3-023-224 - British Pathe Ltd/Heritage Images

French Refugees Fleeing Town Down Country Roads, British Forces Moving Past Them, 1940. Second World War. 'The citizen who clings to his house, the farmer to his farm, blast their roots and they'll take to the road...So that, as the British moved forward on their mission of rescue, they were met with streams of refugees, clogging the all-important roads. Men, women and children, in need of all the rations a soft-hearted Tommy [ie British soldier] might be tempted to give'. French roads were planted with trees, supposedly to provide ample shade for Napoleon's marching troops. From "Time To Remember - Run Rabbit Run", 1940 ( Reel 2); documentary film about events of early months of 1940.