| Original caption: “Nazi Snipers Scatter Lyons Crowd.” Sniper fight in Lyons. Crouched behind a wall along the Rhone river, Allied soldiers shoot it out with die-hard German snipers and Nazi sympathizers firing from civilian hospital across the river. Fray began when snipers, hidden in building after city fell, opened up on American engineers constructing Bailey Bridge. Nazi German units that survived the gauntlet of fire at Montelimar fell back on Lyons as an assembly point before evacuating – retreating – toward Dijon. The bulk of the Neunzehnte Armee (“Nineteenth Army”) fled north on the Lyon-Dijon Highway while bitter delaying actions were fought by the rear guard. At Dijon, Neunzehnte Armee turned east for Belfort and the Vosage Mountains. Lyons, France’s 3rd-largest urban area, had a civilian population of half a 1,000,000. A center of silk production in Europe, an industrial center, Lyons was a focal point for waterways, railroads and highways that served all of France. The United States Army 36th Infantry Division was directed to advance on Lyons with “utmost speed” but the local Forces Françaises de l’Intérieur (FFI; “French Forces of the Interior”) were determined to liberate Lyons on their own. The Free French representative counseled patience, but the 4,000 troops of the FFI rose up on August 30, 1944, attacking the 7,800 Nazi German rear guards in and about Lyons. The United States Army 142nd Infantry Regiment, 36 Infantry Division reached the hills overlooking Lyons on September 1. A reconnaissance patrol entered the city the net day. Nazi German resistance pockets held out until September 3, blowing the bridges across the Rhône River. The Americans encircled Lyons while the 1st French Infantry Division, Free French Army B, entered Lyons and claimed the liberation formally. | |
| Image Filename | wwii2027.jpg |
| Image Size | 882.49 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2924 x 2230 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | September 6, 1944 |
| Location | |
| City | Lyon |
| State or Province | Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes |
| Country | France |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NLR-PHOCO-A-65638(166) |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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