Liberation of Paris

Eisenhower's plan for Paris was to go around it. Allied commanders wanted to encircle the retreating German armies, keep the fighting out of the streets, and avoid taking on the job of feeding more than two million civilians, which would have drawn supplies from the front.

Paris did not wait. On August 19 the Resistance rose against the German garrison. On August 24, General Leclerc disobeyed his orders and sent an advance party of the French 2nd Armored Division into the city, and it reached the Hôtel de Ville a little before 9:30 that night. The US 4th Infantry Division entered in the early hours of August 25. By the afternoon the German commander, General von Choltitz, had surrendered.

Five soldiers in helmets and olive drab walk abreast down a cobbled street, with the Arc de Triomphe a long way off in golden haze. A man at the left holds a tricolor high, a boy stands at the edge of the crowd, and at the right a woman in a red dress reaches out toward the men. American flags hang from the buildings on both sides, and the crowd closes in behind.