At the dawn's early light on August 25, 1944, the 2nd French Armored Division entered Paris, ending the long German occupation of the City of Light. Despite Hitler's order to destroy Paris, General Dietrich von Choltitz refused the order and instead surrendered to French Major General Jacques Le Clerc. Later that day, President Charles de Gaulle led a parade down the Champs Elysees.
On February 13, 1944, Tech Sgt John Prasch was killed over Germany while on manuevers for D-Day. It wasn't until 1971 that a family member visited his grave at the American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer France, also known as Omaha Beach. I was that family member, a 20 year old college student at the end of a 3 month European trip. That visit to my Uncle John's resting place was a pivotal moment in my life, for not only was he my Mother's only brother, but also my Father's best friend. I will never understand the pain they must have felt when they got the news, yet I am inexplicably tied to an Uncle I never knew, a war I never experienced, and the historical importance of that war, fought by the Greatest Generation.
Defend Paris to the last, destroy all bridges over the Seine and devastate the city.
~Adolf Hitler - August 1944
Attended thanksgiving service…for liberation of Paris…hearing the Marseillaise gave me a great thrill. France seemed to wake again after being knocked out for five years.
~General Sir Alan Brooke - 28th August 1944
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