Part XVIII
The words on the tape flowed past the trenchcoat as he laid back, eyes closed, barely listening to the voice as his brain worked on the problem of finding Montbel. While the story of Reynaurd's cynical abuse of the memory of Petain would have doubtless interested historians, and indeed the general public, it was of no use for a man hunt. As Montbel recounted the story of the famous "Fight on for Petain, Fight on for France!" speech and the applause of the hoodwinked deputies the trenchcoat would have looked asleep to the casual observer.
However when the narrative moved onto the Battle of Paris his eyes snapped open and he sat forward, intently listening for a clue to a favourite location in the capital, a possible bolt hole for his quarry. As he concentrated Montbel continued.
"If I were conventional I suppose I would say the defining moment was the destruction of the Arc de Triomphe, the German's artillery breaking it's back and the entire edifice collapsing into rubble. But I must be honest,I was in the Ministry's basement at the time of that collapse, sorting out paperwork and art for evacuation as the government fled the capital. In a perverse way I suppose that makes me somewhat unique, the only man in Paris who wasn't watching at just the right moment to have seen the Arc's collapse!" A dry, almost humourless laugh.
"So if not the breaking of the Arc then what? An event I did see, and one which for me sums up France's entire war; the collapse of the Eiffel Tower. I was in a convoy heading for the main station when out of nowhere a Stuka appeared and seemed to head straight for us. I must confess I felt close to panic, I hadn't even wanted to be in the convoy and now I was going to be bombed. Fortunately for us as he approached he flew into a wall of flak from the guns on the Champ de Mars and how we cheered as the gunners struck home, the German plane flipping over into a death dive." A sad pause then Montbel slowly continued.
"Our cheers froze in our throats as we watched the dying Stuka descend, heading closer and closer to the Eiffel Tower before, with a grim inevitably, crashing in a giant fireball at the base. The tower shuddered, swayed then elegantly collapsed onto the Champ de Mars, taking the flack gunners with it. If that doesn't sum up France's war what does?"