The liberation of Paris told by AFP in 1944: 25 and 26 August

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 are the days of 25 and 26 August told by the AFP journalist Jean Le Quiller.

Paris, August 26, 1944 - Friday, August 25 - This morning, all windows are filled with flags; for several days everyone had been preparing his own; the most ardent sewn conscientiously the 48 American stars; he had a great consumption of blue and red hangings. The result is unimaginable; some neighborhoods, especially those waiting for the first division (General Philippe) Leclerc (head of the 2nd Armored Division known as 2nd DB, ed), are literally drowned under the banners. Avenue de Versailles and Avenue Mozart, a huge crowd is waiting for French tanks. Meanwhile, inside the city, the FFI (French Forces of the Interior, Resistance, ed) watch the buildings where the Germans have entrenched themselves: they can now only go to Leclerc.

Leclerc, indeed, arrives at 9:43, he passed Porte d'Orleans, standing in a Jeep, his famous cane in hand, acclaimed by the crowd. It is he who takes the lead of operations in Paris; it is under his orders that the FFIs continue to fight.

At 11am, the French tanks begin the attack of the Ecole Militaire, and at 11h15 the attack of the Senate, at 1:15 pm the Eiffel Tower is taken.

At 2 pm, Leclerc's tanks arrive at L'Etoile via Avenue Victor Hugo, in the midst of a maddening crowd that cheers the French officers and conspires against the Germans who, prisoners or parliamentarians, are surrounded by soldiers from Leclerc. The headquarters of Majestic and Meurice begin.

At 15:20, the Majestic surrenders. At the Hotel Meurice, Lieutenant (Henri) Karcher (aide-de-camp of General Koenig who commands the FFI, ed) takes prisoner General (Dietrich) von Choltitz who commands the "Gross Paris"; Von Choltitz is taken to General Leclerc's PC, to Montparnasse station and there, at 3.30 pm, he signs the surrender of his troops (precisely, he ratifies the cease-fire orders that concretize the surrender signed just before at the prefecture , note). German officers accompanied by officers of the FFI and Leclerc are sent to various points of resistance to carry the order of Von Choltitz.

Some have already visited, by the way. At 4 pm, the Kommandantur ceases to be the Kommandantur.

The Bourbon Palace goes in turn. Around 17:30, the battle of the Senate is over, the last episode of the Battle of Paris.

In all, 10,000 Germans are taken prisoner. FFIs lost about 1,000 killed.

De Gaulle arrived in Paris in the afternoon; he left around 15h from Rambouillet, was first handed over to PC Leclerc station Montparnasse, the surrender of Von Choltitz, then went to take possession of the Ministry of War where he arrived around 16 hours.

At 19:30, he is at the City Hall where Georges Bidault (President of the National Council of Resistance, ed) welcomes him; he himself pronounces a few words addressed to the crowd, in which this cold man can not hide an extraordinary emotion.

Saturday, August 26 - All Paris is today going to the Etoile where de Gaulle must come to greet the Unknown Soldier, at 15h. It's a crowd like we have not seen since the parade of victory. De Gaulle goes down from Etoile to the Concorde, then goes by car to pass rue de Rivoli, goes to the Hotel de Ville, then to Notre-Dame, where he sings the "Te Deum".

Outside, the shooters of the roofs are shooting everywhere: it's their last big day. In Neuilly, the FFIs take a whole block of houses still occupied by the Germans. But the battle is now spreading to the northeastern suburbs, the Bourget region.

Shortly after 23 hours, air alert: the Germans, who spoke to us so much of the American air gangsters, touch tonight the hospital Bichat and the Halle aux Vins. Derisory manifestation of anger that costs more than 100 French lives.

But soon Paris will become a city in the back, as the front has moved rapidly to the north and east.

On the evening of August 26, the history of Paris takes a new direction.

© 2019 AFP