Editing Liberation of Paris (section)

==Background==
{{Further|Operation Overlord}}
The Allied strategy emphasised destroying the German forces retreating towards the [[Rhine]], and the [[French Forces of the Interior]] (the armed force of the [[French Resistance]]), led by [[Henri Rol-Tanguy]], staged an uprising in Paris.

The Battle of the [[Falaise Pocket]] (12–21 August), 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.<ref>[http://www.radiofrance.fr/reportage/cahiers/cahiers.php?rid=235000257 "''Les Cahiers Multimédias: Il y a 60 ans : la Libération de Paris''"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071014173359/http://www.radiofrance.fr/reportage/cahiers/cahiers.php?rid=235000257|date=14 October 2007}} (in French). Gérard Conreur/Mémorial du Maréchal Leclerc et de la Libération de Paris. [[Radio France]]. 6 July 2004.</ref>

The French Resistance began to rise 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.<ref name=his>{{cite web |publisher=History.com | title=1944: August 25: Paris is liberated after four years of Nazi occupation|url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/paris-liberated}}</ref> 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]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Collins |first1=Larry |last2=Lapierre |first2=Dominique |date=1965 |title=Is Paris Burning? |publisher=Simon and Schuster |pages=19-20}}</ref> It was also estimated that in the event of a siege, {{convert|4000|ST|t|lk=on|abbr=on}} 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.{{citation needed|date=August 2019}} 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 [[AMGOT|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.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QN9k6DW5uN0C&q=henri+giraud+roosevelt&pg=PA68|title=When Roosevelt Planned to Govern France|first=Charles L.|last=Robertson|date=2011|publisher=University of Massachusetts Press|isbn=978-1-55849-881-5}}</ref> 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 movement in World War II|Polish Resistance]] during the [[Warsaw Uprising]], petitioned for an immediate frontal assault. He threatened to detach the [[French 2nd Armored Division]] (2e DB) 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.<ref name=his />

===Preceding events (15–19 August 1944)===
[[File:FFI voiture.jpg|thumb|A truck painted with the marks of the [[French Forces of the Interior|FFI]] and the V for Victory]]
On 15 August, in the northeastern suburb of [[Pantin]], 1,654 men (among them [[Allied airmen at Buchenwald concentration camp|168 captured Allied airmen]]), and 546 women, all political prisoners, were sent to the concentration camps of [[Buchenwald concentration camp|Buchenwald]] (men) and [[Ravensbrück concentration camp|Ravensbrück]] (women), 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.<ref name="pantin1">{{cite web |url=http://www.ville-pantin.fr/fileadmin/MEDIA/Histoire_de_Pantin/histoire.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2007-07-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090327005358/http://www.ville-pantin.fr/fileadmin/MEDIA/Histoire_de_Pantin/histoire.pdf |archive-date=27 March 2009 }} ([[Portable Document Format|PDF format]]). Pantin official website.</ref><ref name="pantin2">[https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20070710153209/http://www.ville-pantin.fr/fileadmin/MEDIA/Histoire_de_Pantin/Chrono.pdf] ([[Portable Document Format|PDF format]]). Pantin official website.</ref>

The same day, employees of the [[Paris Métro]], the [[French Gendarmerie|Gendarmerie]] and [[National Police (France)|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.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150519103909/http://martyrs-bois-de-boulogne.blogspot.com/ "''Allocution du Président de la République lors de la cérémonie d'hommage aux martyrs du Bois de Boulogne''"]  (in French), President Nicolas Sarkozy, French Presidency official website, 16 May 2007.</ref>

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.<ref>[[Pierre Taittinger|Taittinger, Pierre]] (1946).  [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000KU7QIY/ ''... et Paris ne fut pas détruit'' (''... And Paris Was Not Destroyed'')] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221206131358/https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000KU7QIY/ |date=6 December 2022 }} (in French). L'Élan.</ref> 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.<ref name="arte1">[http://www.arte.tv/de/geschichte-gesellschaft/geschichte-am-mittwoch/NAV-1-cette-semaine/611420,CmC=611430.html ''Wird Paris vernichtet?'' (''Will Paris Be Destroyed?'')] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929090429/http://www.arte.tv/de/geschichte-gesellschaft/geschichte-am-mittwoch/NAV-1-cette-semaine/611420%2CCmC%3D611430.html |date=29 September 2007}} (in German), a documentary by Michael Busse and Maria-Rosa Bobbi, [[Arte]]/WDR/France 3/TSR. August 2004.</ref>