Paris (AFP)

On August 26, 1944, Paris just released, AFP broadcasts a timeline of eleven days before the capitulation of the Germans, after four years of occupation of the capital.

Here is the day of August 24 told by the journalist of AFP Jean Le Quiller.

Paris, August 26, 1944 -

Thursday, August 24th - It rains this morning, large empty avenues where from time to time dive a car FFI (French Forces of the Interior, Resistance, ed) or a German tank; passers-by who rush into a subway lane or under a porch; at noon, Radio-London, on a program bound for Austria, announces "Paris is frei", "Paris is free", with a Marseillaise; we look at each other a little surprised all the same.

After all, it's quite true, but it's still a very fragile freedom, which one does not dare to trust too much.

Because the Germans are still there: all day long, the shooting continued near the Gare de l'Est and along the Ourcq canal. In Ménilmontant, the FFIs blocked a train under the Buttes Chaumont tunnel and waited for the Germans at both exits; they made more than 100 prisoners.

Five hundred Germans are at Vincennes; they send tanks advancing towards Paris, with civilians tied in front, which they will use the next day at Fontenay. Similarly Avenue Jean Jaurès, 15 German trucks, to force the dams, are preceded by young French rescuers. The "correction" of these gentlemen really has limits.

They risk themselves less and less in the city, and entrench themselves in certain well-defined buildings; these are the Hotel Meurice, the Kommandantur of the Place de l'Opera, the Ministry of the Navy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Bourbon Palace, the Senate, the barracks of the Place de la Republique, the Hotel Majestic and the Military School; this is where the FFI and soldiers of (General Philippe) Leclerc come to besiege them.

Already, this August 24, from 15 to 19h, the FFI led a seat in good standing of the Ecole Militaire; the Germans here do not put their noses outside.

The FFI General Staff is concerned to improve the protection of the troops; a conference is held between engineers of Bridges and Roads and workers of the Construction Syndicate to make barricades on an industrial level: this is how 3 model barricades are built boulevard Masséna, avenue de Choisy and avenue d'Italie.

The arrests of the collaborators multiply: one announces that of the president (of the State court under Occupation Paul) Motto, which pronounced the death sentence of several French for political offense, that of vice-admiral Boussignac, that of the too much famous Stéphane Lauzanne (editor-in-chief, editor's note) who, for years, at the "Morning" made the game of Hitler, that of Charles Morice, director of the French Office of Information (OFI, press agency controlled by the Vichy government, ed) and many others.

In the evening, at 9 pm, all non-combatant Parisians are listening to their radio: electricity, so parsimoniously distributed for some time, is tonight lavished by a benevolent administration. Georges Bidault (President of the National Council of the Resistance, ed) pronounces a speech interspersed with the fire of machine guns: it is that the record was recorded in the district of the Republic, where the battle rages since 19.

The question everyone asks: "Where are the Allies?" will soon find his answer.

During all the days preceding August 24, Paris followed the advance of Leclerc and the Americans to the south and west of the city; Chartres and Rambouillet had certainly been liberated; but, afterwards, the sure news was lacking: they were willing to believe, however, those who assured you that they were at Corbeil, at Juvisy, at Limours, at Arpajon itself.

But, on the afternoon of the 24th, the news became more precise: at 3 pm the Leclerc division was reported between Antony and the Croix de Berny. At 3:45 pm, the Americans were at Petit Massy; at 17:25, the Allies were 1 km from Bagneux; at 5.30 pm, the first American car comes to the Bagneux town hall; she is occupied by Lieutenant Milton; at 19:45, the Americans are in Châtillon, and Leclerc in Issy les Moulineaux; in the evening, the Leclerc division, the famous 2nd DB is at the door of Italy.

All this, Paris knows more or less: some are well informed through the phone: everyone is looking for relations on the side of the door of Orleans or the Porte de Versailles.

But it is only in the evening around 21:45 that the news, the big news reaches all Paris: at 21:28, the first French tank, the "Romilly", arrived in front of the City Hall. Everywhere, it is an indescribable emotion: buildings sing "La Marseillaise", whole streets applaud in the night; the radios will work continuously until the dawn; it is the most extraordinary emission that we heard on French airwaves: Bidault speech, calls for the mayor of the XIth, which, attacked by the Germans, would be short of ammunition, military music, asks the priests to ring their bells. The fact is that this concert of bells fills the air, all of a sudden, around 22 hours, tearing you away from tears. Some elements of the Leclerc division who reached the Sèvres bridge made it known by radio to their comrades at the Porte d'Orléans. Now, of course, they are there.

Paris does not sleep that night.

© 2019 AFP