The Liberation of Paris, 75 years ago Today – Part 3
24th of August – la Colonne Dronne
The Allied forces of Leclerc’s 2nd Armored Division, nominally French but also incorporating a large number of Spanish troops of the losing anarchist/republican side of the Spanish Civil War, have been fighting for two days without rest through the outskirts and suburbs of Paris. Despite fierce German resistance that will result in a disproportionately large amount of lost materiel for the rest of the battle, they do not break pace and are greeted by more and more French civilians cheering them on as they near Paris.
Free French troops driving an American-made M5 Stuart light tank into the Paris suburbs.
Anxious to both relieve the Resistance in the city, but also to secure the very politically loaded distinction of having French military units be the first to enter it, Leclerc sends the 9th Company of the Regiment de Marche du Tchad forward under Captain Raymond Dronne as a vanguard. This mechanized marine infantry regiment had been formed in 1943 in North Africa, where it had sworn to never lay its arms before the French flag was flying above the cathedral of Strasbourg at the German border. Its 9th company was also called ‘la Nueve’ due to it being majorly composed of the aforementioned Spanish troops that had joined the French army after Franco won the Civil War. The vanguard, like the rest of the French army, is equipped with modern American material including 11 half-tracks, 4 General Motors trucks and 3 M4 Sherman tanks of the 501e Regiment de Chars de Combat, which allow them to clear the rest of the way to Paris by 9pm. At 21:20, Dronne’s vanguard enters Paris through the porte d’Italie and relieves the town hall from the German fusiliers besieging it. Lieutenant Amado Granell is the first uniformed officer of the Allied forces in the city and meets with Georges Bidault, president of the national council of the Resistance, in the town hall while Cpt Dronne goes to the hôtel Meurice to ask for von Choltitz’s surrender. All the while, the German-run Radio Paris is still claiming that the Axis won the battle of Normandy.
25th of August and Aftermath – Outraged, Broken, Martyred, but Liberated.
The following day, the rest of the French 2nd AD enters Paris through the portes d’Orléans and d’Italie, followed shortly by the US 102nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron and 4th Infantry Division under general Barton, and the British 30 Assault Unit in charge of securing intelligence.
The remaining German troops, around 13000 mostly rear-echelon and administration soldiers, quickly crumble and wait to be captured after a French tank column led by FFI motorized reconnaissance units drive up the Rivoli street through the German armor and to the hôtel Meurice, where military governor von Choltitz is finally arrested along with his general staff. He is taken first to the police headquarters, where the liberation had started, to sign a cease-fire, before signing the surrender of all German forces at the Montparnasse train station with general Leclerc of the Free French army and colonel Rol of the FFI.
Although a few scattered SS units refuse the order and continue fighting until the bitter end, along with a few snipers taking revenge potshots into the crowds in the following days, by the 28th the battle of Paris is well and truly over.
Liberating Paris has cost the lives of 130 soldiers of the 2nd AD, 177 Parisian policemen, 532 members of the FFI and 2800 civilians. German casualties amount to roughly 3200 killed, with the remaining 12800 troops in and around Paris surrendering or being captured as the fighting draws to a close.
The Liberation of Paris was a new beginning for France in World War 2. From this historical position of strength, general De Gaulle was able to re-establish the country not as an occupied puppet state but as one of the victors of the war alongside the other Allied powers. Although now fully equipped with American materiel, the New French Army is also rejuvenated by the incorporation of the FFI into its ranks, and would play an integral part in not only the liberation of the rest of the country, but in the invasion of Germany as well, granting France further legitimacy after the war.
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! Well! 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.
–Charles de Gaulle, Hôtel de Ville speech, 25th of August
The Liberation of Paris, 75 years ago Today – Part 3
24th of August – la Colonne Dronne
The Allied forces of Leclerc’s 2nd Armored Division, nominally French but also incorporating a large number of Spanish troops of the losing anarchist/republican side of the Spanish Civil War, have been fighting for two days without rest through the outskirts and suburbs of Paris. Despite fierce German resistance that will result in a disproportionately large amount of lost materiel for the rest of the battle, they do not break pace and are greeted by more and more French civilians cheering them on as they near Paris.
Free French troops driving an American-made M5 Stuart light tank into the Paris suburbs.
Anxious to both relieve the Resistance in the city, but also to secure the very politically loaded distinction of having French military units be the first to enter it, Leclerc sends the 9th Company of the Regiment de Marche du Tchad forward under Captain Raymond Dronne as a vanguard. This mechanized marine infantry regiment had been formed in 1943 in North Africa, where it had sworn to never lay its arms before the French flag was flying above the cathedral of Strasbourg at the German border. Its 9th company was also called ‘la Nueve’ due to it being majorly composed of the aforementioned Spanish troops that had joined the French army after Franco won the Civil War. The vanguard, like the rest of the French army, is equipped with modern American material including 11 half-tracks, 4 General Motors trucks and 3 M4 Sherman tanks of the 501e Regiment de Chars de Combat, which allow them to clear the rest of the way to Paris by 9pm. At 21:20, Dronne’s vanguard enters Paris through the porte d’Italie and relieves the town hall from the German fusiliers besieging it. Lieutenant Amado Granell is the first uniformed officer of the Allied forces in the city and meets with Georges Bidault, president of the national council of the Resistance, in the town hall while Cpt Dronne goes to the hôtel Meurice to ask for von Choltitz’s surrender. All the while, the German-run Radio Paris is still claiming that the Axis won the battle of Normandy.
25th of August and Aftermath – Outraged, Broken, Martyred, but Liberated.
The following day, the rest of the French 2nd AD enters Paris through the portes d’Orléans and d’Italie, followed shortly by the US 102nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron and 4th Infantry Division under general Barton, and the British 30 Assault Unit in charge of securing intelligence.
The remaining German troops, around 13000 mostly rear-echelon and administration soldiers, quickly crumble and wait to be captured after a French tank column led by FFI motorized reconnaissance units drive up the Rivoli street through the German armor and to the hôtel Meurice, where military governor von Choltitz is finally arrested along with his general staff. He is taken first to the police headquarters, where the liberation had started, to sign a cease-fire, before signing the surrender of all German forces at the Montparnasse train station with general Leclerc of the Free French army and colonel Rol of the FFI.
Although a few scattered SS units refuse the order and continue fighting until the bitter end, along with a few snipers taking revenge potshots into the crowds in the following days, by the 28th the battle of Paris is well and truly over.
Liberating Paris has cost the lives of 130 soldiers of the 2nd AD, 177 Parisian policemen, 532 members of the FFI and 2800 civilians. German casualties amount to roughly 3200 killed, with the remaining 12800 troops in and around Paris surrendering or being captured as the fighting draws to a close.
The Liberation of Paris was a new beginning for France in World War 2. From this historical position of strength, general De Gaulle was able to re-establish the country not as an occupied puppet state but as one of the victors of the war alongside the other Allied powers. Although now fully equipped with American materiel, the New French Army is also rejuvenated by the incorporation of the FFI into its ranks, and would play an integral part in not only the liberation of the rest of the country, but in the invasion of Germany as well, granting France further legitimacy after the war.
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! Well! 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.
–Charles de Gaulle, Hôtel de Ville speech, 25th of August
