Liberation of Paris
The Liberation of Paris was a battle that took place during World War II from 19 August 1944 until the German garrison surrendered the French capital on 25 August 1944. Paris had been occupied by Nazi Germany since the signing of the Armistice of 22 June 1940, after which the Wehrmacht occupied northern and western France.
The liberation began when the French Forces of the Interior—the military structure of the French Resistance—staged an uprising against the German garrison upon the approach of the US Third Army, led by General George S. Patton. On the night of 24 August, elements of General Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque's 2nd French Armored Division made their way into Paris and arrived at the Hôtel de Ville shortly before midnight. The next morning, 25 August, the bulk of the 2nd Armored Division and US 4th Infantry Division and other allied units entered the city. Dietrich von Choltitz, commander of the German garrison and the military governor of Paris, surrendered to the French at the Hôtel Le Meurice, the newly established French headquarters. General Charles de Gaulle of the French Army arrived to assume control of the city as head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic.
Background
The Allied strategy emphasised destroying the German forces retreating towards the Rhine, and the French Forces of the Interior, led by Henri Rol-Tanguy, staged an uprising in Paris.The Battle of the Falaise Pocket, the final phase of Operation Overlord, was still ongoing, and General Dwight Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, did not consider the liberation of Paris a primary objective. The goal of the US and of British Armed Forces was to destroy the German forces and therefore to end World War II in Europe, which would allow the Allies to concentrate all of their efforts on the Pacific Front.
The French Resistance began to rise up against the Germans in Paris on 15 August, but the Allies were still pushing the Germans toward the Rhine and did not want to get embroiled in a battle for the liberation of Paris. The Allies thought that it was too early to take Paris. They were aware that Adolf Hitler had ordered the German military to completely destroy the city in the event of an Allied attack. Paris was considered to have too great a value, culturally and historically, to risk its destruction. They were also keen to avoid a drawn-out battle of attrition like during the Battle of Stalingrad. It was also estimated that in the event of a siege, of food per day, as well as significant amounts of building materials, manpower and engineering skill, would be required to feed the population after the liberation of Paris. Basic utilities would have to be restored and transportation systems rebuilt. All of those supplies were needed in other areas of the war effort.
De Gaulle was concerned that military rule by Allied forces would be implemented in France with the implementation of the Allied Military Government for Occupied Territories. That administration which had been planned by the American Chiefs of Staff had been approved by US President Franklin Roosevelt but had been opposed by Eisenhower. Nevertheless, De Gaulle, upon learning the French Resistance had risen up against the German occupiers and unwilling to allow his countrymen to be slaughtered as was happening to the Polish Resistance during the Warsaw Uprising, petitioned for an immediate frontal assault. He threatened to detach the French 2nd Armored Division and to order it to single-handedly attack the German forces in Paris, bypassing the SHAEF chain of command in so doing, if Eisenhower delayed approval unduly.
Preceding events (15–19 August 1944)
On 15 August, in the northeastern suburb of Pantin, 1,654 men, and 546 women, all political prisoners, were sent to the concentration camps of Buchenwald and Ravensbrück, on what was to be the last convoy to Germany. Pantin had been the area of Paris from which the Germans had entered the capital in June 1940.The same day, employees of the Paris Métro, the Gendarmerie and Police went on strike; postal workers followed the next day. They were soon joined by workers across the city, which caused a general strike to break out on 18 August.
On 16 August, 35 young FFI members were betrayed by an agent of the Gestapo. They had gone to a secret meeting near the Grande Cascade in the Bois de Boulogne and were gunned down there.
On 17 August, concerned that the Germans were placing explosives at strategic points around the city, Pierre Taittinger, the chairman of the municipal council, met Dietrich von Choltitz, the military governor of Paris. When Choltitz told them that he intended to slow the Allied advance as much as possible, Taittinger and Swedish Consul Raoul Nordling attempted to persuade Choltitz not to destroy Paris.
Battle and liberation
FFI uprising (19–23 August)
All over France, since the end of the battle of Normandy, the population had been hearing news of the Allies' advance toward Paris from the BBC and French public broadcaster Radiodiffusion nationale. From 1943, RN had been operating in Paris under the direction of the Vichy propaganda minister Philippe Henriot. On 4 April 1944, four months before the liberation of Paris, the Provisional Government of the French Republic had begun operating its own RN from Algeria. The Provisional Government took over the Paris RN during the liberation on 22 August 1944.On 19 August, continuing their retreat eastwards, columns of German vehicles moved down the Avenue des Champs Élysées. Posters calling citizens to arm had previously been pasted on walls by FFI members. The posters called for a general mobilization of the Parisians; argued that "the war continues"; and called on the Parisian police, the Republican Guard, the gendarmerie, the Garde Mobile, the Groupe mobile de réserve, and patriotic Frenchmen to join "the struggle against the invader". Other posters assured that "victory is near" and promised "chastisement for the traitors", Vichy loyalists and collaborators. The posters were signed by the "Parisian Committee of the Liberation", in agreement with the Provisional Government of the French Republic, and under the orders of "Regional Chief Colonel Rol", the commander of the French Forces of the Interior in Île de France.
The first skirmishes between the French and the German occupiers then began and the Resistance began to take over buildings in the city, including the Préfecture de Police and the Louvre. Small mobile units of the Red Cross moved into the city to assist French and the German wounded. The same day, the Germans detonated a barge filled with mines in the northeastern suburb of Pantin, setting fire to mills that supplied Paris with flour.
On 20 August, as barricades began to appear, Resistance fighters organized themselves to sustain a siege. Trucks were positioned, trees cut down and trenches were dug in the pavement to free paving stones for consolidating the barricades. The materials were transported by men, women and children using wooden carts. Fuel trucks were attacked and captured. Civilian vehicles were commandeered, painted with camouflage, and marked with the FFI emblem. The Resistance used them to transport ammunition and orders from one barricade to another.
Skirmishes reached their peak on 22 August, when some German units tried to leave their fortifications. At 9:00 a.m. on 23 August, under Choltitz's orders, the Germans opened fire on the Grand Palais, an FFI stronghold, and German tanks fired at the barricades in the streets. Hitler gave the order to inflict maximum damage on the city.
Allies enter Paris (24–25 August)
On 24 August, after combat and poor roads had delayed his 2nd Armored Division, Free French general Leclerc disobeyed his direct superior, American V Corps commander Major General Leonard T. Gerow, and sent a vanguard to Paris with the message that the entire division would be there the following day. The 2nd Armored Division was equipped with American M4 Sherman tanks, halftracks and trucks, and the vanguard that Leclerc chose was the 9th Company of the Régiment de marche du Tchad, nicknamed La Nueve because of its 160 men under French command, 146 of them were Spanish Republicans. 9th Company commander Captain Raymond Dronne became the second uniformed Allied officer to enter Paris after Amado Granell and the first French officer to reenter the capital.The 9th Company broke into the center of Paris by the Porte d'Italie and reached the Hôtel de Ville at 9:22 p.m. Upon entering the town hall square, the half-track "Ebro" fired the first rounds at a large group of German fusiliers and machine guns. Civilians went out to the street and sang "La Marseillaise", including as Pierre Schaeffer broadcast the news of the 2nd Armored Division's arrival on a Radiodiffusion Nationale broadcast and then played it. Schaeffer then asked any priests who were listening to ring their churches' bells, and the churches who participated included Notre-Dame de Paris and Sacré-Cœur in Montmartre – whose bells include the Savoyarde, a bourdon that is France's biggest bell. Dronne later went to von Choltitz's command post to request the German surrender.
The 4th US Infantry Division commanded by Raymond Barton also entered through the Porte d'Italie in the early hours of the next day. The leading American regiments covered the right flank of the French 2nd Armoured, turned east at the Place de la Bastille, and made their way along Avenue Daumesnil, heading towards the Bois de Vincennes. In the afternoon the British 30 Assault Unit had entered the Porte d'Orléans and then searched buildings for vital intelligence, later capturing the former Headquarters of Admiral Karl Dönitz, the Château de la Muette.
While awaiting the final capitulation, the 9th Company assaulted the Chamber of Deputies, the Hôtel Majestic and the Place de la Concorde.
With the battle nearing its end, resistance groups brought Allied airmen and other troops hidden in suburban towns, such as Montlhéry, into central Paris.