 The girls had a peaceful time in the French countryside, making sorties up to the front line at Sarreguemines, which had become a ghost town since its French inhabitants were evacuated nine months previously.Lady Hadfield travelled up from the south of France to visit her unit – Mary Spears would not see her again until the end of the war.On 20 May, the news came through that her husband had been promoted to Major General, although she did not then know that he had been appointed Churchill's personal representative to the French Prime Minister, Paul Reynaud.