Last week Vichy was the hastily fortified ghost capital of a rapidly dissolving Government. Outside the town, French Forces of the Interior were in control. Telephone & telegraph lines were cut, road and rail traffic halted. Inside, the futile skeleton of what had been Marshal Petain's Government click-clacked through motions of governing which were really a dance of death.
Said a Frenchman: "Vichy? It is a basket of crabs." Petty officials spent their time compiling dossiers on each other, hoping that they could save themselves by betraying their colleagues to the liberating Allies. One thick accusation by X against Y reached London...
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