| Original caption: “General Charles de Gaulle, President of the French Committee of National Liberation, speaks to the people of Cherbourg from the balcony of the City Hall during his visit to the French port city.” United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945), Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) commander United States Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) and Free French General Charles de Gaulle (November 22, 1890 – November 9, 1970) head of the Gouvernement Provisoire de la République Française (GPRF – Provisional Government of the French Republic), were surprised by the quick reactions among Parisians to the approaching Allied forces during Operation Cobra, 3rd Army’s breakout of Normandy. On August 12, 1944, the French railway workers struck, shutting down the city’s Métropolitain. The Police struck August 15; on August 18, the Postal Service also went on strike; the Communist newspaper L’Humanité called for a popular uprising. 3,000 plainclothed, armed gendarmes seized the Préfecture de Police and raised the French Tricolor. De Gaulle was both excited and alarmed. Perhaps the Communists were attempting to take control of Paris? He must get there immediately. On August 14, before the strikes began, de Gaulle requested permission from United Kingdom Royal Army General Henry M. “Jumbo” Wilson September 5, 1881 – December 31, 1964), General Officer Commanding, Allied Force Headquarters, Mediterranean Theater, that he wished to return to France; here de Gaulle followed Allied protocol. Willson, having no objection, forwarded the request to Eisenhower, who forwarded the request to the Combined Chiefs of Staff with no objection. Eisenhower thought de Gaulle wanted to be present at the liberation of Paris. Eisenhower asked whether de Gaulle’s “rather premature arrival will in any way embarrass the British or American governments.” The Combined Chiefs forwarded the request, with Eisenhower’s note, to the War Department. Assistant Secretary of War John J. McCloy (March 31, 1895 – March 11, 1989) approved the trip. Churchill’s administration wanted de Gaulle in France; they too worried about a Communist insurrection in Paris. Eisenhower sent a United States Army Air Force (USAAF) Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress for de Gaulle to Algiers, but he preferred his own L’Armee de l’Air Lockheed C-60A-5-LO Lodestar, named “France.” Free French General Alphonse Juin (December 16, 1888 – January 27, 1967), Chef dÉtat-Major de la Défense Nationale (“Chief of Staff of National Defense”) and other officers followed de Gaulle in the USAAF’s B-17. After a refueling stop in Casablanca turned into an overnight stay due to engine trouble with the B-17, and then more mechanical problems developed on Gibraltar, de Gaulle was advised to wait for repairs. Perhaps cognizant of the death of Polish General Władysław Sikorski May 20, 1881 – July 4, 1943) when his plane took off from Gibraltar, which was never conclusively determined to be an accident, de Gaulle refused, and left the B-17 behind to travel on alone. The Lodestar’s pilot, Colonel Lionel de Marmier (December 4, 1897 – December 30, 1944) approaching Normandy at night in a fog, overflew the coast and arrived over England. Uncertain of his bearings, he asked for permission to land. “Non,” replied de Gaulle, peering at a road map on his lap as he tried to identify a familiar landmark. With the plane’s gas tanks nearly empty, de Gaulle sighted the landing strip at Maupertuis, south of Cherbourg. “La-bas [over there],” he signalled, pointing to the ground. The Lodestar’s engines coughed out their last ounces of fuel as the plane thudded to a landing. Safely on the ground, de Gaulle received an ominous report from General Marie-Pierre Koenig (October 10, 1898 – September 2, 1970), de Gaulle’s commander of the Forces françaises de l’Intérieur (FFI – “French Forces of the Interior”). “There has been an uprising in Paris. We need to move quickly.” De Gaulle drove to Cherbourg to meet with Eisenhower at 1000 Hours on August 20, 1944. De Gaulle congratulated him on “the astonishing speed of the Allied forces’ success,” and Eisenhower explained the status of the Allied advance. De Gaulle expressed major concern over bypassing Paris. “I don’t see why you cross the Seine at Melun, at Mantes, at Rouen—in short, everywhere—and yet at Paris and Paris alone you do not…. If any location except the capital of France were in question, my advice would not commit you to any action, for normally the conduct of operations must proceed from you. But the fate of Paris is of fundamental concern to the French government. Which is why I find myself obliged to intervene and to ask you to send French troops there. The Deuxième Division Blindée Française (“French Second Armored Division”) is the obvious choice.” The fear was not only that the Communists would take control of Paris, but that Vichy collaborationist Prime Minister Pierre Laval (June 28, 1883 – October 15, 1945) would surrender Paris to the Allies in an arrangement that would leave Vichy in charge. Juin, now arrived, was hearing about such a deal from his contacts in SHAEF. Level would convene the 1st National Assembly since 1940, and direct military rule would be made through Vichy officials. OSS in Switzerland was already in touch with Laval, but historians doubt de Gaulle’s account. Eisenhower didn’t provide an exact date, but promised that the Deuxième Division Blindée Française would march on Paris shortly. De Gaulle sent General Koenig to Eisenhower’s Headquarters to confer on how to manage Paris after liberation; it would be short of everything – medicine, food, fuel – and de Gaulle made it clear he expected the Allies to supply the Parisians. That afternoon, speaking from the balcony of the Hôtel de Ville, Cherbourg City Hall, to a crowd of 7,000, de Gaulle said, “We shall rebuild Cherbourg so that it is greater and more beautiful than it was before, and in the same way we shall rebuild France.” The crowd cheered and sang the Marseillaise. A month earlier, on July 14, Bastille Day, The Cherbourg City Council changed the name of the Town Square from Place Marshal Philippe Pétain (April 24, 1856 – July 23, 1951), the Vichy Head of State, to Place General de Gaulle. Adjutant Mayor of Cherbourg Eugene Simon (1873 – ????) said, “If we had to break the law for Petain we can break it again for General de Gaulle.” De Marmier was killed on December 30, 1944, when his C-60 Lodestar crashed in the Mediterranean due to unknown causes flying from Algiers to Toulouse. All 12 aboard were killed. His decomposing body was found by the United States Navy on April 4, 1945, off Sicily, and buried at sea after a Catholic ceremony by the ship’s chaplain. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0435.jpg |
| Image Size | 785.50 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2886 x 2796 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | United States Army Signal Corps |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | August 20, 1944 |
| Location | |
| City | Cherbourg |
| State or Province | Normandy |
| Country | France |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NWDNS-208-MFI-5H(1) |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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