The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-08-09
|contrusts On Paris Rood
Continued from Page D

AH4 ucN WNicu t8 St. Hllnlfe Ba flarcouet and emerge covered with cindeIs and your eyes rcd from smoke into a countryside 60 sAb- Timely. Beautiful and peaceful that its almost unbelievable that a great retreat and a great advance have just been made across it. Flags and banners feStoon the way now and French klddleS threw kisses at my leep as ! sped along. For mile after mile there was no slgn of war except a couple Of camouflaRed, hastily abandoned German eas and the ever.prusent reminder that our armorcd spear head was up ahead--the tank tracks ground into the highway.
 So one rolled on thOrugh the Raily-dccoralcd villages Ernce, fe Chenes, Le Lande, urenoux. Not until we came to Laval did we find war. Buildings were burning there where the Americans a few houra before had liberated the capital of Mayenne.
 The people Of Laval were mad with joy. They climbed over the tenders of the 1eep and Bob Casey of the Chicago Daily News. who was riding tn the front seat. was kissed by all sorts Of gals from babes in arms to grandmothers. We were told that some of the popu. lace earlier had been killed when they rushed into the stretes while the fight was still going on.
 Race Co nye Mans
 We did not pause at Laval be. cause it was rlimored that already Ie Mans was ours 45 miles farther ahead on the Paris road. Several kiiometers ahead we found the tall raced past hundreds Of armored ve. hicies.
 We finally joined the spearhead at crossroads marked by the small town of Avesse after enduring warm and whey welcome at CoSss lsn Champagne by women, chii. dncn and crippled oldgters from the last war. They insisted We drink to their liberation and one old fel. low. embracing me and waving his arms alternately, shouted in en. thsuiasm:
 Take our wine. Take our food even our women. Take anything you Nike"
 We settled for a few bottles Of wine.
 Untouched by War
 CoSse En Champagne was un. touched by war and the only indi. | cations the Germans had ever been there were several trllckloads of them. packed like cattle. which passed through the main street un- dter the Jeers and misses Of the French.
 At Avesse We again caught up with war. of to the right a pla- loon oi infantry which had been | dropped of earlier was heavily en- gagged with a German pocket and | now a battalion was detTucking to | deal with an estimated 800 Nazi | fanatics. We could hear the guns and see the tank destroyers dee | ploing left, right and forward for | the Kill, followed by the dOughboys |
 Soon there was a crash Of can- non and thin columns Of black | smoke marked where German tanks | had waited in ambush.
 We followed the command car ol | an infantry officer toward Le Mans and witnessed the capture of Bru. | Ion, Mariei En Champagne and L0ue | We paused for the night at Lolle | and underwent further whining, ems braeing and speeding. We accepted | 0munds of sandwiches and enough | flowers to HI a cemetery.
 War Nearby
 But war was not too faT away | As one natron brought us sand | wihees and another proudly brought her child over tO kiss the Ameri- can guests, there was an explosion few hundred yards away. A Ger man anti-tank gun had commenced firing into our leading vehicles.
 "Vitei Vitel" screamed the wO- men. "Quicklyl quickly
 The eeiebrants scattered as tank | destroyers rolled up. closely flanked by infantry. Heavy machine gun fire was heard around the street corner and soldiers moved up in ththliNl AoiuAliAh, HuBBlDB Ilc bldfsa Of the street with automatic geap- 0ns ready
 Alter the first shock, the civilians swarmed Into the street again with | more wine and flowers. Ii was 2 strange sight 10 see the hard-faeed troops moving. panther-like. with ready guns and paying no atten. ii0n L0 women who tried t0 hug and | kiss them as they depl0yed for bat tie A few hundreds yards away | The soldiers had their minds sLriet- ly on their job Of killing before they themselves were killed.
 Tanks blaaF
 Then the tanks came roaring in- i0 the main street. They'd been earpeled with dust when We passed them a few miles baek. Now they were gaFlanded with flowers.
 The Germans got back into I.0lle around midnight with machine guns and gTenades but Casey and l were 80 dr0wsy that we idd not hear the stiff fight outside our hotel. Only q few jeeps were damaged, The Ger mans were brushed out and the great arm0red spearhead rolled on AAaae aaaA a1i 1ha nfhnr |