Battles in Toulon and Marseille.
The International Information Bureau reports on the situation in Provence that there were battles at the land fronts near Toulon and Marseille, where the Allies and their French mercenaries managed to penetrate the blocking zone. – 25-8-44Underground fight in France.
In Berlin, it was announced that, as the invasion in northern France began to unfold and after the invasion in southern France, the French partisans, whose actions had been reported in the army report for days, became active on a larger scale. This was especially the case in the mountainous regions of southern France, where they occupied and controlled important strategic points behind the German front until the Allied troops approached. The relatively rapid expansion of the bridgehead in southern France is largely due to this action. The partisan action was particularly strong in the French-Spanish and French-Italian border areas, where hard battles took place. The partisans raided several places. German mountain hunters as well as Ukrainians, Cossacks, and North Caucasians fought the partisans and inflicted heavy losses on them. – 25-8-44
When the free French forces
Liberate France today
From the German armies
And both in the north and in the south
French partisan troops
Fight bravely for freedom
We hear the Germans shout:
These French are the servants
And the mercenaries of the British,
Without glory, without honor, and despised,
Who own no homeland
And only spread misfortune
Over cities and villages
And don’t fight for ideals,
But for France’s enemies
Just because they pay them.
Then I’d much prefer the Cossacks
Who today, as soldiers for Adolf,
Don’t flee today,
But give on French streets
Willingly their blood and life,
In comparison, they are
surely very high elevated
Full of ideals, invulnerable,
They fight on French soil,
Feel themselves as full Germans,
Loyal to the swastika
And to Adolf Hitler’s flags
And to Adolf Hitler’s slogans,
That is surely to be praised,
And it would be a mistake
To call them … mercenaries.
Post-Editing: Sylvia Stawski, Ernst Sittig
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