![]() There were perhaps 20,000 Resistance members in Paris, but few were armed. The German reaction was less than forthright prompting small, local Resistance groups, without central direction or discipline, to take possession the next day of police stations, town halls, national ministries, newspaper buildings and the Hôtel de Ville. Several anti-German demonstrations took place, and armed Resistance members appeared openly. Virtually all the policemen had disappeared from the streets. In contrast, by 18 August more than half the railroad workers were on strike and the city was at a standstill. On 16 August, collaboration newspapers were still published and, although food was in short supply, sidewalk cafés were crowded. He became one of the first uniformed Allied officers to enter Paris in 1944.Īs late as 11 August, nine French Jews were arrested by the French police in Paris. The 9th Armored Company, composed mainly of veterans of the Spanish Civil War, equipped with American M4 Sherman tanks, M2 half-tracks, and General Motors Company trucks from the United States was commanded by Captain Raymond Dronne. Gerow, and he sent a vanguard (the colonne Dronne) to Paris, with the message that the entire division would be there on the following day. On 24 August, delayed by poor decision-making, combat and poor roads, the Free French General Leclerc, commander of the 2nd Armored Division, disobeyed his directly superior American field commander, Major General Leonard T. De Gaulle had organized the Free French Army outside of France to support his provisional government, but inside France, a large and vociferous contingent of the left wing (politically) challenged de Gaulle's leadership. The main aim of the Resistance was to expel the Germans from France and to bind men of conflicting philosophies, interests, and political persuasions together. The city was the hub of national administration and politics, the center of the railroad system and the highway system of Central France. Paris was the prize in a contest for power within the French Resistance. However, General Charles de Gaulle of the partially resurrected French Army threatened to order the French 2nd Armored Division ( 2ème DB) into Paris. Significant amounts of building materials, manpower and engineers would also be required after the liberation of Paris (to restore basic utilities and transportation systems), all of which where desperately needed for the war effort. In the event of a siege, it was estimated that 4,000 short tons (3,600 t) of food per day would be required to supply the population of Paris. Paris was considered to have too great a value, culturally and historically, to risk its destruction in a battle. Eisenhower was aware that Adolf Hitler had given the order to raze Paris should the allies attack and he was keen to avoid a drawn out battle of attrition such as the Battle of Stalingrad or the Battle of Leningrad. General Eisenhower maintained that it was too early for an assault on Paris. Army and the British Army hoped to make it all the way to Berlin before the Soviet Army did, and hence put an end to World War II in Europe, allowing the allies to concentrate all their efforts on the Pacific. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander in Western Europe, did not consider Paris to be a primary objective. The German Army and SS fought doggedly in these areas for the remainder of 1944 and into 1945.Īllied strategy emphasized destroying German forces retreating towards the Rhine, when the French Resistance (FFI) under Henri Rol-Tanguy staged an uprising in the French capital. However, there was still much heavy fighting to be done before France was liberated, including the campaign in southern France during August–September (in Provence and extending into the southwestern region of the Vosges Mountains), along the German-held seaports of western France (such as at Brest and Dunkirk), in Alsace and Lorraine in eastern France, and in northeastern France, such as along the Rhine and Moder Rivers. ![]() This battle marked the liberation of Paris and the exile of the Vichy government to Sigmaringen in Germany. The capital region of France had been governed by Nazi Germany since the signing of the Second Compiègne Armistice in June 1940, when the German Army occupied northern and westernmost France, and when the puppet regime of Vichy France was established in the town of Vichy in central France. On 24 August, the French Forces of the Interior ( Forces françaises de l'intérieur, FFI) received reinforcements from the Free French Army of Liberation and from the U.S. The Liberation of Paris started with an uprising by the French Resistance against the German garrison. The Liberation of Paris (also known as the Battle for Paris) took place during World War II from 19 August 1944 until the surrender of the occupying German garrison on 25 August.
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