Word: billancourt
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...Paris industrial region the Germans had it pretty cozy. British air power had battered the French coast and pounded many a target in the provinces-power stations, chemical works, coke ovens, refineries, railroads and rail yards. But Paris had not been molested. At Billancourt, on the Seine just outside the city, lay the great Renault plant, which in the time of France's late 40-hour week employed 30,000 workers. Now it clanged away, making tanks, engines, planes and trucks for the Germans-the Russians had found some Renault-built tanks abandoned by the Nazis on the Eastern...
Altogether it was one of the busiest and safest of German war arsenals, safer even than many industrial centers in Germany, which the British had bombed freely. It was pleasant at Billancourt to see the work go on and the product flow out, without interruption except for the shooting of a saboteur now & then...
Apparently the British did not dare to attack Billancourt. Was not Admiral Darlan awaiting just such a provocation to bring the French Fleet* within the sphere of collaboration? Of course the British had broadcast warnings to the workers of Billancourt that they might bomb the district. But that, thought the Germans, was probably only a clumsy British attempt to wage a war of nerves...
...Will Come Again." When the British bombers converged on Billancourt from various directions last week, they encountered no defense except spotty machine-gun fire from the ground. Wave on close-packed wave of bombers plastered the Renault plant and the two smaller works for two solid hours. Some planes were so low when they delivered their loads that they caught a few splinters from their own bombs; even the heavy bombers were just out of machine-gun range. The bombardiers could see factory buildings falling apart "like houses of cards." They dropped leaflets saying to the French workers of Billancourt...
...have judged that, if the game is to be nine-tenths bluff (as it often has been in France), he can first outbluff and finally outbargain Jouhaux. So-called "alarming reports" of French police last week "smashing" many "spontaneous" and "premature" so-called "strikes" in Lille (50,000 strikers), Billancourt (30,000), Valenciennes (8,000), etc., had their element of play-acting-but the play was new. It was not according to the "New Deal" script of Léon Blum, under whom as Premier one million workers were on strikes & sit-downs two short years ago (TIME, June...