Word: gallieni
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Some busses were commandeered for the refugees, and others were packed with soldiers and sent off to the front, in imitation of Gallieni's great taxicab army which helped to save Paris in 1914. Streetcars stopped running and subway service was heavily reduced. Food cards were stretched for an extra week and the potato ration...
...Focus appears almost casually as Gallieni, the sharp, sickly Minister of War, sends Gurau to drop a word to the Commander in Chief about the weak de fences at Verdun, so far an inactive part of the front. Gurau is charmed by the apple-cheeked, comfortable Joffre, reassured at lunch but beset by doubts later. The French Intelligence has positive proof that the Germans plan no offensive at Verdun: they have prepared enormous dug outs there but no assault trenches. Nevertheless . . . from that moment the reader is treated to an extended, coolly elaborated piece of such dramatic irony...