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Modern Visigoths. At midnight the ancient city gates were closed to prevent fleeing refugees from running into advancing Nazi columns. Then at dawn they came, the modern version of Alaric's Visigoths: grimy German warriors in swift, battle-stained tanks and armored reconnaissance motorcycles. They were Austrian soldiers led by General Edmund Glaise-Horstenau, famous quisling in the Schuschnigg Government. Hitler had once promised commiserating Edouard Daladier, "Oh, Daladier, you're going to get to know my Austrians. You're going to make their acquaintance." He was keeping that promise.
Roaring through the suburbs of Argenteuil and Neuilly, they entered the swank west end of Paris and swung into the broad Avenue de Neuilly leading to the Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Elysees. Another column raced in from St. Denis in the northeast. Horse-drawn supply trains clopped across the Place de la Concorde (see cut, p. 21). No single tank or Nazi warrior passed under the famous Arc because that honor was reserved for Adolf Hitler when he should make his triumphal entry.