1944 in France
Events from the year 1944 in France.
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| See also: | Other events of 1944 History of France • Timeline • Years | ||||
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Incumbents
- Chairman of the Provisional Government: Philippe Pétain (until 20 August), Charles de Gaulle (starting 20 August)
- Vice-President of the Council of Ministers: Pierre Laval (until 20 August), Charles de Gaulle (starting 20 August)
Events
- 15 March - The National Council of the French Resistance approves the Resistance programme.
- 1 June - BBC transmits coded messages (including the first line of a poem by Paul Verlaine) to underground resistance fighters in France warning that the invasion of Europe is imminent.
- 2 June - The provisional French government is established.
- 5 June
- More than 1000 British bombers drop 5000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries on the Normandy coast in preparation for D-Day.
- At 10:15 p.m. local time, the BBC transmits coded messages including the second line of the Paul Verlaine poem to the underground resistance indicating that the invasion of Europe is about to begin.[1]
- 6 June
- Battle of Normandy begins - Operation Overlord, code named D-Day, commences with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy.
- Battle of Cherbourg begins.
- 7 June - Bayeux liberated by British troops.
- 9 June - Over 200 people are killed by 2nd SS Panzer Division ("Das Reich") in the Tulle massacre
- 10 June
- 642 people are killed by 2nd SS Panzer Division ("Das Reich") in the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre.
- Battle of Carentan begins.
- 13 June - Battle of Bloody Gulch, near Carentan, United States forces victory.
- 14 June - Battle of Carentan ends with Allied victory.
- 26 June - American troops enter Cherbourg.
- 30 June - Battle of Cherbourg ends with the fall of the strategically valuable port to American forces.
- 9 July - British and Canadian forces capture Caen.
- 9 August - Ordonnance du 9 août 1944 relative au rétablissement de la légalité républicaine sur le territoire continental declares the Constitutional Law of 1940 issued by the Provisional Government void ab initio.
- 12 August - The world's first undersea oil pipeline is laid, between England and France in Operation Pluto.
- 15 August - Operation Dragoon lands Allies in southern France.
- 19 August - Liberation of Paris: The city rises against German occupation with the help of Allied troops.
- 20 August - American forces successfully defeat German forces at Chambois. This victory closed the Falaise Gap.
- 24 August - Liberation of Paris: The Allies enter Paris, successfully completing Operation Overlord.
- 25 August
- German surrender of Paris: General Dietrich von Choltitz surrenders Paris to the Allies, in defiance of Hitler's orders to destroy it.
- Maillé massacre: 129 civilians (70% women and children) are massacred by the Gestapo at Maillé, Indre-et-Loire.
- The Red Ball Express convoy system begins operation, supplying tons of materiel to Allied forces in France.
- 26 August
- Toulon liberated in Battle of Toulon (1944).
- Ordonnance instituting Indignité nationale.
- 28 August - Marseille liberated in Battle of Marseille.
- 8 September - Menton is liberated from Germany.
- 11 September - Northern and Southern France invasion forces link up near Dijon.
- 24 September - The U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division takes the strongly defended city of Epinal before crossing the Moselle River and entering the western foothills of the Vosges.
- 5 October - Royal Canadian Air Force pilots shoot down the first German jet fighter over France.
- 31 October - Mass murderer Marcel Petiot is apprehended in a Paris Métro station.
- 23 November - Liberation of Strasbourg.
- 19 December - Newspaper Le Monde first published in Paris.
- Toymaker Jouef established.
Arts and literature
- 6 February - Première of Jean Anouilh's tragedy Antigone, at the Théâtre de l'Atelier in Nazi-occupied Paris.
- May - Première of Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialist drama Huis Clos, at the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier in Nazi-occupied Paris.
Births
January to June
- 17 January - Françoise Hardy, singer.
- 10 February - Jean-Daniel Cadinot, film director and producer (died 2008)
- 25 February - François Cevert, motor racing driver (died 1973)
- 7 April - Jean-Pierre Brucato, soccer player (died 1998)
- 22 May - Henri Guédon, percussionist (died 2006)
- 25 May - Pierre Bachelet, singer songwriter (died 2005)
- 26 May - Laurent-Michel Vacher, philosopher, writer and journalist (died 2005)
- 22 June
- Pierre Goldman, left-wing intellectual, convicted of several robberies and assassinated (died 1979)
- Gérard Mourou, electrical engineer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics
- 24 June - Ticky Holgado, actor (died 2004)
July to December
- 12 July - Jean-François Jenny-Clark, double bass player (died 1998)
- 9 August - Patrick Depailler, motor racing driver (died 1980)
- 14 August - Jean-François Bizot, journalist and writer (died 2007)
- 2 September - Gilles Marchal, songwriter and singer (died 2013)
- 6 September - Christian Boltanski, photographer, sculptor and installation artist (died 2021)
Full date unknown
- Jean-Jacques Le Chenadec, urban violence victim (died 2005)
Deaths
- 14 January - Eugène Louis Bouvier, entomologist and carcinologist (born 1856)
- 31 January - Jean Giraudoux, novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright (born 1882)
- 4 February - Yvette Guilbert, singer and actress (born 1865)
- 5 March - Max Jacob, poet, painter, writer and critic (born 1876)
- 22 March - Pierre Brossolette, journalist and Resistance fighter (born 1903)
- 30 April - Paul Poiret, fashion designer (born 1879)
- 20 May - Fraser Barron, New Zealand bomber pilot at Le Mans (born 1921 in Dunedin)
- 6 July - Andrée Borrel, French World War II heroine (executed) (born 1919)
- 6 July - Sonia Olschanezky, German-born French Jewish World War II heroine (executed) (born 1923)
- 7 July - Georges Mandel, politician and Resistance leader (executed) (born 1885)
- 31 July - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, pilot and writer (born 1900)
- 9 September - Robert Benoist, motor racing driver and war hero (executed) (born 1895)
- 11 September - Yolande Beekman, World War II heroine (executed) (born 1911)
- 13 September - Madeleine Damerment, World War II heroine (executed) (born 1917)
- 1 November - Lucien Cayeux, sedimentary petrographer (born 1864)
- 5 November - Alexis Carrel, surgeon and biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (born 1873)
- 13 December- Wassily Kandinsky, artist (born 1866)
- 30 December - Romain Rolland, writer, Nobel Prize in Literature (born 1866)
See also
References
- Stourton, Edward (2017). Auntie's War: the BBC during the Second World War. London: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-857-52332-7.
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