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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.
• 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.
• 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

References

1. Stourton, Edward (2017). Auntie's War: the BBC during the Second World War. London: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-857-52332-7.
2. Lormier, Dominique (2018). "Georges Suarez". Les années interdites: Auteurs, journalistes et artistes dans la collaboration. Archipel. p. 85. ISBN 978-2-8098-2553-4.

v t e Liberation of France
Belgium Italy Luxembourg Netherlands Norway
Forces	Army of Africa Commando Kieffer First Army Cavalry Corps 3rd Army Corps 4th 5th 1st Armored 32nd Infantry Francs-Tireurs et Partisans French Forces of the Interior French Liberation Army French Expeditionary Corps Divisions: 1st Free French 2nd Moroccan Infantry 3rd Algerian Infantry 4th Moroccan Mountain Second Army French Forces of the West
Leaders	Charles de Gaulle Jean Moulin Winston Churchill Bernard Montgomery Henri Giraud Dwight D. Eisenhower Raymond O. Barton George S. Patton Philippe Leclerc Jean de Lattre de Tassigny Philippe Kieffer
Administration	Empire Defense Council French Civil and Military High Command French National Committee French Committee of National Liberation Provisional Consultative Assembly Provisional Government
French campaign	Nov 1940 Battle of Gabon Jun 1941 Syria–Lebanon campaign Dec 1941 Capture of Saint Pierre and Miquelon Nov 1942 Operation Torch Tunisian campaign Battle of Réunion Sept 1943 Liberation of Corsica Jan 1944 Battle of Vercors Battle of Glières March 1944 Liberation of Limousin May 1944 Battle of Mont Mouchet Jun 1944 Operation Overlord Battle of Carentan Battle of Cherbourg Battle for Caen Liberation of Limousin Tulle massacre Liberation of Guéret Oradour-sur-Glane massacre Maquis de Saint-Marcel Maquis de Saffré Battle of Ushant July 1944 Liberation of Saint-Lô Battle of Mont Gargan Operation Cobra Aug 1944 Battle for Brittany Rennes Saint-Malo Liberation of Brest Atlantic pockets: Lorient Saint-Nazaire Lioran Égletons Battle of Port Cros Battle of La Ciotat Provence landings Liberation of Toulon Liberation of Marseille Liberation of Paris Maillé massacre Liberation of Guéret Battle of Montélimar Liberation of Nice Sept 1944 Liberation of Nancy Operation Astonia Operation Undergo Atlantic pockets: La Rochelle Royan Dunkirk Battle of Arracourt Battle of Meximieux Nov 1944 - March 1945 Battle of Alsace Liberation of Strasbourg Colmar Pocket Bitche Apr 1945 Atlantic pockets: Royan May 1945 Atlantic pockets: Dunkirk La Rochelle Lorient Saint-Nazaire
Aftermath	End of Vichy 1945 municipal elections Advance to the Rhine Invasion of Germany End of World War II in Europe Victory in Europe Day Victory Day Provisional Government Épuration légale Épuration sauvage Tripartisme 1946 legislative election Fourth Republic Trente Glorieuses Trial of Philippe Pétain Klaus Barbie trial
WW II theatres: Atlantic Western Front Eastern Front Mediterranean and Middle East Pacific Sino Japanese

• 1944 in France
• 1944 by country
• 1944 in Europe
• 1940s in France
• Years of the 20th century in France