Figure 1.-- The French were elated when they received news of the Normandy landings. The initial elation was followed with frustration when weeks went by and still the Allies did not arrive. The Allies were bottled up in Normandy for several weeks and almost all of the country remained in German hands. Here a French girl is hard a work on a flag so the family will be prepared when the Americans arrive. Source: The United States National Archive.

The French were elated when they received news of the Normandy landings. The initial elation was followed with frustration when weeks went by and still the Allies did not arrive. The Allies were bottled up in Normandy for several weeks and almost all of the country remained in German hands. The Resistance was lightly armed and hesitated to attack the Germans because of the brutality of the German resonse, both executing civilian hostages as well as reprisals on whole villages. The question on everyone's mind became, 'When are the Allies coming?'. After 4 years of Germann occupation, many French were not entirely sure that the Germans had lost the War. For most people, nothing changed after D-Day, except food shortags became more severe. And if the Allied advances contunued at this glacial pace, it could take a year to liberate the country. The Germans and Vichy police continued deporting French Jews. While rarely attacking the Germans directly, the Resistance conducted espionage and sabotage designed to disrupt German supply and communication lines. Allied air strikes also continued hanmmering away at the French rail lines. Locomotives were being eliminated as well as bridges. The Resistance also shot French collaborators which did not elicit the same response from the Germans as when Germans were targeted. For most French people, however, they just had to wait until the drama played out in Normandy. French newspapers and radio stations parroted the German line. In cellars and darkened rooms all over France, the French listened secretly to Allied radio broadcasts from Britain. In fact, however, there was little movement in Normandy, except liberating the Cotentin Peninsula and Cherbourg (June 22-29). Other than that the Allies remained bottled up in the Normandy bokage country. What was not immediately obvious was the the massive Allied buildup and the steady attritionn of German forces. Also underway throughout France was the oreparation for liberation by the various Resistance groups. The question of who would control France after liberation increasingly emerged to the surface. The Americans and British were not fully aware of this, but DeGualle and the Free French were. And no where were tensions and preparations building more than in Paris.

Created: 6:24 PM 6/23/2013
Last updated: 6:24 PM 6/23/2013