Note on the process & acknowledgements
This project originally began in June 2022 like a good pirate story – with a map. The idea was to put together a quick, short map-based history of the campaign and battle, in time for the 78th anniversary of the liberation of Paris – on 25 August 2022.
I missed that deadline by a mile when it became apparent that maps alone could not tell this story. The project was eventually completed on 1 May 2023. By this time, as can be seen in the previous pages, this project comprised 12 maps, 14 infographics, three pieces of art, and a 50,000-word manuscript. This project was also originally intended to serve as the final chapter of a book I am working on which examines the Normandy campaign through copious mapping and graphics. The liberation of Paris is primarily the stuff of Franco literature. I hope my work will help increase exposure of this quintessential French history within the English-speaking world.
I would like to thank Laurent Fournier, co-author of the important two-volume work, 2e DB Dans La Liberation de Paris, for his valuable inputs and information, and Dr Ellen Hampton, author of Women of Valor, for her assistance and information on the Rochambelles. I would also like to thank the members of the forum, https://2db.forumactif.com/, for their work.
Bibliography
Books
Aron, Robert, France Reborn: The History of the Liberation, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1964.
Alexander, Paul, Salinger, Picador, 2013.
Atkinson, Guns at Last Light: The War in the Western Theater 1944-1945, Henry Holt & Company, 2013
Bardoux, Jacques, La Délivrance de Paris, Hérissey, 1958.
Bergot, Erwan, La 2eme DB, Édition du Club France Loisirs, 1980.
Boissieu, Alain de, Pour Combattre avec de Gaulle (1940–1945), Plon, 1981.
Botting, Douglas and Ian Sayer, America’s Secret Army, Grafton Books, 1989.
Bradley, Omar Nelson, A Soldier’s Story, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1951.
Baker, Carlos. Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1969.
Boverat, Maurice, Du cotentin à Colmar avec les chars de Leclerc, Editions berger levrault, 1947.
Burton, Richard D E, Blood in the City: Violence and Revolution in Paris, 1789–1945, Cornell University Press, 2001.
Buton, Phillipe, La France et les Français de la Libération, Musée des deux Guerres Mondiales, 1984.
Blumenson, Martin, Breakout and Pursuit, Center of Military History, 1993.
Blumenson, Martin, Liberation, Time-Life Books, 1978.
Blumenson, Martin, The Patton Papers 1940-1945, Da Capo Press, 1974.
Cabell, Craig, History of 30 Assault Unit, Pen & Sword, 2009.
Camus, Albert, Actuelles: Chroniques, 1944–1948, Gallimard, 1950.
Choltitz, Dietrich von, Brennt Paris? Adolf Hitler, R D Fischer Verlag, 2014.
Coles, Harry L & Albert K Weinberg, Civil Affairs: Soldiers Become Governors, Center of Military History, 1986.
Collins, Larry & Dominique Lapierre, Is Paris Burning?, Renaissance Literary & Talent, 2012.
Cobb, Mathew, Eleven Days in August: The Liberation of Paris 1944, Simon & Schuster, 2013.
Crénesse, Pierre, La libération des ondes, Éditions Berger-Levrault, 1944.
Dansette, Adrien, Histoire de la Libération de Paris, Fayard 1946.
De Gaulle, Charles, Mémoires de Guerre, Vol 2, L’unité 1942-1944, Librairie Pion, 1956.
Delarue, Jacques, The Gestapo: A History of Horror, Frontline Books, 2008.
Dronne, Raymond, A Spanish Company in the Battle for France and Germany, Christie Books, 2014.
Eisenhower, Dwight D, Crusade in Europe: A Personal Account of World War II, Vintage Books, 2021.
Féron, Yvonne, Délivrance de Paris, Librairie Hachette, 1945.
Fournier, Laurent & Alain Eymard, 2e DB dans la Libération de Paris, Vol. 1, Histoire & Collections, 2010.
Fournier, Laurent & Alain Eymard, 2e DB dans la Libération de Paris, Vol. 2, Histoire & Collections, 2010.
Hampton, Ellen, Women of Valor: The Rochambelles on the World War II Front, McFarland & Company Inc, 2021.
Horne, Alistair, Seven Ages of Paris, Vintage, 2004.
Hynes, Samuel (ed), Reporting World War II, Part 2, American journalism 1944-1946, Library of America, 1995.
Kaiser, Hilary, French War Brides in America, Praeger, 2008.
Lacouture, Jean, De Gaulle: The Rebel 1890–1944, WW Norton, 1990.
Lankford, Nelson, OSS Against the Reich: The World War II Diaries of Colonel David K. E. Bruce, Kent State University Press, 1991.
Lévi-Valensi, Jacqueline (ed.), Camus at Combat: Writing 1944–1947, Princeton University Press, 2006.
Levisse-Touzé, Christine, Paris Libéré, Paris Retrouvé, Découvertes Gallimard, 2003.
Longden, Sean, T-Force: The Race for Nazi War Secrets, Constable & Robinson, 2009.
Ludewig, Joachim, Ruckzug: The German Retreat from France, University of Kentucky Press, 2011.
Mallett, Derek R, Hitler’s Generals in America, University Press of Kentucky, 2013
Maule, Henry, Out of the Sand, Odhams 1964.
Mesquida, Evelyn, La Nueve, 24 August 1944: The Spanish Republicans who Liberated Paris, Editions Gallimard, 2002.
Mitcham Jr, Samuel W, German Order of Battle Vol 1, 1st–290th Infantry Divisions in World War II, Stackpole, 2007.
Moore, William Mortimer, Free France’s Lion: The Life of Philippe Leclerc, De Gaulle’s Greatest General, Casemate, 2011.
Moore, William Mortimer, Paris ‘44: The City of Light Redeemed, Casemate, 2015.
Neiberg, Michael, The Blood of Free Men: The Liberation of Paris, 1944, Basic Books, 2012.
Neitzel, Sönke (ed), Tapping Hitler’s Generals: Transcripts of Secret Conversations 1942–45, Frontline Books, 2013.
Notin, Jean-Christophe. Leclerc, Perrin, 2005.
O’Brian, Patrick, Pablo Ruiz Picasso: A Biography, Harvill, 1994.
Pyle, Ernie, Brave Men, Michael O’Mara Books, 2016.
Raguneau, Philippe and Eddy Florentin (eds.), Paris Libéré: Ils Étaient Là!, France-Empire, 1994.
Rankin, Nicholas, Ian Fleming’s Commandos: The Story of 30 Assault Unit in WWII, Faber & Faber, 2011.
Ritgen, Helmut, The Western Front 1944, Memoirs of a Panzer Lehr Officer, J J Fedorowicz, 1995.
Shields, David & Shane Salerno, Salinger, Simon & Schuster, 2013.
Smith, Jean Edward, The Liberation of Paris: How Eisenhower, de Gaulle and von Choltitz Saves the City of Light, Simon & Schuster, 2019
Tucker-Jones, Anthony, Falaise: The Flawed Victory, Pen & Sword, 2008.
Vigneras, Marcel, Rearming the French, Center of Military History, 1989.
The New York Times: Complete World War II, Black Dog & Leventhal, 2016.
Articles & Magazines
Crang, Jeremy A, “General De Gaulle Under Sniper Fire In Notre Dame Cathedral, 26 August 1944: Robert Reid’s BBC Commentary”, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 2007.
Even, Captain, “La 2ème Division Blindée de son Débarquement en Normandie à la Libération de Paris,” Revue Historique de l’Armée, March 1952.
Grillon, Vincent, “Chadian Marching Regiment: History of the Nueve,” Association Nationale des Réserves de l‘Infanterie (ANORI), https://www.anori.fr/les-traditions/infanterie/linfanterie-et-son-histoire/regiment-de-marche-du-tchad-historique-de-la-nueve
Hansen, Randall, “Invisible Coup: A Failed Attempt to Assassinate Hitler,” Historynet https://www.historynet.com/invisible-coup-failed-attempt-assassinate-hitler/
Hoffman, Stanley, “Memories of a Disappointed Man,” The New York Review (https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1968/02/01/memoirs-of-a-disappointed-man/)
Schwartz, Paula, “Partisanes and Gender Politics in Vichy France,” French Historical Studies, Vol 16, No 1 (Spring 1989).
Sevillano, Antonio San Román, “August 24-25, 1944: The liberation of Paris,” Rebellion, https://rebelion.org/24-25-de-agosto-de-1944-la-liberacion-de-paris/
Spreiregen, Rachel, “August in Paris, 1944”, The Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/2004/08/25/august-in-paris-1944/9bf9210a-f86b-4e50-8017-9944801e7ef3/
Thompson, Mike, “Paris Liberation made ‘Whites Only’”, British Broadcasting Company, April 2009, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7984436.stm
Villahermosa, Gilberto, “Commands: French 2nd Armored Division,” Historynet, 21 August 2022 https://www.historynet.com/commands-french-2nd-armored-division/
Issue 103, 1939-45 Magazine, January 1995.
Websites
deZeng IV, Henry L, Luftwaffe Airfields in France 1939-45, 2014, privately published, www.ww2.dk/, Accessed 26 January 2023
Dronne, Raymond, Association August 24, 1944 – La Nueve, “The Day of August 24, 1944 as told by Captain Dronne,” https://www.24-aout-1944.org/La-journee-du-24-Aout-1944/
Eve, Gaston, “Gaston Eve in the Free French Forces,” http://www.gastoneve.org.uk/index.html
Primout, Gilles, La Libération de Paris, https://liberation-de-paris.gilles-primout.fr
Chars Francaise, http://www.chars-francais.net
Golf de Saint-Cloud, https://www.golfdesaintcloud.com/en/the-jacques-petit-leroy-cup
Musee de la Resistance en Ligne 1940-1945, http://museedelaresistanceenligne.org
Maréchal Leclerc de Hautecloque Fondation, https://www.2edb-leclerc.fr
(http://www.oocities.org/~orion47/WEHRMACHT/HEER/Generalleutnant/BOINEBURG_HANS.html; https://www.geocities.ws/orion47.geo/WEHRMACHT/HEER/Generalmajor/BREHMER_WALTHER.html)
THE ONLY COVERAGE OF BATTLE OF PARIS WITH CLEAR AND CRYSTAL MAPS SO FAR !!!
Very informative for someone such as myself who is only just beginning to trawl through the stories of the Liberation and the participants
Thanks! I’m glad it has been of help.
This is a fantastic site. Thank you for developing it. I would love to connect with you for a project I am working on. I am eager to learn of the sources for the US liason officer who showed up. I beleive he may be the one about whom I am writing but am trying to pin down his name to confirm. Thank you in advance for your consideration.
Thank you. Greatly appreciated! I will get back to you about the liason officer.