Paris

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1.9.40 [George Orwell]

September 1, 2010 in army, Barcelona, forage cap, Home Guard, Paris, Political, Richard Rees, shops, soldiers, War-time by orwelldiaries

Recently bought a forage cap. . . . . It seems that forage caps over size 7 are a great rarity.  Evidently they expect all soldiers to have small heads.  This tallies with the remark made by some higher-up to R.R. in Paris when he tried to join the army – “Good God, you don’t suppose we want intelligent men in the front line, do you?” All the Home Guard uniforms are made with 20-inch necks. . . . . Shops everywhere are beginning to cash in on the Home Guard, khaki shirts, etc., being displayed at fantastic prices with notices “suitable for the Home Guard.” Just as in Barcelona in the early days when it was fashionable to be in the militia.

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17.6.40 [George Orwell]

June 17, 2010 in Canada, Canada House, evacuation, french, german, Gwen O’Shaughnessy, medals, navy, newspapers, Paris, patriotism, Political, review, Scottish private, surrender, Underground, War-time by orwelldiaries

The French have surrendered. This could be foreseen from last night’s broadcast and in fact should have been foreseeable when they failed to defend Paris, the one place where it might have been possible to stop the German tanks. Strategically all turns on the French fleet, of which there is no news yet…

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14.6.40 [George Orwell]

June 14, 2010 in advertising, British government, Franco, French Morocco, Germans, Hitler, Italians, Negrin, Paris, Political, Spanish, Spanish Morocco, Tangier, Underground, Versailles, War-time by orwelldiaries

The Germans are definitely in Paris, one day ahead of schedule. It can be taken as a certainty that Hitler will go to Versailles. Why don’t they mine it and blow it up while he is there? Spanish troops have occupied Tangier, obviously with a view to letting the Italians use it as a base. To conquer Spanish Morocco from French Morocco would probably be easy at this date, and to do so, ditto the other Spanish colonies, and set up Negrin or someone of his kind as an alternative government, would be a severe blow at Franco. But even the present British government would never think of doing such a thing. One has almost lost the power of imagining that the Allied governments can ever take the initiative.

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10.6.40 [George Orwell]

June 10, 2010 in Allied troops, fascists, Germans, Italy, Madrid, Narvik, Norway, Paris, Political, Spain, taxi-driver, War Office, War-time by orwelldiaries

Have just heard, though it is not in the papers, that Italy has declared war…. The Allied troops are withdrawing from Norway, the reason given being that they can be used elsewhere and Narvik after its capture was rendered useless to the Germans. But in fact Narvik will not be necessary to them till the winter, it wouldn’t have been much use anyway when Norway had ceased to be neutral, and I shouldn’t have thought that the Allies had enough troops in Norway to make much difference. The real reason is probably so as not to have to waste warships.

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