Free France was the government-in-exile led by French general Charles de Gaulle in the Second World War. Established in London in June 1940 after the Fall of France, it fought the Axis as an Allied nation with its Free French Forces. Free France also organised and supported the resistance in occupied France, known as the French Forces of the Interior, and gained strategic footholds in several French colonies in Africa.
Lorient is a town (commune) and seaport in the Morbihan department of Brittany in North-Western France.
Saint-Nazaire is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France, in traditional Brittany.
The liberation of Paris was a military battle that took place during World War II from 19 August 1944 until the German garrison surrendered the French capital on 25 August 1944. Paris had been occupied by Nazi Germany since the signing of the Second Compiègne Armistice on 22 June 1940, after which the Wehrmacht occupied northern and western France.
The French Forces of the Interior refers to French resistance fighters in the later stages of World War II. Charles de Gaulle used it as a formal name for the resistance fighters. The change in designation of these groups to FFI occurred as France's status changed from that of an occupied nation to one of a nation being liberated by the Allied armies. As regions of France were liberated, the FFI were more formally organized into light infantry units and served as a valuable manpower addition to regular Free French forces. In this role, the FFI units manned less active areas of the front lines, allowing regular French army units to practice economy of force measures and mass their troops in decisive areas of the front. Finally, from October 1944 and with the greater part of France liberated, the FFI units were amalgamated into the French regular forces continuing the fight on the Western Front, thus ending the era of the French irregulars in World War II.
Rennes–Saint-Jacques Airport or Aéroport de Rennes–Saint-Jacques is a minor international airport about 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) southwest of Rennes, Ille-et-Vilaine, in the region of Brittany, France.
Liberty Road is the commemorative way marking the route of the Allied forces from D-Day in June 1944. It starts in Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, in the Manche département in Normandy, France, travels across Northern France to Metz and then northwards to end in Bastogne in Belgium, on the border of Luxembourg. At each of the 1,146 kilometres, there is a stone marker or 'Borne'. The first lies outside the town hall in Sainte-Mère-Église.
The Battle for Brest was fought in August and September 1944 on the Western Front during World War II. Part of the overall Battle for Brittany and the Allied plan for the invasion of mainland Europe called for the capture of port facilities, in order to ensure the timely delivery of the enormous amount of war materiel required to supply the invading Allied forces. It was estimated that the 37 Allied divisions to be on the continent by September 1944 would need 26,000 tons of supplies each day. The main port the Allied forces hoped to seize and put into their service was Brest, in northwestern France.
Operation Chastity was a World War II plan by the Allies to seize Quiberon Bay, France, enabling the construction of an artificial harbor to support Allied operations in Northern France in 1944.
The German 148th Reserve Division was a German reserve infantry formation during the Second World War. It was made up of three infantry regiments and an artillery regiment. Initially an occupation force in southern France, serving as a depot for rest and rifitting, it was activated as an infantry division and fought in Italy from 1944 to 1945. Redesignated the 148th Infantry Division in September 1944 to fight the allied invasion during Operation Dragoon, it later fought in the Po River battles, surrendering to the Brazilian Expeditionary Force on April 28, 1945, after being encircled in the Battle of Collecchio, near the city of Fornovo di Taro at Galano.
The 27th Mountain Infantry Brigade is a mountain infantry formation of the French Army. The brigade is subordinated to the 1st Armored Division and specializes in Mountain warfare.
The Allied siege of La Rochelle occurred during the Second World War in 1944–45, when Allied troops invaded France. La Rochelle was an important German naval base on the Atlantic for surface ships and submarines, from which U-boat campaigns were launched.
In World War II, the Atlantic pockets were locations along the coasts of the Netherlands, Belgium and France chosen as strongholds by the occupying German forces, to be defended as long as possible against land attack by the Allies.
The Battle of Marseille was an urban battle of World War II that took place August 21–28, 1944 and led to the liberation of Marseille by Free French forces under the command of General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny. The groundwork was laid by the Allied invasion of southern France in Operation Dragoon on 15 August 1944 by the United States Seventh Army, with major support from the French First Army.
The Battle of Toulon (1944) was an urban battle of World War II in southern France that took place August 20–26, 1944 and led to the liberation of Toulon by Free French forces under the command of General Edgard de Larminat.
The XXV Army Corps was an army corps of Germany's Wehrmacht during World War II.
The liberation of France in the Second World War was accomplished through diplomacy, politics and the combined military efforts of the Allied Powers, Free French forces in London and Africa, as well as the French Resistance.
The Saint-Nazaire Pocket existed from August 1944 until 11 May 1945 and was formed by the withdrawal of German troops from Loire-Inférieure during the liberation of the department by the allied forces. It was centred around the port and the submarine base of Saint-Nazaire and extended to the east as far as Saint-Omer-de-Blain and from La Roche-Bernard in the north to Pornic in the south.
The Battle of Saint-Malo was fought between Allied and German and Fascist Italian forces to control the French coastal town of Saint-Malo during World War II. The battle formed part of the Allied breakout across France and took place between 4 August and 2 September 1944. United States Army units, with the support of Free French and British forces, successfully assaulted the town and defeated its German defenders. The German garrison on a nearby island continued to resist until 2 September.
The Battle for Brittany took place between August and October 1944. After the Allies broke out of Normandy in June 1944, Brittany became targeted for its well developed ports which the Allies intended to use, whilst also stopping their continued use by German U-boats.
Free France 
Bezen Perrot 
Paul Hausser 
