The roads for the refugees or for the army

The exodus throws millions of civilians onto the roads at the precise moment when the Allied armies need those same routes for their movements: to advance into Belgium, manoeuvre, withdraw, and bring up supplies and reinforcements. Military roads and floods of refugees intermingle in a chaos that paralyses movement and offers targets to the aircraft.

The military command faces an agonising dilemma. Give absolute priority to military movements, pushing back or blocking refugees off the strategic roads, at the cost of great harshness towards civilians. Let the refugees through out of humanity, accepting the paralysis of movement. Or attempt to regulate the traffic by separating civilian and military routes — hard to apply in an emergency.

The stake is military as much as human: the fluidity of movement may decide a battle, but turning back terrified families is morally untenable. This entanglement of refugees and troops, poorly anticipated, gravely disorganises the Allied manoeuvre in Belgium and France.