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Liquidate ParisChapter by chapter - Book covers - Other languages - QuotesIntroduction to Liquidate Paris Another of those Sven Hassel books which doesn't quite match the standard format. There's some brilliant chapters though, especially 'The Gestapo Capitulates' with Porta driving Kriminalobersecretär Schluckbebier round the bend. And there's Heide's appendix operation, Odin's pig, Porta's Bouillabaise recipe and the drink-up at the American supply depot. Lots of good stuff really.
By-the-way, I read somewhere that there's a famous story by a French
writer which starts like a horror story with a guy standing covered
in blood and "looking at the dismembered corpse" etc etc and turns
out to be the story of blackmarket dealers in Paris in the war trying
to smuggle a pig across the city through checkpoints etc. Sound
familiar? The story is 'Crossing Paris' by Marcel Ayme and was published in the July-August 1950 issue of Partisan Review. The story is available in English but I haven't read it. It's also been filmed. See Jerome Delacroix - Marcel Aymé web site Liquidate Paris chapter by chapter: 1. No Quarter Given In Section Ninety-one On the French coast. Tiny ('Little John' in this book) talks about swimming to England. Heavy bombardment heralding the Normandy Landings. Porta decides to eat his emergency iron rations. The landings begin. Lots of fighting. Shell-shock. Sven remembers Copenhagen before the war and explains how he got to Germany. British tank attack. 2. The Last Hour Listening in to coded messages on the BBC. Talk about burying casualties with their papers in empty beer cans. Long description of mine-clearing duty. Talk about Blighty wounds. The fate of Lt Klaus Brandt. 3. The Hill Of Golgotha On the march. Porta talks about whores. Description of Old Man. Discovey of bombed wood and human debris. Rocket attack. Section relieves an SS section of Hitler Youth. Comments about Canadian attrocities. More fighting. Canadians shoot surrendering Germans. Porta, Tiny and the Legionnaire take revenge. Use of Goliath remote controlled tanks. 4. Billeting Story of resistance fighter Duchez and his tricks. Section has to set up billets in a French village. Meeting with the village informer. Sven meets French girl. Talk about Sven's origins and German nationality. Porta comes to get Sven when the regiment pulls out of the village. Tiny is pissed. Section has Tiger tanks. Encounter with group of lunaics and others along the road. Big group of non-Germans fighting in the German army. Cossacks. Porta 'tells the fortune' of a Cossack corporal. Tanks attack. 5. In The Style Of Hemingway More resistance activity. Section goes on reconnaissance patrol in Puma and stop in a French village. Porta finds a bar. They discover a large 'important' American war correspondent very drunk at the bar. porta is invited into the kitchen and sets about creating his famous Bouillabaise recipe. More drinking and banter. Eventually section drives off singing and shouting. heide truns out to have appendicitis. Instructions given over the radio. Old Man operates. 6. A Lost Machine Gun Section takes over posh French house. British attack. Old Man's section again given rearguard role. Scots attack. Sven uses MG42 (long description of its use etc). Retreat to bridge which engineers are ready to blow up. Post arrives. Barcelona gets a letter with divorce papers. Another attack. Churchill tanks. Tiny detroys his 29th tank. Sven loses control of his machine-gun and shoots Tiny in the leg. Tiny comes after him. Sven is forced to return to pick up his lost gun. He meets a wounded British soldier. Long (and unlikely) adventure retrieving gun! 7. Discovery Of An American Depot More retreating. Encounter with wounded. Lt Löwe decides to get transport for them. 'Panzer Meyer' turns up. Entertaining section of the book. Two SS men brew-up liquor. Two Americans arrive. Lots of drinking and music-making. English attack. Hand-to-hand fighting. Barcelona sent off to hospital. Discovery of American supply depot in forest. Section takes it over. Huge drinking session. Lt Löwe gets very cross. 8. General Von Choltitz Visits Himmler That very meeting takes place! Himmler decides to destroy Paris. Description of chaos as Panzer divisions try to get to Paris. 9. Can Paris Be Saved? Plans to destroy Paris... and plans to save Paris. 10. The Guard-room At The Hotel Meurice Guard-room in Paris. Sven's section arrive to relieve the guard and cause all sorts of trouble. Run-in with Gestapo. Barcelona remembers one of the Gestapo men from his time in Spain. Porta trades a Glicenti revolver. Tiny and Heide have a bust up. 11. Escape From The Prison Of Fresnes More guard duty in prison. Arguement with French Communist (good stuff). Plan to spring condemned boy from jail. Story of Gunter Soest the disfigured tankman. 12. With 'Redcoat' In Montmartre Time spent in Parisian bar. Raid by Feldgendarmerie. Sven's girlfriend from Normandy turns up, much to Heide's disgust. Start of plans to smuggle the pig across Paris. Reference to 'Malinowski's patrols'. 13. Night's Journey Across Paris The pig smuggling episode and the big question - 'what was Odin's pig called?' 14. The Gestapo Capitulates Kriminalobersecretär Schluckbebier of the Gestapo visits the barracks. One of the great Sven Hassel chapters and possibly Porta's finest hour. 15. An Evening In Paris Arms deals. Encounter with Gestapo types. The Legionnaire tortures one of them for information and the Old Man protests. Death of Sven's girlfriend Jacqueline. Story of mysterious bomb attack. The Liberation of Paris. 16. Refusal To Obey Orders Stories of revenge on 'collaborators'. Preparation for withdrawal to Strasbourg. Porta's latest plan for pilfering food. Final arguement with the Americans over the name of Odin's pig (she was called 'Særimne' in case anyone's still wondering!! Thanks Nils.) (Click links to view) Liquidate Paris in other languages
Selected quotes from Liquidate Paris "Heide was still yelling and Tiny closed his eyes at the sight of the welling blood. The Old Man wiped the sweat off his face and shook his head. 'You'll have to shut him up somehow, I can't stand it much longer.' Tiny opened his eyes and raised one enormous clenched fist. 'You'll have to forgive me Julius, I'm doing it for the best, there's nothing personal about it' Two blows were sufficient. 'We've anaesthetised the patient,' reported the Legionnaire." |
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