Deseret News archives: De Gaulle led victory march through Paris in 1944

A look back at local, national and world events through Deseret News archives.

When the battle rages in your own community, your emotions are oh so close to the surface.

Paris in the summer of 1944 was the site of intense fighting and high drama. So on Aug. 26, 1944, when French Gen. Charles de Gaulle braved the threat of German snipers as he led a victory march in Paris, which had just been liberated by the Allies from Nazi occupation, the party was on.

And blow-by-blow accounts were provided by newspapers in the U.S., including the Deseret News.

German forces were occupying Paris, while resistance fighters worked to keep the hope of freedom from takeover alive. As rumors that Germans were preparing to disarm local police grew, the uprisings began in earnest. On Aug. 19, resistants seize police headquarters near Notre Dame Cathedral, build barricades throughout Paris. German tanks threatened to crush the uprising but a cease-fire reached.

It looked like some French leaders were prepared to enter into a truce with the Germans, but de Gaulle would not be denied. On Aug. 22, Allied Supreme Commander Dwight Eisenhower, responding to de Gaulle’s threat to go it alone with French forces, agreed to the Allied assault on Paris.

On Aug. 24, Americans covered French forces, who were given the honor of liberating Paris. When the French got bogged down by German resistance, some U.S. forces were ordered to Paris.

On Aug. 25, the French and Americans battled their way into Paris, forcing a German surrender.

Th next day, de Gaulle led a procession down Champs-Elysees to Notre Dame despite worry over sniper fire.

De Gaulle, who died in 1970, transitioned to statesman in the ensuing years, chairing the Provisional Government of the French Republic until 1946. He returned as prime minister in 1958, and was later elected president of France until he resigned in 1969.

As an interesting side note, there were reports through the years that writer Ernest Hemingway, then a war correspondent, on the day Allied troops marched into Paris, made straight for one of its most luxurious hotels and “liberated” the Ritz bar.

Per reports, Hemingway was covering the war with General George Patton’s 3rd Army for the American magazine Collier’s.

De Gaulle’s famous speech

On June 18, 1940 — one day after British Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered his “Their Finest Hour” speech over radio airwaves — de Gaulle himself broadcast to German occupied France, and rallied the French Resistance to him in London. With threat of an armistice with Germany imminent, de Gaulle refused to accept that the fight for his country was over; “Quoi qu’il arrive, la flamme de la résistance française ne doit pas s’éteindre et ne s’éteindra pas,” he said, or “Whatever happens, the flame of the French resistance must not and will not be extinguished!”

But the BBC didn’t record the speech. And few heard his famous line.

So, the furious de Gaulle repeated his message in a speech that was heard much more widely on June 22. This time it was recorded. De Gaulle was recognized by Churchill as “the leader of all Free Frenchmen, wherever they may be” and made many more broadcasts to France.

Here are some stories from Deseret News archives about those moments in history, and how French resistance fighters and French collaborators were remembered and treated:

“ A lucky drive through WWII France ”

“ Liberation of Paris ”

“ Paris recalls its recovery of honor ”

“ Paris awes liberators withy riotous party and a few potshots”

“ Opinion: When D-Day veterans are gone, will we remember? ”

“ This week in history: De Gaulle returns to power ”

“ Chronology of liberation Aug. 15″

“ End of occupation brought woe to French collaborators”