This is the story of my British grandmother and Swedish grandfather, my seven-year-old father Douglas, and their escape from occupied France. My grandfather was Swedish, but his mother was French. My grandmother was born in Cardiff. She was 'into' horses, and sold some, (to people such as Buffalo Bill!) so my grandparents and my father lived in France, in Brittany, near St Malo. They spent winters in Monte Carlo. They were living in France at the time of the German invasion in 1940. My father was then seven. Grandmother always kept a diary - she used her diaries and the material recorded for talks to the W I in Bognor Regis after the war. The diaries related the story of the family's journey to freedom - they were too late for the last ship to Britain. All the docks were being blown up to make them unusable to German forces. Grandfather decided to return to Sweden. Their months-long journey took them through occupied France, Belgium, Holland, Germany and Denmark. They had to have formal permission to go first to Paris (see Document 1). They took a taxi, and to have money for their journey, grandfather wrote a cheque to be drawn through a French bank on an English bank account. This cheque was presented to the Bank of England at the end of the War in 1945 - and paid in full. Once in Paris, they were stuck. They needed permission to go to Brussels (see Document 2, 17 July 1940). Grandmother was born in Cardiff, but this raised no suspicions. The Germans were so euphoric that they had beaten the opposition that they ignored the British connection. They witnessed the Germans emptying all the shops, etc. The streets were empty except for German vehicles, - see photograph of Place de la Concorde with only military vehicles in shot. My grandparents were eventually given permission to go to Brussels. They travelled on a German Troop Train - the only civilians on board. At the Gare du Nord, a German soldier saw Douglas and picked him up, sat him on his knee and spoke to him in German. Douglas had the presence of mind to ...