How France's diverse forces were 'whitewashed' during the liberation of Paris
As France commemorates the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Paris this weekend – a pivotal victory over Nazi forces – there's a renewed focus on the long-forgotten colonial soldiers who were excluded from much of the liberation, the victory parade and the subsequent battles of 1944.
The liberation of Paris on 24-25 August 1944 was a key moment in World War II, marking the end of Nazi occupation in the French capital.
An uprising by the French Resistance on 19 August forced the hand of the Allies, who had initially not prioritised freeing Paris.
General Charles de Gaulle insisted on sending in the French 2nd Armoured Division, which entered Paris on the evening of 24 August, to prevent the city from being destroyed by retreating German forces.
While the liberation was celebrated with a grand parade on the Champs-Élysées on 26 August, not all who fought for the city’s freedom were honoured.
Diverse force
The French army in 1944 was a diverse force. Commanded by General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, it included 84,000 white French settlers from Algeria, 12,000 Free French troops, and 12,000 Corsicans.
But it also had 130,000 soldiers from Algeria and Morocco, along with 12,000 members of the colonial army, including marksmen from Senegal and infantrymen from France's territories in the Pacific and West Indies.
It's "difficult to measure" the extent of this coercion, he says, because "in the registers, all the soldiers were described as volunteers".
They were replaced by French Interior Forces resistance fighters and Spanish Republican soldiers who had fled Franco’s regime.
Read more on RFI English
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