It is interesting, on looking back, to note the subtle
gradations through which the transmissions in French from London passed from comfort, through exhortation, to the final call to arms. Already on June 4, 194o, a Frenchman who had happened to tune in to London would have heard the defiant words nous nous battrons sur ks plages, nous nous battrons dans les champs et dans les rues, nous nous battrons dans les montagnes. Nous ne nous rendrons jamais." Great Britain, in Winston Churchill., had found her Clemenceau. On June 57 Marshal Petain, in a quavering voice, informed his countrymen that France had suffered total defeat and that he had asked for an armistice. On the following night from London he wos answered by another voice, a voice vibrating with resolve, the voice of General de Gaulle. "1 am General de Gaulle speaking to you from London. France has lost a battle, she has not lost the war. Believe me—and I speak to you as one who knows—when I tell you that for France nothing has been irre- trievably lost. The same methods which have now defeated us will one day bring us victory. Let France unite with Britain, who com- mands the sea and who fights on. This war has not been settled by the battle of France." This little taper-light in the darkness became as the years went by a bonfire by which, in the year of victory, the maquis was inflamed. Gradually the French transmissions from London became, to use the phrase employed by Jacques Ducliesne on Sunday, "the Voice of French tradition ; the voice that does not deceive." Gradually a more active policy was introduced. By 5942 a voice began to twine itself in and out of the music of French popular songs, a voice which whispered insistently "demoralize them, demoralize them, demoralize them!" When Laval's press-gang started to recruit forced labour for Germany this voice became more urgent. "Do not go to Germany," is hissed. "Do not go to Germany! Do not go to Germany!" The V campaign followed, and the most ingenious variations were suggested for the three shorts and a long And night by night strange messages swung across the ether. "The elephant has grown another tail ; I repeat it twice ; the elephant has grown another tail," and the people of France realised that some vast underground was at work.
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