[citation needed] It was also estimated that in the event of a siege, 4,000 short tons (3,600 t) of food per day, as well as significant amounts of building materials, manpower and engineering skill, would be required to feed the population after the liberation of Paris.

He threatened to detach the French 2nd Armored Division (2e DB) and to order it to single-handedly attack the German forces in Paris, bypassing the SHAEF chain of command in so doing, if Eisenhower delayed approval unduly.

[8] On 17 August, concerned that the Germans were placing explosives at strategic points around the city, Pierre Taittinger, the chairman of the municipal council, met Dietrich von Choltitz, the military governor of Paris.

[10] All over France, since the end of the battle of Normandy, the population had been hearing news of the Allies' advance toward Paris from the BBC and French public broadcaster Radiodiffusion nationale (RN).

On 4 April 1944, four months before the liberation of Paris, the Provisional Government of the French Republic had begun operating its own RN from Algeria.

[11] On 19 August, continuing their retreat eastwards, columns of German vehicles moved down the Avenue des Champs Élysées.

The same day, the Germans detonated a barge filled with mines in the northeastern suburb of Pantin, setting fired to mills that supplied Paris with flour.

Trucks were positioned, trees cut down and trenches were dug in the pavement to free paving stones for consolidating the barricades.

[14] The 9th Company broke into the center of Paris by the Porte d'Italie and reached the Hôtel de Ville at 9:22 p.m.[15] Upon entering the town hall square, the half-track "Ebro" fired the first rounds at a large group of German fusiliers and machine guns.

[17] In the afternoon the British 30 Assault Unit had entered the Porte d'Orléans and then searched buildings for vital intelligence, later capturing the former Headquarters of Admiral Karl Dönitz, the Château de la Muette.

[18] While awaiting the final capitulation, the 9th Company assaulted the Chamber of Deputies, the Hôtel Majestic and the Place de la Concorde.

With the battle nearing its end, resistance groups brought Allied airmen and other troops hidden in suburban towns, such as Montlhéry, into central Paris.

Despite repeated orders from Hitler that the French capital "must not fall into the enemy's hand except lying in complete debris", which was to be accomplished by bombing it and blowing up its bridges,[19] Choltitz, as commander of the German garrison and military governor of Paris, surrendered at 3:30 p.m. at the Hôtel Meurice.

His speech proclaimed that Paris had liberated itself with help from French forces, notably downplaying the part that Barton's 4th Infantry played in the battle, and also dismissed Vichy as a false France.

Long live France!The day after de Gaulle's speech, he marched down the Champs-Élysées as Leclerc's French 2nd Armored Division paraded behind.

It is estimated that up to two million people viewed this parade and reported that such a crowd and the scenes it created on the Champs-Élysées were not seen there again until France won the FIFA World Cup for the first time as hosts in 1998.

Joyous crowds greeted the Americans as the entire division, men and vehicles, marched through Paris "on its way to assigned attack positions northeast of the French capital.

The French rail network had largely been destroyed by Allied bombing and so getting food in had become a problem, especially since the Germans had stripped Paris of its resources for themselves.

A British food convoy labelled 'Vivres Pour Paris' entered on 29 August, US supplies were flown in via Orléans Airport before they were sent in.

"), first published in 1950,[30] Choltitz describes himself as the saviour of Paris, but some historians opine that it was more the case that he had lost control of the city and had no means to carry out Hitler's orders.

That replaced the fallen Vichy regime (1940–1944)[31] and united the politically-divided French Resistance by drawing Gaullists, nationalists, communists and anarchists into a new "national unanimity" government.

[citation needed] He wanted France to be among "the victors", a belief that it had escaped the fate of being administered and having a new constitution imposed by the AMGOT threat like those that would be established in Germany and Japan in 1945.

Large portions of the country were still occupied after the successful Operation Dragoon in southern France, which extended into the south-western region of the Vosges Mountains from 15 August to 14 September.

Women accused of "horizontal collaboration" because of alleged sexual relationships with Germans were arrested and had their heads shaved, were publicly exhibited and were sometimes allowed to be mauled by mobs.

On 20 August, under German military escort, Marshal Philippe Pétain was forcibly moved to Belfort and then to the Sigmaringen enclave in Germany on 7 September; there, 1,000 of his followers (including Louis-Ferdinand Céline) joined him.

As a sign of protest over his forced move, Pétain refused to take office, and was eventually replaced by Fernand de Brinon.

The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, herself descendant of Spanish Republican veterans, emphasized during the inauguration of a fresco that it has taken too long to recognize this chapter of the French history.

Following this occasion, the new president traveled to Berlin to meet German chancellor Angela Merkel, as a symbol of the Franco-German reconciliation.

La Libération de Paris ("The Liberation of Paris"), whose original title was L'Insurrection Nationale inséparable de la Libération Nationale ("The National Insurrection inseparable from the National Liberation"), was a short 30-minute documentary film secretly shot between 16 and 27 August by the French Resistance.

Other countries have issued stamps commemorating the bridge's capture, including Nicaragua, Guyana, Micronesia, and Republic of the Marshall Islands.