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west bank of the Rhine, over Reims, Verdun and the Argonne
Woods, and here again below us were the trenches of the last war.
We arrived in Paris in early evening.
Flying from Paris to Naples
Saturday, August 18
Awakened in the glorious sunlight of a Paris morning. The
weather is gorgeous indeed and it seems strange to be again in an
undevastated city.
Leaving Orley Field at 4:20 for Naples, we headed south down
Rhone valley through Dijon, Lyons, and Valence-the source of
lace-to Marseilles. The waterfront of Marseilles-we could see
from the air-is badly beaten. Refueled at Marseilles, and had
dinner at a snack bar. Took off at dusk, flying directly over
Toulon. We could see in the harbor the half-sunken remnants of
the sacrificed French fleet.
Our plane companions were Australians enroute home; six
Chinese newspaper men who had been working in Paris; and a
Norwegian pilot who had been interned in Norway and was re-
turning to Naples to try to find his mother.
The steward on our plane was a boy we had flown with many
times before on this flight across Europe. He had come with us
out of Bremerhaven to Frankfurt; again we met him enroute to
Berlin-a Greek-American boy, Nick Panos.
We flew over the French Riviera. The historic isle of Corsica
was next, but it was dark when we flew directly over the seaport
Bastia-principal city of north Corsica.
Corsica passed, we flew over Elba off the Tuscan coast, place of
Napoleon's first exile. Saw the lights of Rome at 9:40 p.m.
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