Is Paris Burning?

If you live in London, as I do, there are countless times in the year when someone says "let's go to Paris", "so and so's flat is empty", "meet me there for a few days before I head off to -", "I've got this really great deal on Eurostar, Air France, bmi..." and you find yourself talked into visiting the place yet again.

I visited the time x was staying in the Hotel Meurice and we ate chef salad in Angelina every day followed by backstage passes and glamorous people to hang out with...I couldn't stop thinking, "Nazis worked here, ate here. Nazis took this lift". If you've read "Is Paris Burning" you know what I'm referring to.

If not, I'll just remind you. When the allies broke out of Normandy and headed east, the Nazis had to pull back and Hitler sent a telegram to torch Paris. This was received by General Choltitz at the SS headquarters in the Hotel Meurice. He ordered troops to mine all the beautiful and famous bits of Paris, from Les Invalides and all the medieval churches to the four concrete and steel supports of the Eiffel Tower. Then he dithered.

Meanwhile, Colonel Andre Vernon of the Free French lot decided to telephone a "wholly imaginary news bulletin" announcing that the city had "liberated itself" to the BBC, reasoning correctly that there would be no good excuse not to move allied forces into the city.

From the first Eisenhower knew that saving Paris was not a worthwhile military objective. "The capture of Paris will entail a civil affairs commitment equal to maintaining eight divisions in operation." p.20

There is a strong argument that if Patton's Third Army had been able to use the petrol that was spent getting to Paris in his dash to and over the Rhine, the Nazis would not have had time to pull back and entrench and it would have taken far less than the nine months it took to reach Berlin and end the war.

The book is great: Is Paris Burning by Larry Collins and Dominique LaPierre, 1965.

See why I like history so much? Things don't change much do they - Plus ca change indeed.