|
||||||
|
||||||
|
The First World War (1914-1918): On 2nd of August 1914 mobilisation was enacted and received with great enthusiasm, for it was the occasion to take revenge for the war of 1870. But from 26th August the German threat arrived at the Marne. Machine guns were mounted on the Eiffel Tower to counter aerial bombardments. On 2nd September the government left Paris for Bordeaux. Then the counter-offensive of Marshall Joffre liberated Paris from danger for a long while. In 1918 the German menace returned, but without causing the same panic. Meanwhile the front stabilised and Paris became the place where troops came to rest and recover. During these four years, Paris received 746 bombs, often not large, but which killed or wounded nearly 900 people. To this figure must be added a thousand dead or wounded due to the canon called Big Bertha which had sent 303 shells over Paris. Paris became the supply depot for 4.5 million combatants. Women took the place of men in the armament factories. Armistice Day was the occasion for a huge fete, despite the memory of the victims of the conflict. The tomb of the unknown soldier – an unidentified French victim – was later installed under the Arc de Triomphe. The ceremony which takes place there every year on 11th November is the occasion for Parisians to remember a war from which the last veteran died in 2000. | |
||||
|
||||||
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
||||||
|
||||||