| French Army General Charles de Gaulle (November 22, 1890 – November 9, 1970) leads a victory parade down the Champs-Élysées in Paris after entering the city despite Allied directives to the Deuxième division blindée (“French Second Armored Division”) to detour around to pursue the retreating Nazi German 7th Army. Division commander Philippe François Marie Leclerc de Hauteclocque(November 22, 1902 – November 28, 1947) ignored those orders and entered Paris as soon as he could. De Gaulle arrived on August 25. Through the night, printing presses ran notices that De Gaulle would march through the city the next morning and the word was spread on radio as well. He hoped for a 1,000,000 people. The risk was incalculable; Nazi snipers were still present, and Communist infiltrators did not want De Gaulle to take power. The possibility of a Luftwaffe air raid killing thousands was not out of the question. But De Gaulle felt he had to march through Paris to restore French honor. The Deuxième division blindée would demonstrate the French Army’s power and provide security and protection from both the hidden Germans and the communist milice (resistance.) The metro was not yet restored, so the expected multitudes walked to see De Gaulle. Knowing that he had to show unity, De Gaulle was already thinking of a coalition government that would include Communists. Behind de Gaulle were lined up, row by row, the leading figures of Fighting France and the Resistance — Chef dÉtat-Major de la Défense Nationale (“Chief of Staff of National Defense”) General Alphonse Juin (December 16, 1888 – January 27, 1967), military governor of Paris General Marie-Pierre Koenig (October 10, 1898 – September 2, 1970), and resistance Brigadier General Jacques Chaban-Delmas (March 7, 1915 – November 10, 2000) who took art in the Paris uprising; Georges Bidault (October 5, 1899 – January 27, 1983) of the Conseil National de la Résistance (CNR, “National Council of the Resistance”), Alexandre Parodi (June 1, 1901 – March 15, 1979) of the Comité Français de Libération Nationale (CFLN, “French Committee of National Liberation”) the provisional government De Gaulle established; Forces navales françaises libres Admiral Georges Thierry d’Argenlieu (August 7, 1889 – September 7, 1964), and many others who had played a critical part in the events that had shaped this day. The Communist leaders, Francs-Tireurs et Partisans (FTP) Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy (June 12, 1908 – September 8, 2002) and Parti communiste français member Maurice Kriegel-Valrimont (May 14, 1914 – August 2, 2006), marched with General Juin, whose discomfort betrayed his uncertainty at having to walk beside these non-uniformed soldiers. At 1518 Hours, the procession began with 4 tanks in the lead. It was not merely a wave that rolled down the Champs-Élysées, but “rather the sea!” De Gaulle led it all the way, the soldiers of the Deuxième division blindée marching proudly in his wake. Once, when Georges Bidault breasted him, de Gaulle calmly told him, “Monsieur, step back please.” De Gaulle would remember this march for its “inexpressible exultation of the crowd.” A “storm of voices” echoed his name, and as he advanced, “raising and lowering my arms to reply to the acclamations,” de Gaulle tried to look every person in the eye. He was used to setting impossible tasks for himself! He thought perhaps 2,000,000 people were along the route, “clinging to ladders, flagpoles, lampposts…nothing but this living tide of humanity in the sunshine, beneath the Tricolor…But that afternoon, I believed in the fortune of France.” | |
| Image Filename | wwii0407.jpg |
| Image Size | 738.72 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2932 x 2166 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | August 25, 1944 |
| Location | |
| City | Paris |
| State or Province | Île-de-France |
| Country | France |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NLR-PHOCO-A-65638(13) |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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