The Liberation of Paris (19-25 August 1944) occurred at the end of Operation Overlord during World War II. On 19 August 1944, the French Resistance began an insurrection in Paris, and they liberated the city with assistance from Philippe Leclerc's French 2nd Armored Division and the US 4th Infantry Division. On 26 August 1944, French troops marched down the Champs Elysees victoriously, and Charles de Gaulle became the leader of a liberated France.
Background[]
The Allied Powers had invaded France through Normandy in June 1944 as a part of Operation Overlord, and they fought their way through the Norman hedgerows and the French countryside as they pushed the Germans back through France. In August 1944, the Allies destroyed the German 7th Army in the Falaise Gap, clearing the way for the Allies to advance on Paris. The German commander in France, Walter Model, planned to form a new defense line on the Seine River, but the Allies moved too quickly for him. George S. Patton's US Third Army liberated Chartres and Orleans before advancing towards the Seine on 18 August 1944. On 19 August, Patton's leading elements established a bridgehead over the Seine west of Paris, followed by another to the east of Paris on 23 August. Model's battered troops were forced to continue their withdrawal eastward; the 20,000 German troops holding defensive positions around the city melted away, leaving Paris' military governor Dietrich von Choltitz with just 5,000 men to hold the French capital.
Liberation[]
On 10 August 1944, sensing that the Americans would soon liberate Paris, public sector workers in the city went on strike. The French Resistance's reaction was mixed; the Gaullist elements wanted to wait for the Allies to besiege the city before rising up, while the communist resistance fighters wanted an immediate uprising. Fearing that the communists might be able to take the city and form a dictatorship of the proletariat, the Gaullists decided to pre-empt them with their own insurrection on 19 August. Molotov cocktails were thrown at German half-tracks from apartment windows, and the French Resistance began to skirmish with occupying forces across the city. Governor Von Choltitz was ordered by Adolf Hitler to hold the city to the last and to burn the city down, but the Swedish consul-general in Paris, Raoul Nordling, convinced Choltitz to sign a truce with the Allies. Choltitz decided to spare Paris from destruction, fearing that he would be on the wrong side of history if he became the man responsible for the beautiful city's razing in a fashion similar to the Polish capital after the Warsaw Uprising. The skirmishing continued, however, and the Free French commander ordered for every street to be barricaded on 22 August. On 23 August 1944, Allied commander Dwight D. Eisenhower authorized Philippe Leclerc's French 2nd Armored Division and the US 4th Infantry Division to dash to the capital, a race won by the French. On 24 August, Choltitz had his troops withdraw east of the Seine, and he surrendered to Leclerc on 25 August. The next day, Charles de Gaulle walked triumphantly up the Champs Elysees, with over 1,000,000 people flocking to the city center to cheer the city's liberation. De Gaulle became the leader of a free France, and the French and Allied armies began to fight to liberate the rest of the country.