees. 1942
15. View of the Seine from the Quai Saint-Bernard, 1942.
16. Famous milliners Rose Valois, Madame Le Monnier and Madame Agnes during Longchamp, August 1943.
17. Weighing of jockeys at the Longchamp racecourse. August 1943.
18. At the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe, 1942.
19. In the Luxembourg Gardens, May 1942.
20. Nazi propaganda on the Champs Elysees. The text on the poster in the center: "THEY GIVE THEIR BLOOD, GIVE YOUR WORK to save Europe from Bolshevism."
21. Another Nazi propaganda poster issued after the British bombing of Rouen in April 1944. In Rouen, as you know, the British executed the national heroine of France, Joan of Arc. The inscription on the poster: "KILLERS ALWAYS RETURN... TO THE SCENE OF THE CRIME."
22. The caption to the photo says that the fuel for this bus was “city gas”.
23. Two more car monsters from the Occupation times. Both photographs were taken in April 1942. The top photo shows a car fueled by charcoal. The bottom photo shows a car running on compressed gas.
24. In the garden of the Palais Royal.
25. Central market of Paris (Les Halles) in July 1942. The picture clearly shows one of the metal structures (such as the Baltard pavilions) from the era of Napoleon III, which were demolished in 1969.
26. One of the few black and white photographs of Zucca. It features the national funeral of Philippe Henriot, Secretary of State for Information and Propaganda, who advocated full cooperation with the occupiers. On June 28, 1944, Henriot was shot and killed by members of the Resistance movement.
27. Playing cards in the Luxembourg Gardens, May 1942
28. Public in the Luxembourg Gardens, May 1942
29. At the Parisian Central Market (Les Halles, the very “belly of Paris”) they were called “meat bosses”.
30. Central market, 1942
32. Central market, 1942
33. Central market, 1942
34. Rivoli Street, 1942
35. Rue Rosier in the Jewish quarter of Marais (Jews were required to wear a yellow star on their chest). 1942
36. in the Nation quarter. 1941
37. Fair in the Nation quarter. Pay attention to the funny carousel device.
Forget everything, forget it, forget it.
In a slow waltz, forget forever
Fortieth century.
Louis Aragon
Forget
In 1944, Paris was liberated from fascist occupation.
I wanted forget All.
Forget German soldiers marching under the Arc de Triomphe and Hitler, photographed against the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower.
Forget, how Edith Piaf sang in occupied Paris, Louis de Funes played the piano, Gerard Philip, Jean Marais, Daniel Darrieus began their careers. The famous film “Children of Paradise” was shot.
Forget, how wagons full of Jews were sent to Auschwitz. How well the invention of the French genius - the guillotine - functioned.
Forget, that when General de Gaulle called on the French to resist on the radio from London, he was not taken seriously, and Pétain was called the savior of the nation.
Forgot!
The year 1944 arrived. The French not only supported de Gaulle, they managed forget that in 1940 they supported Pétain, who was now called by the shameful nickname Putain (putain - whore).
We also figured out the so-called "horizontal collaborationism". Women who loved the Germans flashed their shaved heads.
Forgot that the same hairdressers who, amid the hooting of the crowd, cut the heads of criminal French women, just recently served the gentlemen of the German officers with all respect.
Is it possible to blame the French, who wanted and were able to forget everything?
Do we, living in another time and in other circumstances, have the right to judge and condemn them?
The memory of the war was difficult. And sometimes shameful. I wanted to forget about this. And many succeeded. But we must not forget that in France during the occupation they did not only sing and dance. There were people who had nothing to be ashamed of. And what they did in occupied France did them honor in the eyes of their contemporaries and descendants. Let's remember!
Charles Aznavour
“Cultural life did not stop even after the fall of Paris. Charles Aznavour was not left without work either,” they wrote about the famous chansonnier in 2015. It really was like that. However, after a year and a half, this is what happened.
On October 26, 2017, in Israel, Charles Aznavour and his sister Aida were awarded the Raoul Wallenberg Medals. This was recognition of the feat of the entire Aznavour family, which during the Nazi occupation of Paris helped the hero of the French Resistance Misak Manushyan. They also hid Jews in their apartment. Is it worth reminding us what was risked? Charles Aznavour himself once said: “I... knew hatred, pain, thirst and hunger, I knew what it was to feel fear every day.”
And to sing in front of the occupiers... yes, the future great chansonnier sang. He sang alone, and sang in a duet with Pierre Roche. He composed songs and sang them in nightclubs. Maybe for camouflage purposes. Or maybe he was just helping the family survive...
Receiving the Raoul Wallenberg medal, Aznavour said bitter words: “If the whole world had recognized the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust might not have happened.”
Edith Piaf
They said that some soldiers who had gone through the war spat after her. Her tours to the Reich were condemned. For nightly performances, she rented the top floor of a brothel. She performed in Germany in front of French prisoners of war. I took pictures “as a souvenir” with German officers.
All this was true. During the occupation, Piaf's career in Paris was on the rise. She really sang on one of the floors of the brothel, receiving a lot of money for her concerts. And on the other floor they hid Jews, which she, of course, knew about. Most likely, her singing in front of the gentlemen German officers as spectators was an excellent cover...
She helped the Jewish musicians escape. Their names are known: Michel Emer, Norbert Glanzberg, who later joined the Resistance.
She sang in Germany in camps for French prisoners of war. And under the guise of autographs, she handed over forged documents to prisoners.
There is a short story by Turgenev about a brave sparrow who protected a chick from a huge dog. Edith Piaf was called the French sparrow. Coincidence.
Sad clown Beep
"Poet of Silence", "Sorcerer of Silence", " Tongue speaking hearts”, “Pierrot of the 20th century”... All this is about the French mime Marcel Marceau.
In 1940 to Strasbourg, hometown Iser (Marcel) Mangel, the Germans entered. He himself spoke about this:
“Strasbourg was empty... At the age of seventeen I joined the Resistance, and after the liberation of Paris I joined the French army.”
In honor of General Marceau-Degravier, Marcel took the surname “Marceau”.
In the underground, Marcel not only fought the fascists, he also learned to forge bread cards - after all, he had to eat something.
And his acting talent and gift of transformation are due to the salvation of 70 Jewish children, who were transported in small groups across the Alps to Switzerland. Marcel, in his role as a guide for “tourists,” passed by the sentries many times, and each time it was a “different” person.
After the liberation of Paris, Marcel Marceau joined de Gaulle's Free French Army and served as a liaison officer with General Patton's units.
And after the war, he became the Marcel Marceau the world knows. And one day he uttered piercing words: “...In 1944, my father died in a concentration camp... For the world, he is one of the nameless millions tortured by the Nazis. And for me, he is the one to whom I dedicated all my work.”
Sad clown Beep in a striped T-shirt and a crumpled hat. In addition to many theater awards, he received the Legion of Honor, the highest state award France.
Tanker of the 9th company
Tankers of the 9th Company of the Second tank division The French army took part in the liberation of Paris. They fought in the battles on the Moselle and, supported by American infantry, were the first to enter Strasbourg.
The oldest tankman was Jean Alexis Moncorger, who fought in North Africa and later took part in the Normandy operation. For his heroism he was awarded the Médaille Militaire and the Croix de Guerre.
The name of Jean Alexis Moncorger is practically unknown. The whole world knows him by his stage name - the great French actor Jean Gabin. Gaben did not want to film in occupied Paris. He went to the USA, acted, met Marlene Dietrich... In her memoirs she will write: “Once he and Gabin heard on the radio how de Gaulle called on the French to resist.” And she accompanied Gaben to the war.
Jean Gabin returned to Paris as a liberator. They say that Marlene Dietrich was in the crowd of welcoming Parisians and, seeing Gabin driving into Paris on a tank, rushed to him. Whether this is true or not, God knows. But already in old age, the great actress wrote in her diary: “My love for him has remained forever.”
Vichysto- ré sistance
“Vichy Resistance” was the name after the war for those who, collaborating with the Vichy regime, sympathized with and secretly helped the Resistance. Perhaps the most famous of them was...
Francois Mitterrand
When journalist Pierre Péan included a photograph of the young Mitterrand with Pétain in his book “French Youth,” the French were shocked. And this was done with Mitterrand’s permission. His Vichy past was known, and he did not hide the fact that he once admired Marshal Pétain. And who at one time did not admire the hero of the First World War? No wonder de Gaulle named his son Philippe in honor of Pétain. And didn’t grateful France sing the song “Marshal, we are here,” which was, in fact, the anthem of Vichy France. More on this later. In the meantime - about Mitterrand.
Captured at the beginning of the war, he escaped and reached a free (relatively speaking) zone. He collaborated with the Vichy regime and was awarded the Vichy Order of Francis.
At the same time, the “order bearer” prepared fake documents for French prisoners who escaped from Nazi camps. At the end of 1943, the Germans suspected something, and Mitterrand managed to escape: first to Algeria, then to London. In December 1943 he met with de Gaulle. Returned to France, hid underground. François Morland, by this name he was known in the Resistance, created an underground organization - “ National movement prisoners of war and deportees."
Nevertheless, Mitterrand was remembered for his collaboration with the Vichy regime at every convenient and inconvenient occasion. That did not stop him from leading the Fifth Republic for 14 years.
General Giraud
Speaking about the Vichy resistance, one cannot fail to say at least a few words about General Giraud. His role in the war is assessed differently. It is known that de Gaulle did not like him. There is a photograph of Giraud and de Gaulle shaking hands. They say that the photo turned out almost the fifth time - such disgust was written on the faces of both generals.
Giraud was captured by the Germans twice, in 1914 and 1940, and escaped twice. At the beginning of the war, his army fought fiercely against the Germans, resisting a superior enemy to the last. In 1942 he escaped from captivity again. The Germans demanded his extradition, Pétain refused. The general's family was held hostage in Germany by the Gestapo.
American intelligence transported him to Algeria. On November 8, the Allies, under the command of General Eisenhower, landed in North Africa. With the assistance of General Giraud, the Vichy troops went over to the Allied side.
Remember
It will not be possible, within the framework of a magazine article, to name everyone who defended the independence and honor of France with arms in hand.
The French who did not bow their heads to the enemy.
German anti-fascists.
Russian emigrants and citizens of the USSR.
The Spaniards who fought shoulder to shoulder with the French as part of the legendary ninth company.
The hero of the French Resistance, writer and journalist Emmanuel d'Astier de la Vigerie after the war sadly admitted:
“I think if there had been a referendum in 1940, 90 percent of the French would have voted for Pétain and a prudent German occupation.”
Do not rewrite the history of France, which sang in 1940:
“...You are saving the Motherland for the second time:
After all, Pétain is France, and France is Pétain!”
By the way, the history of the creation of this song, which appeared in 1940, was quite consistent with the spirit of that time. The authors of the words and music were Andre Montagar and Charles Courtiou. In fact, they wrote new words to the music of the song “La margoton du bataillon”. Its author, composer Casimir Oberfeld, was a Jew and died in Auschwitz.
The fortieth anniversary of the twentieth century was tragic and heroic at the same time. Those who can forget him will forget.
The rest will remember.
Irina Parasyuk (Dortmund)
On the eve of World War II, the French army was considered one of the most powerful in the world. But in a direct clash with Germany in May 1940, the French only had enough resistance for a few weeks.
Useless superiority
By the beginning of World War II, France had the 3rd largest army in the world in terms of the number of tanks and aircraft, second only to the USSR and Germany, as well as the 4th largest navy after Britain, the USA and Japan. Total number French troops numbered more than 2 million people.
The superiority of the French army in manpower and equipment over the Wehrmacht forces in Western Front was undeniable. For example, the French Air Force included about 3,300 aircraft, half of which were the latest combat vehicles. The Luftwaffe could only count on 1,186 aircraft.
With the arrival of reinforcements from the British Isles - an expeditionary force of 9 divisions, as well as air units, including 1,500 combat vehicles - an advantage over German troops became more than obvious. However, in a matter of months, not a trace remained of the former superiority of the allied forces - the well-trained and tactically superior Wehrmacht army ultimately forced France to capitulate.
The line that didn't protect
The French command assumed that german army will act as during the First World War - that is, it will launch an attack on France from the northeast from Belgium. The entire load in this case was supposed to fall on the defensive redoubts of the Maginot Line, which France began building in 1929 and improved until 1940.
The French spent a fabulous sum on the construction of the Maginot Line, which stretches 400 km - about 3 billion francs (or 1 billion dollars). Massive fortifications included multi-level underground forts with living quarters, ventilation units and elevators, electrical and telephone stations, hospitals and narrow gauge railways. railways. The gun casemates were supposed to be protected from aerial bombs by a 4-meter thick concrete wall.
The personnel of the French troops on the Maginot Line reached 300 thousand people.
According to military historians, the Maginot Line, in principle, coped with its task. There were no breakthroughs by German troops in its most fortified areas. But the German Army Group B, having bypassed the line of fortifications from the north, threw its main forces into its new sections, which were built in swampy areas, and where the construction of underground structures was difficult. There to hold back the onslaught German troops The French couldn't.
Surrender in 10 minutes
On June 17, 1940, the first meeting of the collaborationist government of France, headed by Marshal Henri Petain, took place. It lasted only 10 minutes. During this time, the ministers unanimously voted for the decision to appeal to the German command and ask them to end the war on French territory.
For these purposes, the services of an intermediary were used. New minister Foreign Affairs P. Baudouin, through the Spanish Ambassador Lequeric, conveyed a note in which the French government asked Spain to appeal to the German leadership with a request to end hostilities in France, and also to find out the terms of the truce. At the same time, a proposal for a truce was sent to Italy through the papal nuncio. On the same day, Pétain addressed the people and the army on the radio, calling on them to “stop the fight.”
Last stronghold
When signing the armistice agreement (act of surrender) between Germany and France, Hitler looked warily at the latter's vast colonies, many of which were ready to continue resistance. This explains some of the relaxations in the agreement, in particular, the preservation of part navy France to maintain “order” in its colonies.
England was also vitally interested in the fate of the French colonies, since the threat of their capture by German forces was highly assessed. Churchill hatched plans to create an émigré government of France, which would provide effective control over the French overseas possessions to Britain.
General Charles de Gaulle, who created a government in opposition to the Vichy regime, directed all his efforts towards taking possession of the colonies.
However, the administration North Africa rejected an offer to join the Free French. A completely different mood reigned in the colonies of Equatorial Africa - already in August 1940, Chad, Gabon and Cameroon joined de Gaulle, which created the conditions for the general to form a state apparatus.
Mussolini's Fury
Realizing that France's defeat by Germany was inevitable, Mussolini declared war on her on June 10, 1940. The Italian Army Group "West" of Prince Umberto of Savoy, with a force of over 300 thousand people, supported by 3 thousand guns, launched an offensive in the Alps region. However, the opposing army of General Oldry successfully repelled these attacks.
By June 20, the offensive of the Italian divisions became more fierce, but they managed to make only a little progress in the Menton area. Mussolini was furious - his plans to seize a large piece of its territory by the time France surrendered failed. The Italian dictator had already begun preparing an airborne assault, but did not receive approval for this operation from the German command.
On June 22, an armistice was signed between France and Germany, and two days later France and Italy entered into the same agreement. Thus, with a “victorious embarrassment,” Italy entered the Second World War.
Victims
During the active phase of the war, which lasted from May 10 to June 21, 1940, the French army lost about 300 thousand people killed and wounded. One and a half million were captured. The French tank corps and air force were partially destroyed, the other part went to the German armed forces. At the same time, Britain liquidates the French fleet to avoid it falling into the hands of the Wehrmacht.
Despite the fact that the capture of France took place in short terms, its armed forces gave a worthy rebuff to German and Italian troops. During the month and a half of the war, the Wehrmacht lost more than 45 thousand people killed and missing, and about 11 thousand were wounded.
The French victims of German aggression could not have been in vain if the French government had accepted a number of concessions put forward by Britain in exchange for the entry of the royal armed forces into the war. But France chose to capitulate.
Paris – a place of convergence 
According to the armistice agreement, Germany occupied only the western coast of France and the northern regions of the country, where Paris was located. The capital was a kind of place for “French-German” rapprochement. We lived peacefully here german soldiers and Parisians: they went to the cinema together, visited museums or just sat in a cafe. After the occupation, theaters also revived - their box office revenue tripled compared to the pre-war years.
Paris very quickly became the cultural center of occupied Europe. France lived as before, as if there had been no months of desperate resistance and unfulfilled hopes. German propaganda managed to convince many French that capitulation was not a shame for the country, but the road to a “bright future” for a renewed Europe.
If we remember which state has not been occupied by another state in its history, then there are few such pleasant exceptions. Maybe those that arose quite recently somewhere on the islands. And others will always have sad examples when foreign conquerors marched through the streets of cities and villages. There were such invaders in the history of France: from the Arabs to the Germans. And between these extreme examples there was no one.
Still, the occupation of 1815-1818 was noticeably different from previous ones. France was captured by a coalition of states that imposed the regime they wanted and for several years made sure that the French did not destroy this regime.
The recapture of France was not cheap for the interventionists. And it was not the talents of the defeated emperor. Napoleon abdicated the throne just four days after Waterloo - June 22, 1815, but the French army resisted the interventionists even without the famous commander. One of the culprits of the defeat, Marshal Grushi, managed to inflict a painful blow on the Prussian vanguard under the command of Pirch.
Anglo-Prussian troops crossed the French border on June 21 and stormed the fortresses of Cambrai and Peronne. In the absence of the emperor, Marshal Davout took command of the defeated army, and led the battered troops to Paris. On July 3, under pressure from the allied forces, the old Napoleonic commander concluded an agreement on the withdrawal of the French army beyond the Loire in exchange for security guarantees for Napoleonic officers (these promises did not save Marshal Ney). The capital of France was occupied by Prussian and British troops. However, the fall of Paris did not lead to the cessation of hostilities.
Napoleon had already surrendered to the British, and some French garrisons continued the war. The Landrecy fortress resisted the Prussian troops for almost a month. The Güningen fortress withstood the Austrian siege for two months. Longwy resisted for the same amount of time. Metz survived for a month. Phalsburg surrendered to Russian troops only on July 11 (23). I fought off for a month and a half foreign troops Valenciennes fortress. Grenoble did not last long, but fiercely repelled the attacks of the Piedmontese army (among the city’s defenders was the famous Egyptologist Champollion). They managed to conquer Strasbourg the second time.
Only in the fall were the interventionists able to dictate their terms to the vanquished. The basis for the occupation was the Second Treaty of Paris of November 20, 1815, according to which, to ensure its implementation, occupation troops of no more than 150 thousand people were stationed in France.
The winners also insisted on the return of France to the borders of 1789, the occupation of 17 border fortresses, the payment of an indemnity of 700 million francs and the return of art treasures captured by Napoleon. On the French side, the agreement was signed by the same Duke (“Duke”) Richelieu, whose memory is carefully preserved by the people of Odessa.
The main participants in the anti-Napoleonic coalition were represented in the occupation forces on a parity basis. England, Russia, Austria and Prussia contributed 30 thousand soldiers each. The participation of other countries was more modest. Bavaria gave 10 thousand, Denmark, Saxony and Württemberg gave 5 thousand each. Towards the end Napoleonic wars many of these armies already had experience interacting.
On October 22, 1815, Napoleon's winner Arthur Wellesley (aka the Duke of Wellington) was appointed commander of the occupation army in France. The headquarters of the intervention troops in January 1816 was located in Cambrai, away from the restless Paris. At first, Napoleon’s winner settled in the “Franqueville” mansion (now a municipal museum), but with the arrival of his wife he moved to the old abbey of Mont Saint Martin, which was turned into the personal residence of the commander. For the summer, Wellington returned to his homeland, where awards and numerous ceremonies awaited him, such as the opening of Waterloo Bridge on June 18, 1817.
King Louis XVIII of France did not skimp on rewards for the winners, awarding Wellington the Order of Saint-Esprit with diamonds and then giving him the Grosbois estate. Other Bourbon compatriots showed less warm feelings towards the commander of the occupying army. On June 25, 1816, in Paris, someone tried to set fire to Wellington's mansion on the Champs-Elysees during a ball (on August 15, 1816, the Boston newspaper The Weekly Messenger reported an arson on June 23). On February 10, 1818, the former Napoleonic non-commissioned officer (sous-officier) Marie Andre Cantillon tried to shoot the commander-in-chief, who was put on trial, but was pardoned. Under Napoleon III heirs the failed terrorist received 10 thousand francs.
The main apartment of the occupying forces in Cambrai was covered by the regiments of the 1st British Infantry Division. Units of the 3rd Infantry Division were stationed nearby in Valenciennes. There was a British cavalry division at Dunkirk and Hazebrouck. The ports of Northern France were used to supply the English army. The performance of observation and police functions no longer required the presence of selected units. That's why British government In the summer of 1816, the famous Coldstream Guards regiment was recalled from France.
Next to the British in the Douai area there was a Danish contingent under the command of Frederick (Friedrich) of Hesse-Kassel. Hanoverian units joined the British troops. The army of Hanover, barely recreated in 1813, sent about 2 brigades to the occupation group (the Hanoverians were reinforced by soldiers of the Royal German Legion of the British Army, disbanded on May 24, 1816). Units of the Hanoverian group were located in Bouchaine, Condé and Saint-Quentin (the headquarters was in Condé).
The Russian occupation corps included the 3rd Dragoon Division (Kurlyandsky, Kinburnsky, Smolensky and Tver Dragoon Regiments), the 9th Infantry Division (Nasheburgsky, Ryazhsky, Yakutsky, Penza Infantry and 8th and 10th Jaeger Regiments) and 12 -th Infantry Division (Smolensk, Narvsky, Aleksopolsky, New Ingermanland Infantry and 6th and 41st Jaeger Regiments). The former chief of the 12th Infantry Division, Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov, who distinguished himself at Borodin, was appointed commander of the “contingent.”
At first, the Russian zone of occupation was mainly the regions of Lorraine and Champagne. In the summer of 1816, part of the Russian troops was transferred from Nancy to the Maubeuge area. The headquarters of the commander of the expeditionary force, Vorontsov, was located in Maubeuge (near Cambrai). Next to the headquarters were the Smolensky and Narvsky (Kouto called this regiment Nevsky) regiments of the 12th division. Units of the Alexopol regiment of the same division were scattered between Aven and Landrecy. The New Ingermanland Regiment (Regiment de la Nouvelle Ingrie) was stationed in Solesme. The Nasheburg Regiment of the 9th Infantry Division was stationed at Solray-le-Château. The Le Cateau area was occupied by the 6th and 41st Chasseur Regiments.
To the side of the corps headquarters on the territory of the Ardennes department in Retel and Vouzieres stood the Tver, Kinburn, Courland and Smolensk regiments of the 3rd Dragoon Division. Two Don Cossack regiments under the command of Colonel A.A. Yagodin 2nd (for the French - Gagodin) and military foreman A.M. Grevtsov 3rd were stationed in Briquette (Briquet?). Commanded the Cossack brigade L.A. Naryshkin. Luka Egorovich Pikulin (1784-1824) was appointed chief physician of the Russian corps. The total strength of the Russian corps is estimated differently. Some authors proceed from the official quota of 30 thousand people, others increase this value to 45 thousand, but the number of 27 thousand people with 84 guns seems more reliable.
The organization of service in the Russian corps was exemplary. Violations of discipline were suppressed without leniency. The corps commander reacted just as harshly to attacks from the outside local residents. When a French customs officer killed a Cossack smuggler, and royal officials in Avens allowed the killer to escape, Vorontsov threatened that “every Frenchman guilty against us will be judged by our laws and punished according to them, even if it happens to be shot.” In addition to disciplinary measures, educational measures were also encouraged in the Russian corps. On Vorontsov’s initiative, a system of teaching soldiers to read and write was developed. To eliminate illiteracy, the corps opened 4 schools using the “Landcaster method of mutual education.” The command tried not to resort to corporal punishment common in the Russian army.
Despite the remoteness of Vorontsov’s troops from the borders of Russia, St. Petersburg looked after these garrisons. From time to time, high-ranking officials appeared in the corps' location. In March 1817 he arrived in France Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich (future Emperor Nicholas I). On this trip he was accompanied by the Duke of Wellington himself. At the request of Alexander I, Nikolai Pavlovich did not stop by Paris. On his way to Brussels, the Grand Duke stopped for several hours in Lille and Maubeuge, where the distinguished guest was met by Russian and French aristocrats. In response to greetings, Nikolai Pavlovich called the Russian troops and the French National Guard “brothers in arms.” As expected, the official part ended with a “corporate party” and a ball. Among the less high-ranking visitors to Maubeuge was the famous partisan Seslavin.
The Prussian troops acted most harshly among the participants in the anti-Napoleonic coalition, playing a decisive role in the Battle of Waterloo. Many of these units distinguished themselves in the battles of 1815. Lieutenant General Hans Ernst Karl von Zieten, who was responsible for successful battles with Napoleon and the capture of Paris, was appointed commander of the Prussian occupation corps located in the Sedan area. Near the headquarters was the 2nd Infantry Brigade under the command of Colonel von Othegraven. The 1st Prussian Infantry Brigade, led by Colonel von Lettow, was located at Bar-le-Duc, Vaucouleurs, Ligny, Saint-Miguel and Mézières. The 3rd Infantry Brigade, under the leadership of Colonel von Uttenhofen, occupied the Stenay-Montmedy area. The 4th Infantry Brigade, led by Major General Sjoholm, was stationed at Thionville and Longwy.
Colonel Borstell's Prussian reserve cavalry brigade (4 regiments) was located in Thionville, Commercy, Charleville, Foubecourt and Friancourt. The hospitals of the Prussian corps were located in Sedan, Longwy, Thionville and Bar-le-Duc. The field bakeries of the Prussian corps were concentrated in Sedan.
Austrian troops, having entered the war later than the British and Prussians, were nevertheless able to establish control over almost all of southeastern France from the Rhine to the Côte d'Azur by the end of 1815. The corps under the command of Colloredo invaded French territory from the Rhine, and troops led by Fremont broke through the Riviera into Provence, simultaneously defeating Murat's army (the interventionists acted less successfully against the Alpine army of Marshal Suchet).
Later, the bulk of the Austrian troops were concentrated in Alsace. For example, the 2nd Dragoon Regiment was located in Erstein, the 6th Dragoon Regiment in Bischweiler, the 6th Hussars in Altkirchen and the 10th Hussars in Enisheim. The headquarters of the Austrian "observation" corps, commanded by Johann Maria Philipp von Frimont, was located in Colmar. Next to the Austrians were Württemberg troops, who in 1815 reached the Allier department almost in the center of France. Baden and Saxon units were also located there in Alsace. In addition to the old participants in the anti-Napoleonic coalition, Swiss troops operated in the Jura mountains, and Piedmontese troops in Haute Savoy.
Relations between the French and the occupiers remained restrainedly hostile. The actions of the interventionists gave many reasons for discontent, and sometimes even for open conflicts. According to Loren Dornel, fights even occurred. In 1816, skirmishes occurred with the Prussians in Charleville, the department of Meuse and Longwy. The Danes also suffered in Douai. The following year, 1817, brought new clashes between the inhabitants of the Meuse department and the Prussians, and the unrest also spread administrative center- Bar-le-Duc. There were also demonstrations against Russian troops in the Ardennes department.
There, in the Ardennes, cries were heard from civilians against the Prussian general Zieten, who visited this region. This also happened to the British in the Douai area, where there were also clashes with the Danes. In Valenciennes in 1817, the notary Deschamps was put on trial for striking a Hanoverian officer. In Forbach, Bavarian soldiers became the object of local discontent. The year 1817 was marked by fights with Danish dragoons in Bethune and Hanoverian hussars in Briey (Moselle department). At the same time, in Cambrai the issue of a fight between the French and the British was being examined. Again there were fights between local residents and the British and Danes in Douai. The following year, 1818, skirmishes in Douai with the British, Danes, Hanoverians and Russians occurred repeatedly.
Less noticeable was the constant discontent caused by requisitions for the needs of foreign troops. The occupiers took food and took horses for “temporary use.” And besides, the French paid a huge indemnity according to Treaty of Paris 1815. All this taken together made the presence of foreign troops undesirable for the vast majority of French residents. However, there was a minority in power who willingly put up with the occupation. One of the royal ministers, Baron de Vitrolles, with the consent of the Count of Artois, even sent a secret note to all the monarchs of Europe, in which he demanded to put pressure on the Bourbons to pursue a more conservative policy.
When the king learned of the behind-the-scenes negotiations, he immediately fired Vitrolle. Louis XVIII, unlike many royalists, understood that foreign bayonets could not be an eternal support for an unpopular regime, and in 1817 he inserted a hint into his speech from the throne about the upcoming withdrawal of foreign troops. To strengthen royal army A law was passed to increase the French armed forces to 240 thousand people.
At the same time, the occupation forces were slightly reduced. Since 1817, the gradual withdrawal of Vorontsov’s corps from France began. At the same time, some units (41st Jaeger Regiment) were sent to strengthen the Caucasian Corps of General Ermolov. There is an opinion that the transfer of the Russian occupation corps to the Caucasus was a manifestation of a kind of disgrace for the troops, imbued with liberal views in France. It is, of course, impossible to deny such an influence, but for categorical statements it is not enough to reference the Decembrists, among whom not all were in France.
It must also be borne in mind that what passed before the eyes of the soldiers and officers of the Russian corps was not a panorama of a revolutionary country, but a society crushed by the interventionists and their own royalists. In fact, the reorganization of the occupation corps came down to the transfer of infantry regiments to other corps and divisions. According to the memoirs of A.A. Euler sent five artillery regiments from France to Bryansk and Zhizdrinsk districts. The withdrawal of Russian units was led by the brother of Alexander I, Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich. The former corps commander had other worries at that time. Following his troops, Vorontsov took his young wife, Elizaveta Ksaverevna Branitskaya, to Russia.
The time suddenly approached when the major powers of Europe had to decide the issue of the withdrawal of foreign troops. According to the Second Treaty of Paris in 1815, the occupation of France could last 3 or 5 years. However, the occupiers themselves were not very enthusiastic about continuing their stay in France. The person least interested in the occupation was Emperor Alexander I, for whom the presence of Vorontsov’s corps at the other end of Europe did not bring large political dividends. The authority of Russia was very significant for the Prussian king to join the opinion of his “partners.”
The British government had enough opportunities to influence the French court even without Wellington's troops, and Lord Castlereagh decided to henceforth protect England from direct intervention in intra-European conflicts. Austria was the least interested in restoring French sovereignty, but Metternich remained in the minority. The most ardent opponents of the withdrawal of the occupation troops were the French royalists, who felt with all their bodies that their compatriots would not leave them alone. They tried to scare their foreign sponsors with the coming upheavals, but it did not help. The question of the withdrawal of occupation forces was a foregone conclusion.
The Holy Alliance diplomats had to figure out how to improve relations with France without military pressure. For this purpose in German city Aachen (or in French - Aix-la-Chapelle) gathered delegations from five countries. England was represented by Lord Castlereagh and the Duke of Wellington, Russia by Emperor Alexander I, Austria by Emperor Franz I, Prussia by King Frederick William III and France by Duke Richelieu. The Aachen Congress lasted from September 30 to November 21, 1818.
Through the efforts of diplomats, France moved from the category of supervised repeat offenders to the rank of a full member of the group of great powers, which was transformed from the “four” to the “five”. The occupation has become a complete anachronism. November 30, 1818 allied forces left French territory. The last echo of the Napoleonic wars has fallen silent. There were 12 years left before the overthrow of the Bourbons.
