Item 15: Archie Barwick diary, 1 October-14 December 1918 - Page 116
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[Page 116]
the same time French troops unarmed were made to line the roadway & also act as a Guard of honor, but this great insult was not enough Bismarck made the French people make hay along this beautiful boulevard while his men were marching through. This was done with the idea of overawing the population & treading them into the mud as it were, but the French took the insult in the way that perhaps only French people could, as soon as the Germans had finished all the highest ladies of France scrubbed the whole route with soap & water & then disinfected it to cleanse it of any & all filth that the Germans had left when they finished, but what a subtle & deep insult to the Hun this must have been, but that was not all, they built those chains round Napoleons great work & they vowed that no more traffic should pass through till they had had their revenge, & they waited 47 years for this to pass