Morocco serves first as a coveted military posting and then as an uncertain refuge in the narrator’s attempt to reach the war from North Africa. Its airfields and ports promise movement, but orders repeatedly close those routes: the cadets reach Meknès only to find the armistice accepted and aircraft grounded, while their eventual escape depends on a Polish corporal and a cargo ship sailing from Casablanca.

A sought-after posting

At the graduation parade, cadets choose among stations listed on a blackboard, including Paris, Marrakech, Meknès, Maison-Blanche, and Biskra. Their marks determine the order of choice, and those with the highest marks traditionally opt for Morocco. For the narrator, however, the most desirable posting is in the south of France: he hopes to visit Nice often and appear there with his mother. Morocco is therefore presented both as an established prize within the Air Force’s posting system and as a destination that does not match his personal hopes.

Meknès and the closing of the route

Morocco becomes urgent when the squadron receives orders to proceed to Meknès. The narrator and his companions leave Mérignac and reach Salanque, on the Mediterranean, only to learn that aircraft have been forbidden to leave the ground and earlier instructions are void. With a sympathetic pilot, the narrator flies toward Algeria at dawn without waiting for new authorization. Their Potez has no supplementary fuel tanks, so the crossing carries a risk of running out of fuel before reaching the African coast; favorable wind allows them to land at Maison-Blanche, with ten minutes’ fuel remaining.

The next morning, they continue to Meknès, where the flying school has temporarily established its headquarters. They arrive to find that the North African authorities have also accepted the armistice. After crews have attempted to reach Gibraltar, the authorities order all aircraft grounded. Meknès thus marks a reversal: it is the squadron’s assigned destination, but arrival brings neither a renewed chance to fight nor permission to leave by air. The narrator’s mother reacts with fury, pressing him to resist surrender and urging the sons of France to rally, while he hesitates to act.

Casablanca and departure

The route out of Morocco shifts from airfields to the harbor at Casablanca. The narrator leaves a bus at the Place de France and encounters two fellow flight-school trainees, Forsans and Daligot, who are also trying to get to England. They spend the day searching for a way forward, but gendarmes guard the harbor gates, and the last British ship carrying Polish troops appears to have departed. By late evening, the three are discouraged and the narrator’s resolve is weakening.

A Polish corporal then approaches them under a gas lamp and tells them that the British cargo boat Oakrest, carrying Polish troops from North Africa, is due to sail at midnight. He has come ashore to buy provisions; the narrator interprets his unexpected appearance as the intervention that will get them out. The corporal supplies Forsans with a Polish tunic and Daligot with a Polish cap. The narrator uses shouted Polish orders to help the group pass the guards and board, while two Polish officers on duty assist after hearing his explanation. Casablanca’s harbor becomes the escape point that Meknès’s grounded aircraft could not provide.

Narrative significance

Morocco’s role is defined by the contrast between official movement and improvised passage. A blackboard assigns the cadets their stations, orders send the squadron to Meknès, and a ban on flights closes the sanctioned route; departure from Casablanca instead requires borrowed clothing, a convincing performance, and help from strangers. The sequence makes Morocco a threshold in the narrator’s wartime trajectory: not a settled destination, but the place where the failed attempt to continue by air gives way to a precarious passage by sea.