Paris liberated

Tuesday September 12, 1944
Guardian Unlimited

Advanced elements of the Second French Armoured Division entered the city last night about ten o'clock, fought their way through the German positions, and reached the headquarters of the French Forces of the Interior (the resistance), in the Place de I'Hôtel de Ville.

De Gaulle had escaped from Bordeaux on June 17 and broadcast from London that night to the French people. With a group of other correspondents I set out for Paris this morning in a jeep, sandwiched between units of the French armour.

First it was a tear across the open countryside, and then the villages grew closer and closer together, blending into a metropolitan whole. At the street corners the people had equipped themselves with boxes of tomatoes which they handed out as soon as there was the slightest check in the traffic.

The more enthusiastic of the people, in fact, threw them at us, but the majority were more careful and made sure they were not wasted by pressing them in our hands. It is a tomato-growing district. Tomatoes were all they had and we could have them, but they wanted to make sure they were not wasted - huge, luscious things, more beautiful than any I have ever tasted.