Sailors Knocking
80 years ago, the Liberation of Paris, 26 August 1944, the American-built M10 tank destroyer No. 420 094 “Flibustier” of the 3rd Sqn, 2nd Pltn, Régiment Blindé de Fusilier Marins, of the Free French 2nd Armored Division in action outside the Hôtel Crillon, place de la Concorde, 8ème arrondissement, Paris.
Photo by Robert Pichonnier via the Paris Musee Collections, PH18871
Note the mixture of curious civilians taking cover watching the French and U.S. troops flush out the snipers. The commander appears to be waving a signal flag. The eastern building, the Hôtel de la Marine, housed the headquarters of the French Navy until 2015, which made sense as the RBMF was made up of Free French sailors and marines– typically recruited from British POW camps.
As Flibustier’s name is one of many French descriptors for a pirate and was traditionally used for warships, what could be more correct than these sailors and marines, fresh from the brig essentially, made sure to roll on Navy HQ?
As noted by one researcher:
The main victim during this battle was one of Gabriel’s massive Corinthian columns, the fifth one from the right along the facade of the Hotel Crillon. According to the story, the column was destroyed by the gunner of M10 Flibustier after he was warned by his commander to “watch out for the fifth column”. The commander was referring to the collaborationist snipers. The story probably originated by the civilians who were around M10 Flibustier which was closest to the column at the time. But Flibustier’s cannon was pointed away from the building when the column was destroyed. One source stated that one of the Shermans on the other side of the Place de la Concorde actually fired and destroyed the column.
Free French M10 Tank Destroyer “FLIBUSTIER” in Paris during the Liberation – August 1944. LIFE Magazine Archives – David Scherman Photographer WWP-PD
Flibustier almost survived the war. The M10 was de-tracked by German tellermines on 16 April 1945 in Royan.
For what it is worth, the Hotel de Crillon, mentioned Hemingway in several of his novels including The Sun Also Rises (1926) and The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1936) and where Orwell worked as a dishwasher in 1929, endures. Closed for remodeling in 2013, it reopened in 2017.
