After taking part in the Battle of the Colmar Pocket, the division was moved west and assaulted the German-held Atlantic port of Royan, before recrossing France in April 1945 and participating in the final fighting in southern Germany, even going first into Hitler's "Eagle's Nest" (Americans captured the town below).

[2][3] Other sources give about 2,000, official records of the 2e DB show fewer than 300 Spaniards as many hid their nationality, fearing retaliation against their families in Spain.

The division played a critical role in the battle of the Argentan-Falaise Pocket (12–21 August), the Allied breakout from Normandy, when it served as a link between American and Canadian armies and made rapid progress against German forces.

Allied strategy emphasized destroying German forces retreating towards the river Rhine and considered that attack on Paris would risk destroying it, but when the French Resistance under Henri Rol-Tanguy staged an uprising in the city from 19 August, Charles de Gaulle threatened to send the division into Paris, single-handedly, to prevent the uprising being crushed as was then happening in Warsaw.

This party, commanded by Captain Raymond Dronne, consisted of the 9th company (La Nueve)[note 1] of the 3rd Battalion of the Régiment de marche du Tchad.

After hard fighting that cost the 2nd Division 35 tanks, 6 self-propelled guns, and 111 vehicles, von Choltitz, the German military governor of Paris, capitulated at the Hôtel Meurice.

The following day, 26 August, a great victory parade took place on the Champs Élysées, which was lined with a jubilant crowd acclaiming General de Gaulle and the liberators of Paris.

Fighting in Alsace until the end of February 1945, the 2nd Division was later deployed to reduce the Royan Pocket on the western coast of France in March–April 1945.

After forcing the Germans in the Royan Pocket to surrender on 18 April 1945, the 2nd Division crossed France again to rejoin the Allied 6th Army Group for final operations in Germany.