The train pulled into the station outside Reims nearly three hours late.
The soldiers on the platform barely noticed the delay.
They were watching the flatbed cars as they passed, cargo that had only existed in rumors until now.
Moreau stood beside de Gaulle at the platform edge, coat buttoned up to the neck, gloved hands clenched around a clipboard.
Twelve Renault ADR trucks.
Three Char D1 tanks.
Two wooden crates stamped with "Équipement Radio – Type ER-26 bis."
Six pallets of fuel drums.
One sealed container marked "Aéronautique, Liaison Only."
No speeches.
No officers from Paris.
Only a handwritten note clipped to the manifest: On direct authorization of General Gamelin.
De Gaulle exhaled slowly. "Now we see if the vision can move."
"It moves," Moreau replied, "or it dies here."
Unloading began before the frost thawed.
The trucks were freshly painted, the smell of fresh oil still clinging to the chassis.
