APH: All Right

The Liberation of Paris (also known as the Battle for Paris) took place during World War II from 19 August 1944 until the surrender of the occupying German garrison on 25 August. It could be regarded by some as the last battle in the Battle for Normandy, though that really ended with the crushing of the Wehrmacht forces between the U.S. Army under Lt. General George S. Patton, Jr., and the British Army under Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery in the Falaise gap in western France around the same time. The Liberation of Paris could be regarded as the transitional conclusion of the Allied invasion breakout in Operation Overlord into a broad-fronted general offensive, though this is a minority opinion.

The capital region of France had been governed by Nazi Germany since the signing of the Second Compiègne Armistice in June 1940, when the German Army occupied northern and westmost France, and when the puppet regime of Vichy France was established in the town of Vichy in central France.

The Liberation of Paris started with an uprising by the French Resistance against the German garrison. On 24 August, the French Forces of the Interior (Forces françaises de l\'intérieur, FFI) received reinforcements from the Free French Army of Liberation and from the U.S. Third Army under General Patton.

This battle marked the liberation of Paris and the exile of the Vichy government to Sigmaringen in Germany. However, there was still much heavy fighting to be done before France was liberated, including the Operation Anvil Dragoon amphibious landings in southmost France in September (near Marseilles), along the German-held seaports of western France (such as at Brest and Dunkirk), in Alsace Lorraine in eastmost France, and in northeastern France, such as along the Rhine River. The Wehrmacht fought doggedly in these areas for the rest of 1944.

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