1944 in France

"See also:"
1943 in France,
other events of 1944,
1945 in France.

----

Events from the year 1944 in France.

Events

*15 March - The National Council of the French Resistance approves the Resistance programme.
*1 June - BBC transmits a coded message (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.
*5 June - At 10:15 p.m. local time, the BBC transmits 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 Allies troops on the beaches of Normandy.
*6 June - Battle of Cherbourg begins.
*7 June - Bayeux liberated by British troops.
*10 June - 642 men, women and children are killed in the Oradour-sur-Glane Massacre.
*10 June - 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.
*12 August - World's first undersea oil pipeline laid, between England and France in Operation Pluto.
*15 August - Operation Dragoon lands Allies in southern France.
*19 August - Paris 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.
*25 August - Surrender of occupying German garrison in Paris.
*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 Paris Métro station.

Births

January to June

*17 January - Françoise Hardy, singer.
*10 February - Jean-Daniel Cadinot, film director and producer (d.2008).
*25 February - François Cevert, motor racing driver (d.1973).
*7 April - Jean-Pierre Brucato, soccer player (d.1998).
*22 May - Henri Guédon, percussionist (d.2006).
*25 May - Pierre Bachelet, singer songwriter (d.2005).
*22 June - Pierre Goldman, left-wing intellectual, convicted of several robberies and assassinated (d.1979).
*24 June - Ticky Holgado, actor (d.2004).

July to December

*12 July - Jean-François Jenny-Clark, double bass player (d.1998).
*9 August - Patrick Depailler, motor racing driver (d.1980).
*14 August - Jean-François Bizot, journalist and writer (d.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 (d.2005).
*Laurent-Michel Vacher, philosopher, writer and journalist (d.2005).

Deaths

*31 January - Jean Giraudoux, novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright (b.1882).
*4 February - Yvette Guilbert, singer and actress (b.1865).
*5 March - Max Jacob, poet, painter, writer, and critic (b.1876).
*22 March - Pierre Brossolette, journalist and Resistance fighter (b.1903).
*30 April - Paul Poiret, fashion designer (b.1879).
*6 July - Andrée Borrel, World War II heroine (executed) (b.1919).
*7 July - Georges Mandel, politician and Resistance leader (executed) (b.1885).
*31 July - Antoine de Saint-Exupery, pilot and writer (b.1900).
*9 September - Robert Benoist, motor racing driver and war hero (executed) (b.1895).
*11 September - Yolande Beekman, World War II heroine (executed) (b.1911).
*13 September - Madeleine Damerment, World War II heroine (executed) (b.1917).
*1 November - Lucien Cayeux, sedimentary petrographer (b.1864).
*5 November - Alexis Carrel, surgeon and biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b.1873).
*30 December - Romain Rolland, writer, Nobel Prize in Literature (b.1866).

Full date unknown

*Eugène Louis Bouvier, entomologist and carcinologist (b.1856).

References