The division attacked at dawn on August 24. The northern column fought fiercely to gain about 15 miles. By evening, the troops had reached the Pont de Sevres, a wide bridge across the Seine. It was still intact, and a few tanks crossed the river and entered the suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt. Paris proper was less than two miles away at the Porte de St. Cloud. But the troops stayed where they were, as enthusiastic civilians swarmed over them in eager welcome, pressing flowers, kisses and wine on their liberators. The main column in the south advanced about 13 miles with great difficulty. The head of the column was still about five miles from the closest entrance, the Porte d’Orléans; seven miles from the final objective, the Panthéon; and about eight miles from the Ile de la Cité and Notre Dame, the center of the capital.

The supposed expiration of the armistice at noon on the 24th was very much on the minds of the Americans. It was incredible to them that the French were making such little progress. They seemed to be procrastinating. French troops, Bradley later said,’stumbled reluctantly through a Gallic wall as townsfolk…slowed the French advance with wine and celebration.’

To Gerow, Leclerc’s attack seemed halfhearted. Hoping to shame the French into greater effort, Gerow asked Bradley whether he could send the 4th Division into the city. Bradley was angry. How long could Choltitz wait for regular troops before destroying the capital? Bradley said he could not let the French ‘dance their way to Paris.’ He told Gerow, ‘To hell with prestige. Tell the 4th to slam on in and take the liberation.’

Gerow informed Maj. Gen. Raymond O. Barton, the 4th’s commander, and Leclerc that precedence in favor of the French no longer applied. Barton’s 4th Division was to enter the city, too.

On receipt of this information, Leclerc made one more attempt to get his troops into Paris during the night of August 24. It was impossible for him to order the northern column to continue beyond the Sevres bridge because, as the French reported, ‘liaison between the columns for all practical purposes no longer exists.’ This, too, was a mistake or an oversight by Leclerc, an error due to inexperience. So Leclerc, who was with his main effort in the south, sent a detachment of tanks and halftracks forward.

This small force, under Captain Raymond Dronne, rolled along side roads and back streets, crossed the Seine by the Pont d’Austerlitz, drove along the quays on the right bank and reached the Hôtel de Ville just before midnight, August 24.

The bells of nearby Notre Dame began to ring joyously. Another church took up the refrain and then another. Soon all the churches in Paris were ringing their bells in celebration. A cascade of sound washed over the city.

Not many Parisians had gone to sleep that night. The telephones had been working, and everyone knew that soldiers were in the suburbs. The bells of the churches could mean only one thing: The liberators had arrived.

On the following morning, the official day of liberation, an enormous crowd of joyous Parisians welcomed the arrival of the 2nd French Armored Division, which swept the western part of Paris, including the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Elysées, while the Americans cleared the eastern part. The Germans had melted away during the previous night. Two thousand of them remained in the Bois de Boulogne, and 700 more were in the Luxembourg Gardens. But most had fled or simply awaited capture.

Early in the afternoon of August 25, under the arcades of the Rue de Rivoli, a young French officer sprang into the Hôtel Meurice. He burst into Choltitz’s room. In his excitement, he shouted, ‘Do you speak German?’

Choltitz replied coolly, ‘Probably better than you.’ He then allowed himself to be taken prisoner.

In the presence of Leclerc and the commander of the French Resistance in Paris, Choltitz signed a formal act of capitulation. He surrendered, not to the Supreme Allied Command but rather to representatives of the provisional government of France. Teams of French and German officers circulated copies of the document to the scattered groups of Germans still in the city.

As for the political situation, de Gaulle’s supporters proved to be more astute and better disciplined than their opponents. Taking advantage of the insurrection that began on August 19, they had seized and occupied many of the government buildings and secured the reins of political control.

On the day following the liberation, de Gaulle wrote Eisenhower and thanked him for letting Leclerc liberate Paris. That afternoon, with cheering crowds present, de Gaulle, Koenig and Leclerc paraded from the Etoile, now named the Place de Général de Gaulle, down the Champs Elysées to the Place de la Concorde. Some scattered gunfire came from the rooftops. Nobody knows who fired. Then de Gaulle proceeded to the Cathedral of Notre Dame, where a packed church took part in a mass of celebration and thanks.

When Hitler learned that Allied troops were entering Paris, he asked whether it was burning. Enraged by the negative response, he ordered artillery, V weapons and planes to destroy the city. His military commanders, however, were busy trying to come to grips with the collapsing military situation in France and making preparations to keep the Allies from entering Germany.

To make it clear that Paris had been liberated through the strength of Allied arms, Eisenhower planned to march the 28th Infantry Division through Paris to the front. On August 29, the division made its way through the city. Eisenhower, Bradley, Gerow, de Gaulle, Koenig and Leclerc reviewed the parade from an improvised platform, an upside-down Bailey bridge. Eisenhower had invited Montgomery to attend, but the British general said he was too busy to come.

Leclerc had, by that time, learned how to work more harmoniously with the Americans. He rejoined Haislip’s XV Corps in eastern France and gained great respect from American commanders with whom he worked during subsequent joint operations. After the war, he was promoted to field marshal.

Gerow, the senior military commander in Paris, sought to exercise control in the city, but Koenig and Leclerc blocked him constantly. Koenig, as military governor of Paris, took hold of civil affairs without even bothering to check with Gerow as a matter of courtesy. Three days after Paris’ liberation, when Gerow formally turned the city over to Koenig, the Frenchman flatly stated, ‘The French authorities alone have handled the administration of the city of Paris since its liberation.’

The restoration of French dignity was implicit in the liberation of Paris. If the Americans spoiled it somewhat by forcing the French to share it with their troops, they regarded the prestige as small repayment for the soldiers killed between the beaches of Normandy and the gates of the capital. The Americans were astonished when the gratitude they expected for their assistance became instead resentment and insubordination. Eisenhower, as usual, understood. He was charitable. ‘We shouldn’t blame them,’ he later wrote, ‘for being a bit hysterical.’

The British, whether by accident or design, refrained from participating. Perhaps they regarded the occasion as primarily a French matter. More likely, they were aware of an undercurrent of anti-British feeling among the French.

The complications, misunderstandings and cross-purposes at work threatened to spoil the wonderful joy and delight of the liberation. It was perhaps better to say nothing of the intrigue behind the scenes. Certainly it was simpler to believe the legend that emerged immediately afterward: The Resistance in Paris liberated the capital without outside help.

But this has changed over the years. As the French commemorated and celebrated the arrival of Allied forces at the Normandy beaches on D-Day, as they became aware of the Allied role in liberating France, they came to acknowledge and to understand the American presence in the liberation of their capital. Only good friends, they have now decided, could share that privilege, that romantic happening, that splendid moment. It was all right for the Americans to be there.

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This article was written by Martin Blumenson and originally appeared in the September 2000 issue of World War II magazine. For more great articles subscribe to World War II magazine today!

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