Editing Charles de Gaulle (section)

==== Return to France ====
[[File:HD-SN-99-02715.JPEG|thumb|left|General de Gaulle delivering a speech in liberated [[Cherbourg]] from the hôtel de ville (town hall)]]On 14 June 1944, he left Britain for the city of [[Bayeux]], Normandy, which he [[First Bayeux speech|proclaimed]] as the capital of Free France. Appointing his Aide-de-Camp [[Francois Coulet]] as head of the civil administration, de Gaulle returned to the UK that same night on [[French destroyer La Combattante|a French destroyer]], and although the [[United States military government in France|official position]] of the supreme military command remained unchanged, local Allied officers found it more practical to deal with the fledgling administration in Bayeux in everyday matters<ref name=Beevor /> which set a precedent of the [[Provisional Government of the French Republic|Provisional Government]] running the civil affairs of liberated France. De Gaulle flew to Algiers on 16 June and then went to Rome to meet the Pope and the new Italian government. 
[[File:Crowds of French patriots line the Champs Elysees-edit2.jpg|thumb|The [[2nd Armored Division (France)|2nd Armored Division]] passes through the [[Arc de Triomphe]]. Signs read "Long live de Gaulle" and "De Gaulle to power".]]
At the beginning of July, he visited Roosevelt in Washington, where he received the 17-gun salute of a senior military leader rather than the 21 guns of a visiting head of state.<ref name="Fenby-2010" /> De Gaulle successfully lobbied for Paris to be made a priority for liberation on humanitarian grounds and obtained from Allied supreme commander General [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] an agreement that French troops would be allowed to enter the capital first. A few days later, [[Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque|General Leclerc]]'s division entered the outskirts of the city, and after [[Liberation of Paris|six days of fighting]] in which the resistance played a major part, the German garrison of 5000 men surrendered on 25 August 1944, although some sporadic fighting continued for several days.<ref>{{Cite web |date=12 June 2006 |title=World War II: The Liberation of Paris |url=https://www.historynet.com/a-moment-of-elation-the-liberation-of-paris/ |access-date=5 November 2022 |website=HistoryNet |language=en-US}}</ref>

On the evening of 26 August, the ''Wehrmacht'' launched a massive aerial and artillery barrage of Paris in revenge, leaving several thousand dead or injured.<ref name="Second World War 1966">Mondal, Jacques (1966) ''[[Purnell's History of the Second World War]]'': No. 72 1966.</ref> The situation in Paris remained tense, and a few days later, de Gaulle asked General Eisenhower to send American troops into Paris as a show of strength. On 29 August, the US 28th Infantry Division was rerouted from its journey to the front line and paraded down the Champs Elysees.<ref name="Second World War 1966" /><ref>{{cite web|title=Speech made by General de Gaulle at the Hotel de Ville in Paris on August&nbsp;25th 1944|publisher=Fondation Charles de Gaulle|year=2008|url=http://www.charles-de-gaulle.org/article.php3?id_article=514|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081216141748/http://www.charles-de-gaulle.org/article.php3?id_article=514|archive-date=16 December 2008}}</ref>

The same day, Washington and London agreed to accept the position of the Free French. The following day General Eisenhower gave his de facto blessing with a visit to the General in Paris.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/britain-recognizes-general-charles-de-gaulle-as-the-leader-of-the-free-french|title=Britain recognizes General Charles de Gaulle as the leader of the Free French|website=HISTORY|access-date=18 November 2019|archive-date=22 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191222221957/https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/britain-recognizes-general-charles-de-gaulle-as-the-leader-of-the-free-french|url-status=live}}</ref>