Editing Liberation of Paris (section)

==Battle and liberation==
===FFI uprising (19–23 August)===
{{Further|French Forces of the Interior}}
[[File:Battle for paris FFI1.png|thumb|left|300px|FFI uprising on 19 August. One skirmisher is wearing an [[Adrian helmet]].]]
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 (France)|Radiodiffusion nationale]]'' (''RN''). 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.<ref>''Journal Officiel des établissements français de l'Océanie'', Titre V, Dispositions générales, p. 43, [https://lexpol.cloud.pf/document.php?document=188526&deb=41&fin=43&titre=T3Jkb25uYW5jZSBkdSAwNC8wNC8xOTQ0]{{dead link|date=November 2017|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}} p. 3.</ref>

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 [[French Republican Guard|Republican Guard]], the [[gendarmerie]], the [[Garde Mobile]], the [[Groupe mobile de réserve]] (the police units replacing the army), and patriotic Frenchmen ("all men from 18 to 50 able to carry a weapon") 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" (Henri Rol-Tanguy), the commander of the French Forces of the Interior in [[Île-de-France (region)|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 [[Naval mine|mines]] in the northeastern suburb of Pantin, setting fire to mills that supplied Paris with flour.<ref name="pantin2"/>

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.{{Citation needed|date=August 2009}}

Skirmishes reached their peak on 22 August, when some German units tried to leave their fortifications. At 9:00&nbsp;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.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070816141409/http://www.humanite.fr/2004-08-23_Politique_Balises-1944 ''Libération de Paris: Balises 1944''], L'Humanité, 23 August 2004.</ref>

===Allies enter Paris (24–25 August)===
{{Further|2nd Armored Division (France)}}
[[File:La Libération de Paris, 1944.ogv|thumb|left|300px|Film ''"[[La Libération de Paris]]"'' shot by the French Resistance]]
On 24 August, after combat and poor roads had delayed his [[2nd Armored Division (France)|2nd Armored Division]], Free French general Leclerc disobeyed his direct superior, American [[V Corps (United States)|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]]'' (Spanish for "the nine") because of its 160 men under French command, 146 of them were Spanish Republicans.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Celaya |first=Diego Gaspar |date=2011-12-15|title=Portrait d'oubliés. L'engagement des Espagnols dans les Forces françaises libres, 1940–1945|url=http://journals.openedition.org/rha/7345 |journal=Revue historique des armées|language=fr|issue=265|pages=46–55 |issn=0035-3299}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Rosbottom|first1=Ronald C.|title=Who Liberated Paris in August 1944?|url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/24/who-liberated-paris-in-august-1944.html|website=The Daily Beast|date=24 August 2014}}</ref>

The 9th Company broke into the center of Paris by the [[Porte d'Italie]] and reached the [[Hôtel de Ville, Paris|Hôtel de Ville]] at 9:22&nbsp;p.m.<ref>Catherine Vialle, ''Je me souviens du 13e arrondissement'', éditions Parigramme, 1995, p. 99.</ref> 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, Paris|Sacré-Cœur]] in [[Montmartre]] – whose bells include the Savoyarde, a [[bourdon (bell)|bourdon]] that is France's biggest bell.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Collins |first1=Larry |author-link1=Larry Collins (writer)|last2=Lapierre |first2=Dominique |author-link2=Dominique Lapierre|title=Is Paris Burning?|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k4a8zQEACAAJ  |date=1991 |orig-date=1965 [[Penguin Books]]|publisher=[[Grand Central Publishing]] |isbn=978-0-446-39225-9 |pages=271–274}} {{link note|note=[https://archive.org/details/isparisburning00larr Available] at [[Internet Archive]]}}</ref> 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]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Argyle |first1=Ray |title=The Paris Game: Charles de Gaulle, the Liberation of Paris, and the Gamble that Won France |date=2014 |publisher=Dundurn |isbn=978-1-4597-2288-0 |page=223 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PdDYAQAAQBAJ}}</ref> In the afternoon the British [[No. 30 Commando|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]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rankin |first1=Nicholas |title=Ian Fleming's Commandos: The Story of the Legendary 30 Assault Unit |date=2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-978290-1 |pages=259–263 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zbFoAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA339}}</ref>

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.

===German surrender (25 August)===
[[File:Lot 4568-2 (19583145252).jpg|thumb|300px|25 August – Armoured vehicles of the 2nd Armored (Leclerc) Division fighting before the [[Palais Garnier]]. One German tank is going up in flames.]]
Despite repeated orders from Hitler that the French capital "must not fall into the enemy's hand except lying in complete debris", which was to be accomplished by bombing it and blowing up its bridges,<ref>Citation needed</ref> Choltitz, as commander of the German garrison and military governor of Paris, surrendered at 3:30&nbsp;p.m. at the [[Hôtel Meurice]]. He was then driven to the [[Paris Police Prefecture]], where he signed the official surrender, and then to the [[Gare Montparnasse]], where General Leclerc had established his command post, to sign the surrender of the German troops in Paris.

===De Gaulle's speech (25 August)===
[[File:German officer POWs in Paris HD-SN-99-02952.JPG|thumb|300px|German soldiers at the ''[[Hotel Majestic (Paris)|Hôtel Majestic]]'',
headquarters for the ''Militärbefehlshaber in Frankreich'', the German High Military Command in France. They requested to be made prisoners only by the military, and surrendered to Battalion Chief [[Jacques Massu]] of the 2e DB.]]

The same day that the Germans surrendered, de Gaulle, President of the Provisional Government of the French Republic, moved back into the War Ministry on the [[Rue Saint-Dominique]] and then made a speech at the Hôtel de Ville that was also broadcast. His speech proclaimed that Paris had liberated itself with help from French forces, notably downplaying the part that Barton's 4th Infantry played in the battle, and also dismissed Vichy as a false France.<ref>{{cite web |title=La Libération de Paris, victoire militaire et politique des Français |trans-title=The Liberation of Paris, French military and political victory|url=https://www.gouvernement.fr/partage/9406-Llib%C3%A9ration-de-Paris |website=Gouvernement.fr |publisher=French Republic |access-date=1 September 2023 |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=25 août 1944, "Paris outragé! Paris brisé!...Mais Paris libéré!"|trans-title=August 25, 1944: "Paris outraged! Paris broken!...But Paris liberated!"|url=https://www.ina.fr/ina-eclaire-actu/25-aout-1944-paris-outrage-paris-brise-mais-paris-libere |website=Institut National de l'Audiovisuel |access-date=1 September 2023 |date=23 August 2019|language=fr}}</ref>

{{quote|Why do you wish us to hide the emotion which seizes us all, men and women, who are here, at home, in Paris that stood up to liberate itself and that succeeded in doing this with its own hands?
No! We will not hide this deep and sacred emotion. These are minutes which go beyond each of our poor lives.
Paris! Paris outraged! Paris broken! Paris martyred! But Paris liberated! Liberated by itself, liberated by its people with the help of the French armies, with the support and the help of all France, of the France that fights, of the only France, of the real France, of the eternal France!

Since the enemy which held Paris has capitulated into our hands, France returns to Paris, to her home. She returns bloody, but quite resolute. She returns there enlightened by the immense lesson, but more certain than ever of her duties and of her rights.

I speak of her duties first, and I will sum them all up by saying that for now, it is a matter of the duties of war. The enemy is staggering, but he is not beaten yet. He remains on our soil.

It will not even be enough that we have, with the help of our dear and admirable Allies, chased him from our home for us to consider ourselves satisfied after what has happened. We want to enter his territory as is fitting, as victors.

This is why the French vanguard has entered Paris with guns blazing. This is why the great French army from Italy has landed in the south and is advancing rapidly up the Rhône valley. This is why our brave and dear Forces of the interior will arm themselves with modern weapons. It is for this revenge, this vengeance and justice, that we will keep fighting until the final day, until the day of total and complete victory.

This duty of war, all the men who are here and all those who hear us in France know that it demands national unity. We, who have lived the greatest hours of our History, we have nothing else to wish than to show ourselves, up to the end, worthy of France. Long live France!|}}

===Victory parades (26 and 29 August)===
The day after de Gaulle's speech, he marched down the [[Champs-Élysées]] as Leclerc's French [[2nd Armored Division (France)|2nd Armored Division]] paraded behind.

De Gaulle had requested that a French unit be allowed to lead the liberation of Paris, which Allied High Command agreed to on the condition that the chosen unit not contain any black or non-white soldiers, as two-thirds of Free French forces were black colonial soldiers. The 2nd Armored Division was chosen for the parade because it was the only French formation which was majority white. Non-white soldiers in the division, predominantly Moroccans and Algerian, who made up around one quarter of its strength, were replaced by white soldiers from other units, supplemented by lighter-skinned soldiers from North Africa and Syria.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Thomson |first=Mike |date=6 April 2009 |title=Paris liberation made 'whites only' |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7984436.stm |access-date=17 February 2025 |work=BBC News}}</ref>

The parade began at the [[Arc de Triomphe]] at the western end, where de Gaulle also rekindled the Eternal Flame at France's [[Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (France)|Tomb of the Unknown Soldier]]. It is estimated that up to two million people viewed this parade and reported that such a crowd and the scenes it created on the Champs-Élysées were not seen there again until France won the [[FIFA World Cup]] for the first time as hosts in [[1998 FIFA World Cup final|1998]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Riding |first1=Alan |title=Paris Journal; 50 Years After the Liberation, France Toasts Itself |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/26/world/paris-journal-50-years-after-the-liberation-france-toasts-itself.html |access-date=3 September 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=26 August 1994}}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media |title=France 98: Nuit de fête sur les Champs-Elysées après la victoire (Archive INA) |trans-title=France 98: Night of celebration on the Champs-Elysées after the victory (INA Archive) |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyuVIRDtel4 |publisher=Institut National de l'Audiovisuel |date=13 July 1998 |access-date=20 July 2023 |type=YouTube video |language=FR}}</ref>

A few German snipers were still active, and ones from rooftops in the [[Hôtel de Crillon]] area shot at the crowd while de Gaulle entered the [[Place de la Concorde]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=75th Anniversary of the Liberation of Paris |url=https://apimagesblog.com/blog/2019/7/26/75th-anniversary-of-the-liberation-of-paris-cprkp |access-date=2023-02-25 |website=AP Photos |date=22 August 2019 |language=en-US}}</ref>

<gallery class="center" widths="225px" heights="225px">
File:The Liberation of Paris, 25 - 26 August 1944 HU66477.jpg|General de Gaulle and his entourage proudly stroll down the Champs Élysées to Notre Dame Cathedral for a [[Te Deum]] ceremony following the city's liberation on 26 August 1944.
File:An AFPU photographer kisses a small child before cheering crowds in Paris, 26 August 1944. BU18.jpg|A British [[Army Film and Photographic Unit|AFPU]] photographer kisses a child before cheering crowds in Paris, 26 August 1944.
File:Parisians celebrating liberation on place de la Concorde HD-SN-99-02716.jpg|As allied troops enter Paris on 26 August, celebrating crowds on place De La Concorde scatter for cover from small bands of remaining German snipers.
File:American troops march down the Champs Elysees crop.jpg|The U.S. 28th Infantry Division on the [[Champs Élysées]] in the "Victory Day" parade on 29 August 1944.
File:American soldiers watch as the Tricolor flies from the Eiffel Tower again.jpg|American soldiers look at the [[French tricolour]] flying from the Eiffel Tower.
</gallery>

On 29 August, the US Army's [[U.S. 28th Infantry Division|28th Infantry Division]], which had assembled in the Bois de Boulogne the previous night, paraded 24-abreast up the ''[[Avenue Hoche]]'' to the Arc de Triomphe, then down the Champs Élysées. Joyous crowds greeted the Americans as the entire division, men and vehicles, marched through Paris "on its way to assigned attack positions northeast of the French capital."<ref>Stanton, Shelby L. (Captain U.S. Army, Retired), ''World War II Order of Battle'', The encyclopedic reference to all U.S. Army ground force units from battalion through division, 1939–1945, Galahad Books, New York, 1991, p. 105. {{ISBN|0-88365-775-9}}.</ref>

===Food crisis===
The liberation was ongoing, but it became apparent that food in Paris was getting scarcer by the day. The French rail network had largely been destroyed by Allied bombing and so getting food in had become a problem, especially since the Germans had stripped Paris of its resources for themselves. The Allies realised the necessity to get Paris back on its feet and pushed a plan for food convoys to get through to the capital as soon as possible. In addition, surrounding towns and villages were requested to supply as much to Paris as possible. The [[Civil Affairs]] of SHAEF authorised the import of up to 2,400 tons of food per day at the expense of the military effort. A British food convoy labelled 'Vivres Pour Paris' entered on 29 August, US supplies were flown in via [[Orléans]] Airport before they were sent in. Also, 500 tons were delivered a day by the British and another 500 tons by the Americans. Along with French civilians outside Paris bringing in indigenous resources, the food crisis had been overcome within ten days.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Coles |first1=Harry Lewis |last2=Weinberg |first2=Albert Katz |title=Civil Affairs: Soldiers Become Governors |series=United States Army in World War II: Special Studies |date=1964 |pages=774–775|publisher=Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army |url=https://history.army.mil/html/books/011/11-3/CMH_Pub_11-3.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120927090815/http://www.history.army.mil/html/books/011/11-3/CMH_Pub_11-3.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=27 September 2012 |access-date=22 May 2019}}</ref>