Evening star., 1940-06-17
Several Divisions
Declared Anxious
To Rejoin Families
German Officers Suid
To Be Refusing to
Take More Prisoners
By LOUIS P.LOCHNER,


Associated Press War Correspondent.
PARIS (BY COURIER PLANE
TO BERLIN, June 16 (Sunday)-
German Army sources reported late
this forenoon that several French
> divisions battling somewhere south
of the capital suddenly threw down
their arms and marched on Paris.
They sent messenger ahead to
:. advise Gen. Boguslaw Won Studnitz,
commander of the German forces
occupying Paris, that they were COM
ing peacefully and merely asked to
be permitted to rejoin their FAM
lilies.
IF this sort of thing keeps up,"
Gen. Studnitz said, well have our
hands more than full feeding cap
tive soldiers
Another story was supplied me by
Roy P. Porter, member of the Paris
staff Of the Associated Press, who is
here and we'll, along with Robert
Okin and Henry c. Cassidy, other
members of the Paris A. P. staff.
Refuse to Take Prisoners.
Porter's story was that one unit
of French troops was marching
southwark from Paris Saturday
along one highway while, unknown
to them, unit of German troops
also marched on a parallel route.
Suddenly the two roads converged.
When the French saw the Germans
they offered to surrender.
The German officer in charge COM
manded them to give up their arms
Aand said, Nov run along" He
didn't even bother to take them
prisoner.
Naturally. one of my first efforts
on reaching Paris was to contact
''7e Associated Press Paris staff men,
'1o are unable to move out any
cries.
Cassidy told me the following:
when the German occupation
logan at am. Saturday two Ger
man planes swung to landing on
TIE Place de la Concorde as easily
as though they were taxis.
"One carried Col Warlimont, for
mer Military Attache at Washing
ton, now one of Adolf Hitlers adju-
tants. The other one brought news
papers which were snatched up by
the crowd.
The two planes took off again at
pm. clipping the trees before the
Chamber of Deputies and dipping in
selute over the place"
Cassidy informed me that yester-
cay the clocks were advanced one
hour officially to German time and
q curfew was daily to be in effect
from 8 pm. to 5 am.
Troops March Through Paris.
He said that yesterday, before
our arrival. untold numbers of Ger
man troops marched through Paris
en- route to new battlefelds.
The Germans marched quietly
and in perfect order into silent, al
most deserted Paris early on June
a." Okin told me.
Little knots of Frenchmen stood
on the streets and watched them
silently. The troops appeared fresh
and clean shaven and they kept
strictly to the right side of the street
and streamed up around the back of
L'Opera and up the boulevards into
the place De la Concorde.
Their equipment was in perfect
shape and neatly packed and in
several hours of watching saw no
breaches or breakdoWns in the Or
organization of the march.
The German attitude seemed to
be that this was part of the days
work, interesting, but not partic-
ularly joyous. 1t seemed far from
a tired army. The horses, the num-
ber of which surprised many OBJ
servers, were well-groomed and
fresh
The Paris population on the Sec
ond day of the German occupation
seemed to have genuine feeling of
relief that the city had been spared
bombardment.
saw no untoward incidents any,
where, although spent many hours
walking and motoring into all Sec
tons of the city.
Already thousands who sought re-
l'ef outside the city were returning
Stores like the Galleries Lafayette
ere doing business as usual.
Signs of Returning Life.
The deadly silence which so ap-
palled us on entering Friday night
gave way to signs of returning life
It appeared that no effort had been
made by the Germans to prohibit
the display of the French tricolor.
Many buildings, including the
Bourse, still showed the French ma
tional flag.
Indications of the speed with
which a "blitzkrieg" moves may be
seen from the fact that Otto Diet
rich, Adolf Hitler's press chief and
one of his closest collaborators,
failed to catch up with us to head
our column of newsmen into Paris
Friday evening.
Even he had not expected Paris to
capitulate so soon, which means
Hitler also probably was surprised.
Dietrich's first act was to pay hon.
age to Frances unknown soldier.
lone surprising thing I discoy-
cred was the damage done to LIE
Bourget during the German bonn
bardment," Porter said. French
sources had refused to admit the
airdrome had been bombed, but
when visited it I found the hangers
badly wrecked, the fields messed up
and the Offices smashed.
German labor corps workers were
busy restoring the airport to its
former condition, while German
transport planes and bombers al