1944 in France

← 1943 1942 1941 1940 1939 1944 in France → 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949
Decades:	1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s
See also:	Other events of 1944 History of France  • Timeline  • Years

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 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.
• 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
• 6 September - Christian Boltanski, photographer, sculptor and installation artist

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

• List of French films of 1944

References

1. Stourton, Edward (2017). Auntie's War: the BBC during the Second World War. London: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-857-52332-7.