Paris: Frech capital is set to hold commemoration ceremonies on Sunday to mark 75th years since Allied troops freed Paris from Nazi occupation in 1944.
The German Wehrmacht (Unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945) had marched first into Paris on June 14, 1940, and then began four long years of Nazi occupation.
During World War II a military battle from liberated Paris from the German garrison.
On August 25, 1944, the French capital was liberated by Allied forces and the Champs-Elysees, an avenue in the 8th arrondissement of Paris burst into joyful celebrations.
Hope for salvation soared with the D-Day landings on the beaches of Normandy by Allied forces on June 6, 1944.
On Sunday, battle veterans will participate in a ceremony at the Eiffel Tower to mark 75th years since French firefighters raised a homemade flag to replace the Nazi flag that had flown over the French capital for four years.
A veteran Harold Angle, 96, landed in Normandy in 1944 and moved quickly into eastern France, where his division fought through a brutal winter, losing comrades and morale. He saved a piece of a bullet that hit his helmet, with a photo of him and a letter he wrote to his mother, describing his scrape with death.
Allied troops began rolling into the French capital on August 24, 1944, but the liberation of Paris was messy, chaotic and dangerous with shooting by those making a last stand.
Over 1,400 Parisians, including nearly 600 civilians were killed in street battles. Some 3,200 German soldiers were also killed.
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