Parisians line the Champs Élysées for a parade conducted by the French 2nd Armoured Division on 26 August 1944

The Liberation of Paris (Libération de Paris) took place from the 19th August 1944 until the German garrison surrendered the French capital on the 25th August 1944. Paris had been occupied by Nazi Germany since the signing of the Second Compiègne Armistice on 22 June 1940, after which the Wehrmacht occupied Northern and Western France.

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The liberation began when the French Forces of the Interior (FFI, the military structure of the French Resistance) staged an uprising against the German garrison as the US Third Army, led by General George Patton approached.

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On the 20th August, as barricades began to appear, Resistance fighters organized themselves to sustain a siege. Trucks were positioned, trees cut down, and trenches were dug in the pavement to free paving stones for consolidating the barricades. These materials were transported by men, women, and children using wooden carts. Fuel trucks were attacked and captured. Civilian vehicles were commandeered, painted with camouflage, and marked with the FFI emblem. The Resistance used them to transport ammunition and orders from one barricade to another.

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Skirmishes reached their peak on the 22nd August, when some German units tried to leave their fortifications. At 09:00 on the 23rd August the Germans opened fire on the Grand Palais, an FFI stronghold, and German tanks fired at the barricades in the streets. Adolf Hitler gave the order to inflict maximum damage on the city.

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On the night of the 24th August, elements of General Philippe Leclerc's 2nd French Armoured Division made their way into Paris and arrived at the Hôtel de Ville shortly before midnight. The next morning, 25th August, the bulk of the 2nd Armoured Division and the US 4th Infantry Division plus other allied units entered the city. Dietrich von Choltitz, commander of the German garrison and the military governor of Paris, surrendered to the French despite repeated orders from Adolf Hitler that the French capital "must not fall into the enemy's hand except lying in complete debris".

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General Charles de Gaulle of the French Army arrived to assume control of the city as head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic.

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An estimated 800 to 1,000 Resistance fighters were killed during the Battle for Paris,

and another 1,500 were wounded.

Source: Wikipedia

Armoured vehicles of the 2nd Armoured (Leclerc) Division fighting before the Palais Garnier.

German soldiers at the Hôtel Majestic, headquarters for the Militärbefehlshaber in Frankreich (the German High

Military Command in France). They requested that they be made prisoner only by the military.

General Charles de Gaulle and his entourage set off from the Arc de Triumphe down the Champs Elysees

to Notre Dame for a service of thanksgiving following the city's liberation in August 1944.