French/Belgian Refugee Columns

[Bill Murray]

I am not sure if this is the right place on the forum to ask my question but It seems to be the most appropriate.

Lately, I have seen a lot of photos of columns of Refugee vehicles in France which seem to be driving more or less unmolested by the ever present German soldiers. All of the vehicles, civilian cars for the most part, are loaded down with personal effects. And...not a small number of the photos show a large "B" on the rear wing/fender of the car which I assume means that the cars were Belgian in origin

As I have not posted in this area of the Forum before, may I say that my field of research is wheeled vehicles used by all military forces 1935/1945. Within this field of research, one of my main interests is the use of non-military vehicles ( beute, confiscated, impressed) civilian vehicles by the various combatant forces.

I have formed an opinion over the more or less 50 years that I have been doing this research that the German Forces were the most dependent on captured/impressed/confiscated vehicles to keep their logistic trail functioning.

I am unfortunately not a very good reader on the political history of the time, but I am wondering if the Germans pursued a slightly different policy when it came to France. I am thinking here of the creation of Vichy France, which according to my understanding allowed the Vichy Government a certain amount of latitude to govern themselves in the South of France as long as they did not interfere with the German efforts elsewhere.

In that context, I guess my question is, did the Germans allow quite a large number of civilian vehicles to escape to Vichy France, including Belgian origin vehicles and presumably Belgian refugees, if they were considered some sort of quasi allies to the German cause??

Any input or comments would be appreciated.

Bill

[Vitesse]

Of the Western European nations, Germany was very "under-motorised", despite all the noises made about the KdF Wagen and the millions of Reichsmarks subscribed by people who wanted one.

In 1938 Germany had about 1.1 million private cars and 381000 trucks. By contrast, France had over 2 million private cars and 285000 trucks and the UK just under 2 million private cars and no fewer than 544000 trucks. The only other countries which had motor industries of any note were Italy and Czechoslovakia: virtually all Italian production since 1935 had gone to the military, while both Tatra and Laurin & Klement/Skoda were fairly small-scale affairs. The German manufacturers - Mercedes Benz, Opel, BMW and Auto Union - were also small beer on the world stage when compared to the likes of Ford, GM, Morris, Austin, Renault and Citroen.

This equates to about 1 car for 65 people in Germany, 1 for every 20 French people and 1 for every 25 Britons. Figures for Belgium indicate that car ownership there was about 1 for every 55 people. Admittedly those are civilian figures, but I think they are reflected in the way the respective German and Allied militaries relied (or not, in the case of Germany) on motor vehicles.

http://files.osa.ceu.hu/holdings/300/8/ ... -3-202.pdf

I'd guess that a large proportion of Belgian-plated cars in any given picture of refugee columns would indicate that the picture was taken in the early days of the German campaign on the plains north of Paris. The further south they got, the more French cars there would be ....

[Stanford9]

I wonder if I might ask a related question Bill, I don't wish to divert your thread of course.

Did Axis troops often use "borrowed", beute or requisitioned vehicles on off-duty moments in the later stages in occupied France? I do know of one case of a fairly high ranking officer doing this, and there appear to be photographs of this sort of thing going on. What I was wondering was what rules there were and about safety and of course the shortage of fuel.

[murx]

Secret report of the chief of the military administraton in France to the OKW, August 1940

http://www.ihtp.cnrs.fr/prefets/de/d0840mbf.html

Marschal Petain,has recently in a speech to the French nation, mentioned how much help America has provided. He didn't mention German help. The following deserves to be noticed:

About 90 camps in which French people were housed, catered and transferred were fit out by the German troops. The catering was taken over by the National Socialist Volkswohlfahrt. For this purpose the German Wehrmacht did not only renounce the demands for the booty provisions warehouses, but in addition provided from the own army supplies nutrition material in great extent. The N.S.V. in the time from t6th June up to the 20th August could spend in this way more than 42,6 million meal portions onto the fugitives. In detail were distributed 5 million breads, about 18 million cold catering portions, about 9,7 million warm catering portions, about 7 million liters of milk or drinks. In 93000 cases to sick person was rendered help or looked after children and babies
In the service of the N.S.V. were more than 160 aid stations, 390 catering places, 130 milk kitchens, 123 wards, 145 baby stations and 480 kitchens of the N.S.V. and the Wehrmacht. One of the most modern facilities of the German Red cross, the motorized hospital which can grip about 200 sick and wounded was put into the service of the fugitive welfare and carried in particular children, old men and frail persons back to their homes. Furthermore one of the biggest mobile catering stations of the world, the German auxiliary convoy Bayern was used It began his activity in Antwerp on 30th May 1940 and was employed then in Arras, Lille, Reims and Paris. From these fields the auxiliary convoy transported the manufactured catering with own motor vehicles up to a vicinity of 200 km to the respective distribution places. In this way the auxiliary service spent more than 21 million catering portions. In this case it was a question mostly of hot catering. At that the train partially was employed in three departments with a stationary part and two divisions motorized. The entire considerable work was achieved by the memberx of the auxiliary service without any foreign help. The portions mentioned above are in addition to the portions which the N.S.V. had issued. N.S.V. and auxiliary service therefore distributed a total of 64 million catering portions. In order to make the return posible for the fugitives who had fled with their motor vehicles, the German military authorities ordered further that the German troops have to provide the fugitives with gasoline. In addition the German railroad authorities arranged and equipped regular fugitive trains. At the moment 10 trains daily transport Belgian fugitives to Brussels and to Ghent, 25 trains with French fugitives to Paris and surroundings and 17 trains with Elsass-Lothringers to their home. For the relief of this return transport the German offices renounced every passport compulsion. Only Thanks to these comprehensive remedial measures the return transport takes place today in absolutely orderly proces.

[Stanford9]

I would rather hope they did achieve some of this Murx. Without invading the low countries and France none of what you describe would have been necessary. Being even handed had Sir Arthur Harris and Churchill not been so keen on 'area bombing' Dresden there would have been fewer German refugees killed, area bombing was highly dubious.

That's rather wandering off Bill's subject though. I don't think much of what Marschal Petain said during WW2 can be really be relied on Murx, it would have been politically inexpedient to thank the Germans very much. Yes Bill , private cars and French military cars were allowed to escape into the Vichy zone, I'm not sure about Belgian registered cars but I think you can be sure that many who had fled from Belgium to France had their very pressing reasons and be more alert, they would have been among the first to head out of Paris to the South and West.
My wife's family (who were not military) managed to organise places in French military vehicles that fled from near Besançon (just inside the occupied zone to Mirepoix in the south wast of France. This did not stop my wife's grandfather from being murdered down there at which point the remaining family eventually made their way back to Besançon.

I would still dearly like to know to what extent off-duty German personnel used beute cars? There would have been a considerable number of otherwise unclaimed ones, those that simply ran out of petrol and those who's owners were no longer there. I wondered what tended to happen?

[tigre]

Hello to all ; a complement........................................

The misery of the French refugees 1940.

Source: http://www.ebay.de/itm/Foto-3-Panzer-Di ... 1080732488

Cheers. Raúl M .

[Larrister]

Belgian civilian convoy.

[Larrister]

French.

[Larrister]

Civilian convoy Braine-I'Alleud, Belguim. German convoy belonged to Inf. Rgt. 19 (7 Inf. Division).

[tigre]

Good pictures Larrister, thanks for sharing here . Cheers. Raúl M .

[Stanford9]

Since my last post here I've collected many more photographs of refugees fleeing the Nazis, almost all in France. I've assembled an exhibition of some 400 of the best shots of life in occupied France under the title "Occupied" and have included bute vehicles and a sequence of shots of refugees on the road. This is the cover:

There has been much discussion as to whether Nazi troops really did attack these refugees. I'm afraid that from several of the photographs that I have showing devastation and looting, the ansewer is a definate "yes".
Much of the invasion of France was by troops on foot or bicycle, clearly they relied on providing themselves with bute transport. A good number of photographs in my collection also indicate that the troops took vehicles for their own personal use. In fact, while on the run in occupied France my father watched a fat, red faced high ranking officer through a split in a barn wall as he polished his jackboots on the bumper of a very desirable French sports car before driving off in it.

[tigre]

Hello to all ; a complement........................................

The misery of the Belgian refugees 1940.

Source: La campagne de Belgique d’Aragon en mai 40.

Cheers. Raúl M .

[Stanford9]

It must have been terrifying and depressing n the extreem Tigre. Though that said there are reports of an aire of euphoria among some of these groups of fleeing refugees. I suspect that a psychiatrist would explain it as massive mood swings.

[tigre]

Hello Stanford9 ; indeed, a terrible situation for that people leaving their lives behind......Cheers. Raúl M .

[Larrister]

Another from the Belgium series I posted above.

Cheers,
Larry