PARIS PARALYZED ON EVE OF LIBERATION

Paris, Occupied France · August 10, 1944

Beginning on August 2, 1944, almost two months after the initial D-Day landings in Nor­mandy, France, more than 14,000 per­son­nel and equip­ment from Gen. Philippe Leclerc’s Free French 2nd Armored Divi­sion landed on Utah Beach. Leclerc juggled three roles: He was a sub­ordi­nate divi­sional com­mander in an Amer­i­can army, he was the com­mander of a sep­a­rate national (French) force, and he was Free French leader Gen. Charles de Gaulle’s man on the spot. As the tide turned against Nazi Ger­many after the Allies’ Nor­mandy break­out (August 1, 1944), Free French leaders wanted their own troops to lead the lib­er­a­tion of Paris. In fact, the people of Paris were readying them­selves for libera­tion—by them­selves if neces­sary. Nine days after the citi­zens of War­saw, Poland’s capital, began their up­rising, French rail workers went on strike on this date in 1944. Five days later, as another Allied inva­sion took place in south­ern France (Opera­tion Dra­goon), Paris police struck as well. By August 18 the French capi­tal was com­pletely para­lyzed. Spo­radic street fighting broke out the next day. Pari­sians built barri­cades in the streets, sniped from roof­tops at Wehr­macht and Waffen-SS soldiers evacu­ating the city, and posted pro­pa­ganda posters on walls assuring resi­dents that “victory is near” and pro­mising “chastise­ment for the trai­tors,” i.e., the Vichy loy­al­ists. The Ger­man mili­tary gover­nor, Gen. Diet­rich von Chol­titz, responded by cutting off all power and food sup­plies. On August 23 radio lis­teners heard that Pari­sians were libera­ting them­selves, an act that caused the Allied high com­mand—which feared any insur­rec­tion that might result in the use­less slaugh­ter of civil­ians as was occurring in War­saw—to accel­er­ate their drive east­ward by sending an advance divi­sion of the Free French army under Gen. Leclerc into the city on August 24. The next day Leclerc accepted the sur­render of the Ger­man garri­son, which had shrunk to 5,000 mostly un­en­thu­si­astic men. Four years of pent-up frustra­tion and hatred exploded over the heads of the Ger­man occu­pa­tion forces and espe­cially their colla­bo­rators who had betrayed, tor­tured, and exe­cuted mem­bers of the Resis­tance. At least 11,000 col­la­bo­rators were sum­marily exe­cuted before and after Choltitz surrendered the city to Leclerc.



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The Liberation of Paris, August 19–25, 1944

Parisian snipers at street barricade, August 1944Parisians disarm dead German soldier, August 1944

Left: On August 19, 1944, the first skirmishes between French irreg­u­lars (résis­tants) and the Ger­man occu­piers began in Paris. Skir­mishes reached their height of inten­sity on August 22 when some Ger­man units tried to leave their strong­points. It is esti­mated that 800–1,000 resis­tance fighters were killed during the battle for Paris and 1,500 wounded. Leclerc’s Free French Armored Division suffered 130 killed and just over 300 wounded. Ger­man losses were placed at 3,200 dead.

Right: Screenshot from the documentary “La Libéra­tion de Paris,” which was secretly shot by the French Resis­tance during the battle of Paris in August 1944. This still shows two Pari­sians, pos­si­bly mem­bers of the Forces fran­çaises de l’inté­rieur (French Forces of the Inte­rior, or FFI), dis­arming a recently killed Ger­man sol­dier. In the frames before this, the sol­dier is seen being shot, as Parisian sni­pers directly over­looking Notre Dame Cathe­dral watch him die. In the next few scenes, the woman and the man remove his rifle, a pistol, and other objects. (See YouTube video below.)

Captured German officers, Paris, August 26, 1944French 2nd Armored Division parades down Champs Élysées, August 26, 1944

Left: High-ranking German officers captured by Free French troops are lodged in the Hôtel Majes­tic, Wehr­macht head­quarters during the Nazi occu­pa­tion of Paris, August 26, 1944. Gen. Diet­rich von Chol­titz, com­mander of the Ger­man gar­ri­son and mili­tary gover­nor of Paris, sur­ren­dered on August 25 at the Hôtel Meurice, the newly estab­lished head­quarters of Gen. Leclerc. Some 12,800 Ger­mans were taken prisoner.

Right: The French 2nd Armored Division eventually led the drive toward Paris. A small advance party arrived at the Hôtel de Ville (city hall) late on August 24, 1944. The next day Gen. Leclerc and the rest of his French Armored Divi­sion, along with the U.S. 4th Infan­try Divi­sion, entered the French capi­tal. Some spo­radic fighting con­tinued for several days following the Ger­man capitu­la­tion. Never­the­less, on August 26 a great vic­tory parade took place down Paris’ main boule­vard, the Champs Élysées, lined with jubi­lant crowds acclaiming Gen. de Gaulle and the French 2nd Armored Div­ision the libera­tors of Paris. A sign in the crowd reads, “Viva de Gaulle.”

De Gaulle and entourage walk down the Champs Élysées, Paris, August 25, 1944U.S. troops march down the Champs Élysées, Paris, August 29, 1944

Left: Free French head Gen. Charles de Gaulle and his entou­rage set off from the Arc de Tri­umphe down the Champs Élysées to the Cathe­dral of Notre Dame in Paris for a service of thanks­giving following the city’s liberation, August 25, 1944.

Right: On August 29, 1944, following the arrival of the U.S. Army’s 28th Infantry Divi­sion, a com­bined Franco-Amer­i­can mili­tary parade was organ­ized. This iconic photo­graph, taken by a member of the U.S. Army Sig­nal Corps, shows the divi­sion marching down Paris’ Champs Élysées.

Contemporary American Newsreel of Liberation of Paris, August 1944