August 25, 1944: The Allies liberate Paris, the capital of France, ending the Nazi occupation after 4 years and 2 months. The City of Light sees its darkness come to an end.
The city had fallen on June 14, 1940. For 4 years, the French Resistance did whatever they could to disrupt the occupiers, giving the lie to the later idea that the French "easily surrendered." They had been overwhelmed, so they changed tactics. They lost a lot of people, but they took a lot of Nazi bastards with them.
From D-Day on June 6, Allied troops made their way from the English Channel coast eastward and southward, and arrived on the outskirts of Paris on August 19. Street fighting was fierce, but the Nazis were dealing with guys who fought on the streets of New York, Philadelphia, Chicago -- London, Montreal, Toronto, Sydney, Bombay (Mumbai), Johannesburg -- and so on. And now, those street fighters had jeeps, tanks and machine guns. The Nazis retreated, and surrendered on August 25. It had been 82 days since D-Day.
The people of Paris were in no condition to party on November 11, 1918. On August 25, 1944, they were more than ready. The wine flowed, and so did the kisses and more of French women to the Allied men.
It was no longer a question of if the Nazis would lose World War II, but when.
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