Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 8,995
Compiègne...
On June 22, 1940, the hopeless military situation forced the French Republic to conclude an armistice with the victorious German aggressors, which de facto amounted to total capitulation.
The German "Führer" Adolf Hitler personally came up with a very special framework ceremony for the signing of the armistice, with which he also wants to really humiliate the French:
The ceremony is to take place at exactly the same place where, on November 9, 1918, representatives of the German Reich had to sign the armistice after the loss of World War I: the park in the village of Rethondes, three kilometers from the northern French town of Compiègne...:
In 1918 the signing took place in a railway carriage parked there - and it is precisely this carriage that Hitler has now fetched from the Paris museum, where it is exhibited - for which you have to tear down a part of the outer wall, much to the amusement of the German soldiers...:
While the carriage is now being hurriedly taken to Rethondes, Hitler and his entourage are visiting the historical park. The picture shows him (arm on hip) in front of the monument of Maréchal Fardinand Foch, victorious in 1918...:
When the wagon is in place, Hitler and his cronies are waiting, including "Reichsmarschall" and Luftwaffe Chief Hermann Göring, "Der Stellvertreter des Führers" Rudolf Hess, Chief of Oberkommando der Wehrmacht Wilhelm Keitel, Generalstabschef Walther von Brauchitsch, Marinecef Großadmiral Erich Raeder and Reich Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentop for the French delegation...:
When the arrival of the French is reported, Hitler and his men get into the railway carriage...:
The French are led by General de l'armée Charles Huntziger...:
Huntziger got it after a number of others before them had given the flimsiest of excuses to drop out; the mission had been passed around Paris like a literal hot potato: no one wanted to do it!
When the French arrive, the French-speaking "Komplimentieroffizier" first escorts them to a makeshift tent where they can "freshen up"...
...and then in the railroad car.
Incidentally, this "complimentary officer" is none other than Oberleutnant Hans-Alexander von Voss, a secret resistance fighter who had repeatedly tried (and will try) to kill Hitler himself!
In the next picture, Voss is standing on the far left behind the French, the tall SS officer on the right is Hitler's personal bodyguard Hauptsturmfuhrer Otto Günsche - who will cremate his body on April 30, 1945...:
At that time, Voss had firmly planned to shoot Hitler with a sniper rifle during the victory parade on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris, which was actually planned after the armistice. However, this did not happen because the appointment was cancelled
In March 1943, he will help smuggle a bomb onto the plane that took Hitler to the Soviet Union to visit the front. The detonator iced up due to the low outside temperatures, the explosive device will not detonate!
As adjutant to General Henning von Tresckow, he was instrumental in planning the attempted coup on July 20, 1944 and then, aware of the threat of arrest by the SS, committed suicide on November 8, 1944.
When both delegations are sitting at the table, Hitler's bodyguard Otto Günsche, now wearing a steel helmet, takes his place in front of the glass door separating the car...:
Shortly before, Günsche had received strict orders from Hitler to use his service pistol immediately if the French showed the slightest "resistance"!
But the French have something else on their mind: the humiliating armistice terms!
The departments of Alsace and Lorraine are added to the "Greater German Reich", northern France and the coastal areas to the Atlantic, a total of 60 percent of the country, fall directly under German occupation. The Nord and Pas-de-Calais departments (both partly Flemish-speaking) are subordinated to the German military administration in Belgium and northern France...:
The French state is obliged to bear the costs of the German occupation - 20 million Reichsmarks per day.
The rest of France is to remain unoccupied, as are the colonies. Unoccupied France may maintain an army of a maximum of 100,000 soldiers - a deliberate allusion to the "100,000-man army" granted to the Germans in 1919.
The status of the French prisoners of war is only to be decided in a subsequent peace treaty, which, however, will never exist! Most of them stayed in Germany as forced laborers until the fall of the "Third Reich".
The government of the new French rump state will be free to choose whether to have its seat in Paris or in the unoccupied part of France - the French will choose the spa town of Vichy.
Wilhelm Keitel signs for the Germans, Charles Huntziger for the French...:
Even before the signing of the parties, Hitler leaves the railway carriage. He's in a hurry to get back to Berlin...
On June 22, 1940, the hopeless military situation forced the French Republic to conclude an armistice with the victorious German aggressors, which de facto amounted to total capitulation.
The German "Führer" Adolf Hitler personally came up with a very special framework ceremony for the signing of the armistice, with which he also wants to really humiliate the French:
The ceremony is to take place at exactly the same place where, on November 9, 1918, representatives of the German Reich had to sign the armistice after the loss of World War I: the park in the village of Rethondes, three kilometers from the northern French town of Compiègne...:
In 1918 the signing took place in a railway carriage parked there - and it is precisely this carriage that Hitler has now fetched from the Paris museum, where it is exhibited - for which you have to tear down a part of the outer wall, much to the amusement of the German soldiers...:
While the carriage is now being hurriedly taken to Rethondes, Hitler and his entourage are visiting the historical park. The picture shows him (arm on hip) in front of the monument of Maréchal Fardinand Foch, victorious in 1918...:
When the wagon is in place, Hitler and his cronies are waiting, including "Reichsmarschall" and Luftwaffe Chief Hermann Göring, "Der Stellvertreter des Führers" Rudolf Hess, Chief of Oberkommando der Wehrmacht Wilhelm Keitel, Generalstabschef Walther von Brauchitsch, Marinecef Großadmiral Erich Raeder and Reich Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentop for the French delegation...:
When the arrival of the French is reported, Hitler and his men get into the railway carriage...:
The French are led by General de l'armée Charles Huntziger...:
Huntziger got it after a number of others before them had given the flimsiest of excuses to drop out; the mission had been passed around Paris like a literal hot potato: no one wanted to do it!
When the French arrive, the French-speaking "Komplimentieroffizier" first escorts them to a makeshift tent where they can "freshen up"...
...and then in the railroad car.
Incidentally, this "complimentary officer" is none other than Oberleutnant Hans-Alexander von Voss, a secret resistance fighter who had repeatedly tried (and will try) to kill Hitler himself!
In the next picture, Voss is standing on the far left behind the French, the tall SS officer on the right is Hitler's personal bodyguard Hauptsturmfuhrer Otto Günsche - who will cremate his body on April 30, 1945...:
At that time, Voss had firmly planned to shoot Hitler with a sniper rifle during the victory parade on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris, which was actually planned after the armistice. However, this did not happen because the appointment was cancelled
In March 1943, he will help smuggle a bomb onto the plane that took Hitler to the Soviet Union to visit the front. The detonator iced up due to the low outside temperatures, the explosive device will not detonate!
As adjutant to General Henning von Tresckow, he was instrumental in planning the attempted coup on July 20, 1944 and then, aware of the threat of arrest by the SS, committed suicide on November 8, 1944.
When both delegations are sitting at the table, Hitler's bodyguard Otto Günsche, now wearing a steel helmet, takes his place in front of the glass door separating the car...:
Shortly before, Günsche had received strict orders from Hitler to use his service pistol immediately if the French showed the slightest "resistance"!
But the French have something else on their mind: the humiliating armistice terms!
The departments of Alsace and Lorraine are added to the "Greater German Reich", northern France and the coastal areas to the Atlantic, a total of 60 percent of the country, fall directly under German occupation. The Nord and Pas-de-Calais departments (both partly Flemish-speaking) are subordinated to the German military administration in Belgium and northern France...:
The French state is obliged to bear the costs of the German occupation - 20 million Reichsmarks per day.
The rest of France is to remain unoccupied, as are the colonies. Unoccupied France may maintain an army of a maximum of 100,000 soldiers - a deliberate allusion to the "100,000-man army" granted to the Germans in 1919.
The status of the French prisoners of war is only to be decided in a subsequent peace treaty, which, however, will never exist! Most of them stayed in Germany as forced laborers until the fall of the "Third Reich".
The government of the new French rump state will be free to choose whether to have its seat in Paris or in the unoccupied part of France - the French will choose the spa town of Vichy.
Wilhelm Keitel signs for the Germans, Charles Huntziger for the French...:
Even before the signing of the parties, Hitler leaves the railway carriage. He's in a hurry to get back to Berlin...
