4th December 1940
News in Brief - Demobilisation

See 04.12.1940 - 30/96

FRENCH DEMOBILISATION

PRIME DE DEMOBILISATION

Je soussigné name déclare sur l'honneur ne pas avoir bénéficié d'un traitement ou salaire provenant d'une Administration quelconque pendant ma présence sous les drapeaux et ne pas être Israëlite. Et ne pas avoir toucher la première partie de ma prime.

ISTRES, Le -4 DEC 1940 Septembre 1940

Signed

DEMOBILISATION PAY

I, the undersigned, name, hereby declare on my honour that I did not receive any salary or wages from any government agency during my service in the military, that I am not Jewish, and that I have not yet received the first instalment of my demobilisation pay.

ISTRES, -4 DEC1940 September 1940

Signed

General demobilisation of the French forces had begun and the first to be released were the transport and public services employees. Having been an employee of French Railways, I applied for my demobilisation and was finally discharged on the 15th July 1940 at the Mairie de Sainte-Livrade, and like all 'other ranks' received the sum of 200 francs with a warrant for a further 800 francs on reaching home. Since my repatriation to England was of course out of the question, I gave as my home address that of Oncle Pierre at Thomery (near Fontainebleau) in the German occupied part of France.

Early the next morning I said goodbye to my army companions and got a lift in one of our lorries as far as Villeneuve-sur-Lot, where I continued by train to a place called Penne to collect two days’ food rations. My next stop was at Agen and from there on to Toulouse by train. The train service was curtailed to about one a day, stopping at all stations and crammed with people.

Source: bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/02/a7854302.shtml (2026)

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