1944 in France explained

Events from the year 1944 in France.

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 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.
• 9 November – Collaborationist Georges Suarez becomes the first journalist executed during the épuration légale.^[2]
• 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 (died 2024)
• 26 January – Louis Gallois, businessman
• 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

• 6 July – Claude-Michel Schönberg, composer
• 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)
• 24 February – Fanny Clar, journalist and writer (born 1875)
• 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)
  • Sonia Olschanezky, German-born French Jewish World War II heroine (executed) (born 1923)
• 7 July – Georges Mandel, politician and Resistance leader (executed) (born 1885)
• 15 July – Joseph Sadi-Lecointe, aviator (born 1891)
• 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

• List of French films of 1944

Notes and References

1. Book: Stourton, Edward. Edward Stourton (journalist). Auntie's War: the BBC during the Second World War. London. Doubleday. 2017. 978-0-857-52332-7.
2. Book: Lormier, Dominique. https://books.google.com/books?id=U_x1DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT85. Les années interdites: Auteurs, journalistes et artistes dans la collaboration. 2018. Archipel. 978-2-8098-2553-4. 85. Georges Suarez.