Word: tournai
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...ancient Belgian city of Tournai (pop. 32,000) got a double blow in World War II. First German, then Allied bombs wrecked half its homes, wiped out many of its historic monuments and art treasures; by last year Tournai had rebuilt only 100 or so of its thousands of damaged dwellings. A group of citizens decided that sagging morale needed a boost, began to collect some reminders of the days when Tournai was one of the art centers of the western world. They visited neighboring chateaux, searched dusty parish churches and libraries, sent off letters to distant museums, burrowed...
...Europe. By last week, 300 art historians and archeologists had swarmed into town to buzz among the assembled treasures, argue learnedly over dates and artists. The Vatican sent photographers to take pictures. The Belgian periodical Sa-uoir et Beaute brought out a special number singing the glories of ancient Tournai...
Most of the work of Tournai's great years was unsigned, the loving labor of anonymous monks and artisans identity had been lost through the centuries. But a few big names survived for the town to boast about: Master Illuminator Jean de Tavernier and Tapestry-maker Pasquier Grenier, whose works, commissioned by the great lords of the 15th Century, are now treasured by the museums and libraries of Europe; Painters Roger van der Weyden, Robert Campin and Jacques Daret, whose realistic detail and rich color placed them in the vanguard of the great Flemish artists of the Renaissance...
...Mannerheim Line) the martial superiority of Teutons over Slavs, the picture shows the German Army's crushing, rhythmic power; patience and proficiency in arms; perfect planning and instant, athletic response to commands. In this picture is the other side of the retreat to Dunkirk; the blasting of Tournai; the whining accuracy of the Stukas (divers); the plod and dash-as occasion required-of German soldiers afoot or on horses drawing cannon, of German soldiers looking like men from horrid Mars in grimy, indestructible machines of all types. Some 23 Army cameramen were killed making the picture...
...Alex Small, called him "a human albatross." Since the day he arrived in Toledo, Spain in 1936, every warring city to which Newsman Small has gone has been bombed a few hours later (except Brussels, bombed a month after Small got there). As he passed through Lille and Tournai last fortnight, they were bombarded. Nazi planes followed him along the roads. Said another newsman, when he arrived in Paris last week: "Get the hell out of here, Alex, or we'll be bombed." Immediately sirens began to wail an airraid alarm for the first time in a fortnight, bombs...