The Liberation of France

On June 22, 1940, Marshal Pétain signed the armistice with Hitler. The Germans carried out the Occupation of northern France. The external Resistance, led by General de Gaulle from London, and the internal civilian and military Resistance fought against the Vichy regime.

The liberation of most of France in the fall of 1944 was preceded by partial liberations. Allied forces and the Resistance were in action.

Some key dates:

• On November 8, 1942, the British and American allies of General de Gaulle’s “Free France” landed in North Africa, which was then under French administration.
• On October 4, 1943, Corsica became the first territory to liberate itself independently.

In May 1944, the CNR established the Patriotic Militias, which had been created at the initiative of the Communist Resistance. They operated under the authority of the Liberation Committees.

A Jewish patriotic militia is gathering young people from the UJJ (Union of Jewish Youth of the M.O.I.) in Paris.

• On June 6, 1944, the allies of the “Free French” landed in Normandy. Thanks to the FFI resistance fighters, the Germans were contained and driven back.

The Resistance is very active in various regions of the country:

• On June 7 and 8, 1944, in Corrèze, the Limousin resistance fighters occupied the prefecture, Tulle, but the SS retook the town and carried out a massacre: 99 men were hanged from the town’s balconies, and another 200 were deported to Germany, to the Dachau concentration camp.
• On June 10, 1944, the Das Reich Division massacred the 643 residents of Oradour-sur-Glane.
• Starting on August 15, 1944: The Allies of General de Gaulle’s “Free France” landed in Provence. The German army withdrew from a large southwestern quarter of France. Provence would be liberated within two weeks.

• On August 16, 1944, the Limousin resistance fighters liberated Tulle once and for all
• On August 25, 1944, in the Creuse department: the prefecture, Guéret, was liberated.

In Paris, August 19–25, 1944: Colonel Rol-Tanguy, regional commander of the FFI, surrounded by his staff, led the Resistance in Paris from his underground command post at Denfert-Rochereau (14th arrondissement).

In response to a call from the Paris Committee of *Libération*, the unions called for a general strike (railroad workers, factory workers, gendarmes, police officers, etc.). Faced with calls for an uprising, the Nazis executed 35 members of the Resistance and were prepared to destroy the capital.

The popular uprising hastened the liberation of Paris. General Leclerc’s 2nd Armored Division (DB) was the first to enter the liberated city.

• On August 27, Marseille was liberated following the Resistance fighting that began on August 21.
• On September 2–3, 1944, Lyon, Villeurbanne, and Lille were liberated thanks to a large-scale popular uprising.

By the fall of 1944, virtually the entire country had been liberated, and the GPRF (Provisional Government of the French Republic) was in power.