THE BATTLE OF FRANCE
my desk and the change in the drawer of my
bedside-table. The keys of the car and the garage
are in the little box on my dressing-table. Tell
Berthe to put some camphor in the suits I put out.
Don't forget to oil Jean's bicycle: it squeaks a bit.
. . . Eh? Yes, these two days have been pretty
short. . . . But there you are, we might have had
nothing at all. ... If we stop 'em now it may mean
the end of the whole business.'
She smiled bravely.
When I got to Arras I went straight to see
Colonel Medlicott, the Englishman in charge of the
Press Department, and was told I could start for
Belgium with Duncan on the following day. Our
troops had already started to move.
nth May. It was strange, disturbing almost, to
find the towns and villages that had teemed with
British and French troops now practically deserted.
In the line itself work on the anti-tank ditches and
blockhouses had ceased. Was it even occupied, all
this concrete? I wondered a little anxiously, and,
foolishly, no doubt, imagined parachutists taking
them over and harassing our own troops as they
retreated. It looked to me then as if our armies had
left for Belgium with such speed and confidence that
nobody had any further thoughts for the back
area.
And then I saw it on the march, this British Army
that had been straining at the leash for so long in our
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