More Pics From Charles

4 Comments

1. SE Pennsylvania SteveMay 20, 2015 at 2:41 PM

   Wow, imagine driving your army jeep in Paris where nice looking French women were lining up to kiss you!
2. Joe in MesaMay 20, 2015 at 2:58 PM

   Great pics! Thanks, Charles :-)
3. peter56May 21, 2015 at 2:22 AM

   That second photo you could really sense the intencity.
4. Roberto FloresMay 21, 2015 at 10:34 AM

   What a bunch of cool shots, Charles...and what a a waterfall of souvernirs! One of the shots marked as "Parisienne de Photographie" shows "la jeep" of capitan Raymond Dronne, the chief of "La Nueve" company. It´s the jeep with a inmatriculation as "95122" at frontal bumper. Perhaps if you have watched a classic film called "Is Paris burning"? ("Paris brûle-t-il?") inspired in a famous novel by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins, you would know something about the story of Spanish ex-republican soldiers which made their way from the end of the Spanish civil war to WW2, fighting with Allied armies, as the Free French forces, and the famous 2nd Free French armored division, called also Division Leclerc, with the motto of his "patron", general Philippe de Hautecloque aka Leclerc. A bunch of these guys were the first Allied forced deployed to Paris late August 1944, and the first to arrive at the Hotel de Ville late night of 24th August with a few vehicles as Shermans (called "Montmirail", "Romilly" and "Champaubert"), jeeps (as that of the pic, "Mort aux Cons 2", painted at its windscreen), etc. And half-tracks too called with names of battles from the Spanish war as "Belchite", "Guadalajara", "Teruel", etc. Those guys were mainly at the 9th company (called in Spanish language "la Nueve") of the III Battallion of the Régiment de Marche du Tchad, or RMT. The chief of the RMT was another veteran of the the 1st World War and the Spanish civil war, Joseph Putz, in which he was volunteer with the International Brigades and also chief for the Basque army, or "Eusko Gudarostea". For several reasons, I have the fortune to exchange letters with several of these veterans several years ago, before their decease, as sergeant chief Fermin Pujol, veteran also from the "Columne Leclerc" and whose brother died at the battle of Eccouché (Normandy). Those pics are really fantastic, Charles, and I assume that you´re also a passionated for the 2ème DB Leclerc and the Libération de Paris. Thanks again for sharing them with us! Merci beaucoup! PS: And please, accept my apologies for this quite long text.