'' 1944-45 After the fighting in North Africa ended, Leclerc's L Force, now about 4,000 strong, became the
2e Division Française Libre (2e DFL). In June 1943, de Gaulle informed him the 2e DFL would be re-equipped by the Americans as an armoured division, the
2e Division Blindée (2e DB). It was often called
La Division Leclerc. Although organised along American lines, its units had French titles. The non-white units were transferred elsewhere. The remainder of 2e DFL became the
Régiment de marche du Tchad (RMT), 2e DB's motorised infantry regiment. Free French armoured units serving with the Eighth Army became the
501e Régiment de chars de combat (501e RCC). The artillery and the other two armoured regiments of 2e DB, the
12e Régiment de Cuirassiers (12e RC) and the ''
(12e RCA), were drawn from the Vichy Armée d'Afrique
. Perhaps the most unusual unit in the division was the Régiment Blindé de Fusiliers-Marins (RBFM), sailors who served as a tank destroyer regiment. Leclerc had to weld the various units, some of whom had recently been fighting against the Allies, into a team. This was no easy task. When two men from the 501e RCC upset a former Vichy officer by singing a disrespectful song about Général d'armée'' Henri Giraud, resulting in a fight, he told the officer concerned that respect had to be earned. In April 1944, 2e DB was shipped to Britain to participate in
Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of northern France. Leclerc and his staff travelled by air in a converted
B-24 Liberator bomber. The division moved to training areas in
Yorkshire, where Leclerc established his headquarters on the estate of
Henry Frederick Hotham, 7th Baron Hotham, at
Dalton Hall,
Beverley. Training was conducted in concert with Maczek's
1st Polish Armoured Division. On 1 August 1944, 2e DB landed at
Utah Beach in Normandy as part of
Major General Wade Haislip's
United States XV Corps of
Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.'s
United States Third Army. Both of these American generals spoke French fluently. Later that month, 2e DB participated in the
Battle of the Falaise Pocket, which inflicted a major defeat on the German Army. Like most new division commanders, Leclerc also made errors, in his case by allowing 2e DB to use roads that had been earmarked for American units, thereby causing traffic jams and holding up the American advance. '' on 26 August 1944, after Paris was liberated.|alt=Crowds line the Champs Elysees as tanks and half tracks roll down it. The Arc de Triomphe is in the background. People are holding a sign that reads: "Viva de Gaulle". The next assignment for 2e DB, and the one that it had been brought from Africa for, was the
liberation of Paris. Allied troops initially avoided the historic city, moving around it to minimise the danger of destruction if the Germans sought to defend it. When Parisians rose against the Germans, de Gaulle and Leclerc persuaded
General Dwight D. Eisenhower to help. Leclerc's men had to fight their way into Paris, and when they got there they found German infantry and tanks still holding parts of the city. The German commander,
General der Infanterie Dietrich von Choltitz, was inclined to surrender, and did so to Leclerc and
Henri Rol-Tanguy of the
French Forces of the Interior at the
Gare Montparnasse on 25 August 1944. Leclerc arranged for
Ensign Philippe de Gaulle, who was serving in the RBFM, to be in attendance, but the elder de Gaulle was annoyed that Leclerc had allowed the communist Rol to co-sign the surrender. The next day de Gaulle held a triumphal parade, accompanied by senior military figures including Leclerc,
Alphonse Juin,
Marie-Pierre Kœnig and Georges Thierry d'Argenlieu. Montgomery's troops liberated Tailly, allowing Leclerc to return home to see Thérèse and the children again on 6 September 1944. His oldest sons, Henri and Hubert, now 18 and 17 years old respectively, lied about their ages to volunteer for service with 2e DB. Henri went on to serve with the RMT, while Hubert became a
Sherman tank gunner with the 12e RCA. Other relatives also served with the division, including two nephews. The fighting in Paris cost 2e DB 97 killed and 238 wounded; nearly twice that number were lost in the fighting in surrounding areas. These were replaced by men and women who, like Leclerc's sons, offered themselves at a recruitment office the 2e DB established near the
Bois de Boulogne. in Paris, 25 August 1944|alt=Six men in uniforms. De Gaulle is wearing his kepi and smoking a cigarette. After Paris, 2e DB returned to XV Corps at Leclerc's request. He won a notable victory on 12–16 September 1944 at the
Battle of Dompaire against the
Panzer IVs and
Panther tanks of the German
112th Panzer Brigade by using manoeuvre and air power to compensate for the numerical and technical inferiority of his tanks. American historian
Hugh M. Cole wrote that "this fight, characterised warmly by the XV Corps commander as a 'brilliant example' of perfect air-ground co-ordination, not only was an outstanding feat of arms but also dealt a crippling blow to Hitler's plans for an armoured thrust into the Third Army flank." Patton personally pinned a
Silver Star on Leclerc, and brought with him another six Silver Stars and 25
Bronze Star Medals for other members of the 2e DB. Patton then gave Leclerc his next objective: the town of
Baccarat and the bridge there over the
Meurthe River. The bridge was captured before the Germans could destroy it. Haislip's XV Corps was transferred to the
Seventh United States Army on 29 September, and Leclerc feared that 2e DB would be transferred to ''Général d'armée''
Jean de Lattre de Tassigny's
French First Army. Leclerc regarded the First Army as being full of traitors who had supported Vichy France. Moreover, de Lattre had sacked
Général de division Edgard de Larminat for
Gaullist sentiments, and Leclerc had good reason to fear that he might meet a similar fate. after the
liberation of Strasbourg On 22 November, Haislip gave Leclerc permission to advance on Strasbourg. Leclerc surprised the Germans by advancing over country roads and tracks to bypass their defences. Strasbourg was reached on 25 November, and that afternoon the
Tricolour flew over the Strasbourg Cathedral. The
German offensive in the Ardennes in December and
in Alsace in January led Eisenhower to consider abandoning Strasbourg, but strong opposition to the idea from the French caused him to back down. As a result, the 2e DB was transferred to de Lattre's command to assist in the reduction of the
Colmar Pocket. Leclerc objected to the use of his troops in the attack on
Royan in April 1945. As a result, only part of 2e DB was employed. The division rejoined Seventh Army, crossing the
Rhine on 25 April, and joining the pursuit into
Bavaria. Leclerc visited
Dachau concentration camp after its liberation by the Americans. In an incident that took place on 8 May 1945 at Karlstein near
Bad Reichenhall in Bavaria, he was presented with a defiant group of a dozen captured Frenchmen of the
SS Charlemagne Division. He asked them why they wore a German uniform, to which one of them replied by asking why Leclerc wore an American one. Leclerc told his men to get rid of them. That was taken as a death sentence. The group of French
Waffen-SS men was summarily executed by the RMT without any form of military tribunal procedure, and their bodies left where they fell until an American burial team collected them three days later. On 2 June 1949 the bodies were exhumed and buried in the St. Zeno cemetery in Bad Reichenhall. For his services leading the 2e DB, Leclerc was awarded the Grand Cross of the
Legion of Honour. == South East Asia ==