In addition, an act of sabotage at the railway yard which was intended to thwart the Nazis resulted in two German soldiers being killed. Someone or some faction in town has been clandestinely printing and distributing anti-Nazi leaflets. Albert is secretly in love with Louise, which most in town know, it being more of a joke to them than anything as they know he will never admit such in his cowardice. Louise's fellow schoolteacher, middle-aged Albert Lory, is a timid man, his self-admitted cowardice exacerbated by his overbearing mother, Emma Lory, coddling him, she in return expecting that he never leave her. On the other side, the school head master, well-respected Professor Sorel, and young schoolteacher Louise Martin, Paul's sister and George's fiancée, openly but quietly resist although do not totally defy Nazi orders. Paul Martin, a railway switch man and George's best friend, has gone even further by befriending occupying German soldiers. Some of the town's leading citizens, such as Mayor Henry Manville and the railway station master George Lambert, encourage that citizen cooperation outwardly to maintain peace, while such persons are able to profit individually in being in von Keller's proverbial back pocket. Like other such occupied towns, the Nazis are keeping it a supposed free city in return for citizen cooperation. The Nazis have just invaded and are now occupying another Western European town in an Allied country, the Nazi District Commadant being Major Erich von Keller.

This war of mine music