When was France fully liberated?
Upvote:7
Considering your edit (liberation of the north-eastern border): I would say March 19th 1945 after Lauterbourg was taken back in Alsace. You may also consider the city of Saorge, at the Italian border, liberated in April 24th.
But I don't think it makes so much sense to try to find a definitive day of the French liberation, because of the "pockets" which resisted even after the German capitulation. History tends to focus on the liberation of major cities and the scale of the battle. In this respect, Colmar (Feb 2nd) in Alsace is often cited as the last major battle on French territory. Also remember that the French Army (with the Allies) crossed the Rhine before these "pockets" were liberated on its own territory.
Upvote:26
Atlantic pockets
The answer is surprisingly difficult to find on Wikipedia. I persisted in searching and finally found this:
German military administration in occupied France during World War II
The Liberation of France was the result of the Allied operations Overlord and Dragoon in the summer of 1944. Most of France was liberated by September 1944. Some of the heavily fortified French Atlantic coast submarine bases remained stay-behind "fortresses" until the German capitulation in May 1945.
After the liberation of Brest on 19 September 1944, the Allies decided to lay siege to the remaining pockets and not to take them by force. Only Royan was subsequently assaulted, falling to French forces on 20 April 1945 during the siege of La Rochelle, which did not itself capitulate until 8 May.
The remaining pockets were:
Channel Islands (surrendered 9 May 1945)
Dunkirk (besieged since 15 September, surrendered 9 May 1945)
Lorient (besieged since 12 August, surrendered 10 May 1945)
Saint-Nazaire (besieged since 27 August, surrendered 11 May 1945)
So it seems that metropolitan France was not fully freed of belligerent German forces until 11th May 1945, 3 days after the Armistice.
North-Eastern Front
On the North-Eastern front, the last major battle was in Colmar, Alsace:
The battle lasted 20 January – 9 February 1945 , with the liberation of Colmar on Feb. 2nd and the collapse of the pocket on Feb. 9th.
We can also mention Sarreguemines, a small town in the Moselle departement near the German border.
On December 21–23 1944, the 44th Infantry Division (United States) threw back three attempts by the Germans to cross the Blies River. An aggressive defense of the Sarreguemines area was continued throughout February and most of March 1945.
Articles in French
The following articles in the French wikipedia cover exactly the full scope of the question:
More post
- 📝 What does 'half-decked' mean?
- 📝 How was the initial allocation of the US House of Representatives decided?
- 📝 Does the Catholic church have a long history of child abuse, or is it something that started in our time?
- 📝 Has there ever been a case where a tribe/nation tried to reclaim the land they had left before?
- 📝 Which fortress east of Ancient Megiddo did Thutmose III go to during the siege?
- 📝 What were the differences between the Sieges of Constantinople in 678, 717, and 1453, inc. Greek Fire?
- 📝 Artillery guns near Triglav?
- 📝 Was a direct telegraph line between America and Australia ever created?
- 📝 Did Continental Army officers wear wigs or keep their hair white like their British Army counterparts?
- 📝 Is there any evidence that Assyrian or Babylonian kings ate their enemies?
- 📝 Why is France a permanent member of the UN security council?
- 📝 Can anyone explain why a wreck of a battleship lies in the Nevada desert?
- 📝 Why did certain swords have the weird curves that they did?
- 📝 Movie refers to "denouncing a neighbor"--as a Jew? or a Jewish sympathizer? or both?
- 📝 How did the Germans get housing again after WWII?
- 📝 Did freed slaves keep a portrait of Abraham Lincoln on the wall?
- 📝 Were the lands of the Teutonic Knights part of the Holy Roman Empire?
- 📝 What fueled the street lights in 13th-century Cordoba?
- 📝 How did criminal law work in the Roman Empire?
- 📝 Why was this ancient Chinese rocket so decorated?
- 📝 Why America was not discovered from the left land at Bering strait?
- 📝 When is the first recorded instance of someone dying for a principle?
- 📝 What colors were used as paint in the construction of the ziggurats in early Sumer?
- 📝 Where can I find what the cost of a train ticket in the USA was in 1930?
- 📝 Was the assassination of Kirov really that significant in consolidating Stalin's power?
- 📝 Why did Al-Andalus become cosmopolitan?
- 📝 What was the name for the region before it was "the Balkans"?
- 📝 Identification of location and type of bi-plane
- 📝 In what contexts did male friends kiss in Europe in the 1700s?
- 📝 Were any French aristocrats guillotined facing up?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 When was France fully liberated?
- 📝 Why didn't the English overrun France when the king was their captive?
- 📝 Why did Hitler attack the Soviet Union when he was still busy fighting the United Kingdom?
- 📝 Why was France granted an equal status among victors of World War II?
- 📝 Why did archery not make a comeback when armor was phased out in the 18th century?
- 📝 Why did Britain and France not declare war against the Soviet Union when it invaded Poland in WW2?
- 📝 Did it take 3 minutes to reload a musket when the second amendment to the US constitution was ratified?
- 📝 Why was it "acceptable" for Prince Charles to marry a divorced woman, when Edward VIII had to abdicate for marrying divorcee Wallis Simpson?
- 📝 Was Hitler exclaiming "Heil Hitler!" himself when saluting?
- 📝 When did FDR announce he was running a 3rd time, and was there any outrage?
- 📝 Where did Hitler get the funds to invest in economic development programs such as the autobahn when the German economy was in a depression?
- 📝 When was drinking water recognized as crucial in marathon running?
- 📝 How and when was the modern company ownership structure invented?
- 📝 When was Silver ever more valuable than Gold?
- 📝 When the Portuguese began the exploration of the West African Coast, did they believe the Indian Ocean was an enclosed sea?
- 📝 Until when was Marseille Greek-speaking?
- 📝 Was a passport needed to travel between UK and France in 1972?
- 📝 When was this photo of Mission Dolores *actually* taken?
- 📝 When was the last time a reigning monarch personally participated in battle?
- 📝 How could Jews integrate into Western modern society back when Saturday was a normal working day?
- 📝 Was the Dutch State independent when the Dutch East India Company was founded?
- 📝 How likely is it that any non-Celtic language was spoken in the British Isles when the Romans invaded?
- 📝 When and why was the samurai class abolished?
- 📝 What / When was the first use of concentration camps in history?
- 📝 How were diplomats and their staffs treated when World War II was declared?
- 📝 When and where was salt as valuable as gold?
- 📝 When was the last documented occasion that Arab or Ottoman slave traders abducted people from Europe?
- 📝 What was lost when the British burned the White House in 1814?
- 📝 Why didn't cheese spoil when it was given as rations to soldiers?
- 📝 When was slavery abolished in Russia?