Evening star., 1939-10-28
French Have Deep
Enmity for Reich,
Writer Finds
Peasant Nearly 80
Still Remembers
Atrocity at Age J
By WALTER DURANTY.

AT BRITISH AIR HEADQUAR-
TERS, in France, Oct. % (N.A.
N.A).-"1t is rather strange, don't
you think, that their villages seem
50 new?" said young British air
officer. Compared with ours, I
mean"
He was right. That village where
he is billeted is new compared to
the placid old English cottages in
Kent or Sussex that looked the same
when Queen Elizabeth saw them
and slept in the neighboring manors.
I knew a particular village here in
France-knew it In 1918, when there
were no houses left standing by
German shellfire. So no wonder it
seemed new.
I asked the air officer whether he
had seen the church in this old-new
village and took him along to the
crypts beneath the new, ugly church.
There is Roman archway there,
dated from the days when Julius
Caesar fought VercingetoriX, the
Gallo chieftain, not far away from
here. And in corner of the crypt
there is a rusty dagger, curved. like
they still wear in the Caucasus,
which was left by one of Attilas
huns when the Gallo-Romans beat
them somewhere near this village.
Smashed by Wars.
No wonder it looks new. because 1t
has been smashed by war after war
from Caesar, Attila and Joan of Arc
under 1914-18
The air force commander took
me to the messroom- -clubroom that
they have fixed up in barn. They
have made it warm and comfortable
with posters, clippings and papers.
But the commander said, Il want
you to meet our old French patron
(proprietor. He is quite remarka-
BILE character"
He was small, tough old peasant,
nearly 30, suppose. who said cheer
fully: And so it comes again
They shot my father here in the
village square with 80 others be-
cause they said he was a franc
tireur-that was in 1871. And they
left the bodies lying there for a
whole night and day They would
not let us take them away. They
said it was an example. l was only
7, but I remember that-those Ger
mans.
Fought at Verdun.
"Ty, fnJE
Castelnau sent my division in trucks
along the road that they called the
Sacred Way. We held the line for
18 days and lost 700 killed in one
battalion, but we saved Verdun until
the British attacks on the Somme,
which relieved the German pres
sure"
But weren't you over-age?" I
asked. IF you were 7 in 1871, in
1916 you must have been over-age
for military service"
The old man grinned and tapped
me on the shoulder. You are right,
but you see 1 had done my service
with the Iron Division of Lorraine,
which saved Verdun, as I have told
you. And there was my father,
whom they shot here with those
others. And my eldest son was
killed, too. at Charleroi. When was
that? Let's see-in August of 1914.
So I volunteered and they took me
back for Verdun and then the
Somme. After that I had pneu-
monia, so they sent me home. Now
I have six grandsons in the French
Army, but these English flyers have
set up their quarters in my barn, so
am not lonely any more"
wish I could tell this story prop
erly, because feel that somewhere
in it there is what France means
and how hopeless are the German
attempts to drive a wedge between
France and England.
Interesting Flying.
I went to lunch with the British
pilot and someone said, You know,
it is interesting flying over this
country. You can still see lots of
old trenches. I mean they seem to
show up better from the air, al
though you hardly notice them when
you are driving past in a car"
Have you noticed the cemtery?"
I remarked. Ten thousand neat
wooden crosses, neat as neat, ranged
in rows like flowers or soldiers on
parade"
wondered about the dangers of
this flying job of these men, even
in this half-war, for there is always
percentage of accidents, though
commercially low. And this busi-
ness of reconnaissance-another
percentage comes there. 1 added
up and began to understand that
men who join any flying corps in
peace or a half-War or for real, des-
perate battles are those who like
taking chances against danger.
And they don't feel that "premoni-
ton of evil fate" which the ancient
Greeks declared was founded in the
origin of fear.
In other words, if you want it,
they are men of the world of ma
chimes and speed that moves ever
faster. But why, then, wondered,
did they fit so we'll with an old
French peasant? Was it only the
facts of courage and powerful emo
ton called patriotism. which I. who
have the fortune or unhappiness to
be born with gypsy foot" as they
still call it in North England, can
never feel so strangely and so
strongly?