From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Article from 'The Autocar' magazine detailing a Free French officer's escape from France in June 1940.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 160\5\ scan0008 | |
| Date | 25th October 1940 | |
| 426 The Autocar October 25th, 1940. UNDER THE CROSS OF LORRAINE Masquerade Adventures of an Officer Now With General de Gaulle's Free French Forces In Escaping Before the German Advance in June WEEKLY, and almost daily, Frenchmen who have discovered that an “honourable peace” with Hitler is just one of those illusions which can only be likened to a bad attack of D.T.s or the last stages in opium poisoning, are escaping from the prison which was once their own country to come over here and join the Free French Forces under General de Gaulle. The stories of many of the escapees could, and no doubt will, make the wildest schoolboy thriller of the last twenty years sound like a bedtime story for tiny tots. One young French captain, who must remain nameless for obvious reasons, although not having one of the more lurid tales to tell, nevertheless managed to pack enough adventures into a few days before he was able to escape, with the valiant aid of a Citroen 12, to satisfy even the most adventurous. His Wanderings Here, in his own words, is the story of what he calls his “wanderings”: “My country was in a state of chaos, or rather the part of it I knew. No one seemed to know what to do or where to go. Real news and rumours got mixed and it became impossible to sort them out. On one hand I heard that the British Army had been wiped out, and on the other I heard that they had been evacuated but with terrible loss. “Then I heard that France was suing for an armistice, and that any Frenchman who would carry on the fight must escape instantly from the country. That was on June 10th. I also heard that British warships were off the coast taking both British and French troops from Boulogne and Dieppe. “I made my way to the coast as quickly as possible and arrived at St.{Capt. P. R. Strong} Valery-en-Caux on June 12th, just as the remnants of the British force were being taken off. “I had bad luck when rescue was in sight. A sniper's bullet grazed my head and knocked me cold for what seemed hours as I was making my way to the cliffs in a wild hope of somehow getting down. When I came round the British warships that had been standing off the coast had gone. “But luck must have been with me, for the Germans must have taken me for dead. My papers were gone, when I came to in a pool of blood, but I had been left where I had fallen. “Then a wild idea came to my head. It might have been the wound and the loss of blood, but I think it was the sight of dozens of cars that had been abandoned at the coast. A Selection of Cars “As I crawled away, taking cover in the ditches, whenever I heard anyone approach in case it was a patrol, I saw car after car. One was a lovely Phantom Rolls-Royce lying on its side in the ditch. It bore English numbers and a G.B. plate. There were a Fiat, two nearly new Peugeots, a Berliet, Citroens, and, with its body blown to pieces, an old Morris-Cowley bearing a Monte Carlo number plate. “The Monte Carlo number plate decided me. I would take the first car that seemed in good order and go south. A little farther on I found a 1938 two-seater Citroen. It was black with yellow wheels and had a great gash-along its side from shrapnel, but except for that and a cracked windscreen it seemed in perfect order. And what was more important, there was petrol in the tank. “As I was fiddling under the bonnet connecting up one of the auxiliary terminals in the fusebox with the coil so that the engine would start, in spite of the fact that the ignition key was missing, cars bearing official German signs on the windscreen and German officers lolling in the back seats came by every now and then. But even if they saw me (I had taken my uniform coat off) they took no notice. “At last the Citroen burst into life and I got into the driver's seat feeling very shaky. My head wound was hurting abominably. It was my second wound in a month. My first, a piece of shrapnel in the thigh, received at the battle of Amiens, was the reason for my being at large. A 22 [Text from illustration] Sign: Chocolate Mercier License Plate: D-710.3S | ||