The liberation of Paris was a military 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.
Parisians line the Champs Élysées for a parade conducted by the French 2nd Armored Division on 26 August 1944.
A truck painted with the marks of the FFI and the V for Victory
25 August – Armoured vehicles of the 2nd Armored (Leclerc) Division fighting before the Palais Garnier. One German tank is going up in flames.
German soldiers at the Hôtel Majestic, headquarters for the Militärbefehlshaber in Frankreich, the German High Military Command in France. They requested that to made prisoner only by the military and surrendered to Battalion Chief Jacques Massu of the 2e DB.
French Forces of the Interior
The French Forces of the Interior were French resistance fighters in the later stages of World War II. Charles de Gaulle used it as a formal name for the resistance fighters. The change in designation of these groups to FFI occurred as France's status changed from that of an occupied nation to one of a nation being liberated by the Allied armies. As regions of France were liberated, the FFI were more formally organized into light infantry units and served as a valuable manpower addition to regular Free French forces. In this role, the FFI units manned less active areas of the front lines, allowing regular French army units to practice economy of force measures and mass their troops in decisive areas of the front. Finally, from October 1944 and with the greater part of France liberated, the FFI units were amalgamated into the French regular forces continuing the fight on the Western Front, thus ending the era of the French irregulars in World War II.
The Cross of Lorraine on the flag of the 2nd company, 1st battalion, FFI Finistere. It was founded by a group of French Scouts who joined the French Resistance in June 1940. The group carried out intelligence missions and the repatriations of allied airmen. In February 1944 it became part of the FFI and participated in the liberation of Quimper on August 8, 1944.
Members of the French resistance in Boulogne, September 1944.
FFI and Vercors Republic marked captured truck during the battle for Paris (1944), on exhibition during the 60th anniversary celebrations of the liberation.
Member of the FFI in Châteaudun with a Bren gun.