Nazis in France packing bags
Troops told to send belonging home
By Paul Ghali
Bern, Switzerland –
German officers garrisoned in the south zone of France on June 27 received orders to pack up their belongings and send them to Germany immediately. Each man was allowed to keep only 11 pounds of personal baggage. Shipments began on July 1.
This is private information just received by your correspondent from a most reliable source in France.
French military experts here believe that this news confirms recent reports that the Nazis are preparing for the eventual evacuation of France. But they also feel that the decree may well mean that several, if not all, German divisions in the south of France are making final preparations for forthcoming battles.
The total number of Wehrmacht divisions in the south zone is estimated by these experts at 18.
One thing appears certain. This German luggage, which presumably contains the booty of four years of pillage in France, will gave a long and hectic journey before it reached its destination. Communications from central and western France have become so disrupted that it recently took Dr. Braillard, Vichy delegate to the International Radio Broadcasting Committee, 50 hours to reach Lausanne from Paris, a trip which, before the war, required only seven or eight hours.