French Forces

To the Barricades ! Paris, 1944.

Unknown (French) author.

Parisians had a long history of going to the barricades in the cause of Revolution, going back at least to the 1790s. Therefore, it should not have come as much of a surprise to the Germans that, when the call for a rising came from the joint administration of the Resistance in Paris, barricades of materials ranging from motor vehicles to cobblestones to sandbags to ... just about anything that could be hauled across the street popped up all around central Paris like mushrooms. Interesting to reflect that the current, complex system of boulevards and angled junctions, one of the city's charms, was developed in the mid-19th century by Napoleon III's minister, Baron Hausemann, to facilitate the use of artillery to demolish such inconveniences - and their builders - at long range in the event of insurrection. Best regards, JR.