The French 2e Division Blindée, 2e DB (2nd Armored Division), commanded by General Philippe Leclerc, fought during the final phases of the Second World War in Italy, France, and Germany on the Western Front.
The division was formed around a core of units that had raided Italian Libya at the end of 1940 and Tripoli in 1943 under Leclerc. The division is also remembered for its role in the fight at Kufra in 1941.
Later renamed the 2nd Light Division in August 1943, the division was reorganized under the US light armored division organization.
The division embarked in April 1944 and was shipped to various ports in Britain. On July 29, 1944, bound for France, the division embarked at Southampton, and was landed in Normandy on August 1, 1944.
During combat in 1944, the division liberated Paris, defeated a Panzer brigade during the armored clashes in Lorraine, forced the Saverne Gap, and liberated Strasbourg.
After taking part in the Battle of the Colmar Pocket, the division was moved west, and assaulted the German-held Atlantic port of Royan. The division then recrossed France in April 1945, and participated in the final fighting in southern Germany.
The 2e Division Blindée finished its campaigning in the Nazi resort town of Berchtesgaden, Bavaria, in southeastern Germany.
The division was the first Allied unit to reach the “Berghof”, Adolf Hitler’s vacation home in the Obersalzberg of the Bavarian Alps near Berchtesgaden, Bavaria, Germany.
On May 4, 1945, forward elements of the US 7th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Infantry Division arrived and received the surrender of Berchtesgaden, the town down the mountain from the “Berghof”.
Deactivated after the war, the 2nd Armored Division was again activated in 1977 and served through 1999, when it was downsized to become the 2nd Armored Brigade.
The division’s 14,454 personnel included men from the 2nd Light Division, escapees from metropolitan France, about 3,600 Moroccans and Algerians, and about 350 Spanish Republican veterans of the Spanish Civil War.
Other sources give about 2,000, and official records of the 2e DB show fewer than 300 Spaniards, as they hid their nationality, fearing retaliation against their families in Spain.
“Marche de la 2e Division Blindée” • “March of the 2nd Armored Division”
Armée française • August 24, 1943 – March 31, 1946, 1977–1999
Lyrics
| Aprés le Tchad, l’Angleterre et la France Le long chemin qui mene vers Paris Le coeur joyeux tout gonflé d’espérance Ils ont suivi la gloire qui les conduits. Sur une France, une croix de Lorraine, Ecusson d’or, qu’on porte fièrement, C’est le joyaux que veulent nos marraines, C’est le flambeaux de tous nos régiments. |
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| REFRAIN Division de fer toujours en avant Les gars de Leclerc passent en chantant. Jamais ils ne s’attardent, la victoire n’attend pas et chacun les regarde Saluant chapeau bas. Division de fer toujours souriant Les gars de Leclerc passent en chantant. D.B. vive la deuxième DB ! |
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| Ils ont vecu des heures merveilleuses Depuis Koufra, Ghadamès et Cherbourg. Pour eux Paris fut l’entrée glorieuse Mais ils voulaient la Lorraine et Strasbourg, Et tout là-haut dans le beau ciel d’Alsace Faire flotter notre drapeaux vainqueur C’est le serment magnifique et tenace Qu’ils avaient fait dans les heures de douleur. |
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| REFRAIN Division de fer toujours en avant Les gars de Leclerc passent en chantant. Jamais ils ne s’attardent, la victoire n’attend pas et chacun les regarde Saluant chapeau bas. Division de fer toujours souriant Les gars de Leclerc passent en chantant. D.B. vive la deuxième DB ! |
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| Ils ont connu des brunes et des blondes Dans les pays qui les ont vus passer Mais dans leur coeur un seul amour au monde Notre pays qu’ils viennent délivrer. C’est pour eux tous dans un doux coin de la France La fiancée qui attend le retour, Elle oubliera tous les jours de souffrance Quand la victoire lui rendra son amour. |
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| REFRAIN Division de fer toujours en avant Les gars de Leclerc passent en chantant. Jamais ils ne s’attardent, la victoire n’attend pas et chacun les regarde Saluant chapeau bas. Division de fer toujours souriant Les gars de Leclerc passent en chantant. D.B. vive la deuxième DB ! |
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| Au coin du feu dans la paix radieuse, Très fièrement auprès de leurs enfants Ils conteront l’histoire merveilleuse Des bataillons de notre régiment Gars de Leclerc sera le mot de passe Qui groupera la poignée de français Disant “malgré” quand la defaite passe Restant debout, ne se rendant jamais. |
World War II operations – Free French campaigns
Order of battle
Infantry
Ier Régiment de Marche du Tchad
IIème Régiment de Marche du Tchad
IIIème Régiment de Marche du Tchad
Reconnaissance
1er Régiment de Marche de Spahis Marocains
Armor
501e Régiment de chars de combat
12ème Régiment de Chasseurs d’Afrique
12ème Régiment de Cuirassiers
Tank destroyers
Régiment Blindé de Fusiliers Marins (R.B.F.M)
Artillery
1er groupe du 3ème Régiment d’Artillerie Coloniale (1/3° R.A.C)
1er Groupe du 40ème Régiment d’Artillerie Nord Africain (1/40° R.A.N.A)
IIeme Groupe du 64ème Régiment d’Artillerie (64° R.A)
Anti-Aircraft
22ème Groupe Colonial de F.T.A
Engineers
13ème Bataillon du Génie
Signals
97/84ème Compagnie Mixte de Transmissions
Motor transport and services
97ème Compagnie de Quartier Général
197ème Compagnie de Transport
297ème Compagnie de Transport
397ème Compagnie de Circulation Routière
497ème Compagnie de Services
Supply
15ème Groupe d’Escadrons de Réparations (15e G.E.R)
Medical
1ère Compagnie Médicale et Groupe d’Ambulancières “Rochambeau” (Rochambelles)
2ème Compagnie Médicale et Groupe d’Ambulancières de la Marine (“Marinettes”)
3ème Compagnie Médicale et groupe d’Ambulancières “Quakers” (Britanniques)
Tactical organization
Groupement tactique “Dio” (G.T.D)
Colonel Dio
Ier Régiment de Marche du Tchad
4ème R.M.S.M
12ème Cuirassiers
3ème R.B.F.M
1/3ème R.A.C
2/13ème Bataillon du génie
Groupement tactique “Langlade” (G.T.L)
Colonel de Langlade
IIème Régiment de Marche du Tchad
2ème R.M.S.M
12ème Régiment de Chasseurs d’Afrique
4ème R.B.F.M
1/40ème R.A.N.A
2/13ème Bataillon du génie
Groupement tactique Warabiot (G.T.V)
Colonel Warabiot, puis
Colonel Billotte, puis
Colonel de Guillebon
IIIème Régiment de Marche du Tchad
3ème R.M.S.M
501ème Régiment de Chars de Combat2ème R.B.F.M
11/64ème R.A
2/13ème Bataillon du génie
Landing in Normandy and fighting in the Falaise Pocket
The 2e DB landed at Utah Beach in Normandy on August 1, 1944, about two months after the D-Day landings. The division served under General Patton as part of Third Army.
12ème Régiment de Chasseurs d’Afrique), 2e Division Blindée
landing in Normandy from USS LST-517 on August 2, 1944
The division played a critical role in the battle of the Argentan-Falaise Pocket (August 12–21, 1944), after the Allied breakout from Normandy. The 2e DB served as a link between American and Canadian armies, and made rapid progress against German forces.
The 2e DB all but destroyed the 9th Panzer Division, and defeated several other German units. During the Battle for Normandy, the 2nd Division lost 133 men killed, 648 wounded, and 85 missing.
Material losses of the 2e DB included 76 armored vehicles, 7 cannons, 27 halftracks, and 133 other vehicles.
In the same period, the 2nd Armored Division inflicted losses on the Germans of 4,500 killed and 8,800 taken prisoner. German material losses in combat against the 2nd Armored Division during the same period were 117 tanks, 79 cannons, and 750 wheeled vehicles.
The Liberation of Paris
The most celebrated moment in the history of the 2e DB was the Liberation of Paris. Although Allied strategy emphasized the destruction of German forces retreating towards the Rhine river, the Forces françaises de l’Intérieur, French Forces of the Interior (FFI), the armed forces of the French Resistance, staged an uprising in Paris.
The final phase of Operation Overlord, the battle of the Falaise Pocket (August 12–21, 1944), was still ongoing. Under constant pressure from the Allies throughout Europe, the German armed forces were retreating as fast as they could toward the Rhine river.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, was not considering the liberation of Paris to be a primary objective.
The goal of the Allies was to destroy as many German formations as possible to hasten the end of the war in Europe. This would allow the Allies to concentrate all their efforts against Japan in the Pacific war.
At that time, the Warsaw Uprising (August 1 – October 2, 1944) was raging in the Polish capitol. During the uprising, Hitler ordered the destruction of the entire city of Warsaw.
The uprising infuriated Nazi leaders, who decided to make an example of the city. Earlier they had selected Warsaw for major reconstruction as part of their planned Germanization of Central Europe.
“The city must completely disappear from the surface of the earth and serve only as a transport station for the Wehrmacht. No stone can remain standing. Every building must be razed to its foundation”. – Heinrich Himmler, Reichsführer-SS (Schutzstaffel), Realm Leader-Protection Squadron, SS officers’ conference, October 17, 1944
Avenue des Champs-Élysées, Paris, France – August 26, 1944
Heinrich Himmler was a leading member of the Nazi Party, Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP), National Socialist German Workers’ Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful Nazis, and the main architect of the Holocaust.
The Warsaw Uprising was an attempt by the Polish underground resistance, led by the Armia Krajowa (Home Army), to liberate Warsaw from German occupation.
The Uprising was fought for 63 days in the summer of 1944, with little outside support. It was the single largest military effort undertaken by any European resistance movement during the Second World War.
The Nazi leadership dedicated an unprecedented effort to destroy Warsaw. Their decision tied up considerable resources that were desperately needed elsewhere on the Eastern Front, and in the newly-opened Western Front, following the Allied landings in Normandy. The Germans destroyed 80–90% of Warsaw’s buildings and deliberately demolished, burned, and stole an immense portion of Polish cultural heritage.
As the Warsaw Uprising was raging throughout the city, the approaching Red Army did not intervene to help the Polish Home Army resistance.
Instead, they waited for two months at the eastern suburbs of the city, while the Germans crushed the Polish Home Army resistance, and razed the city to the ground.
At the same time that the Allies were approaching Paris, the Warsaw Uprising was raging in the Polish capitol. The Polish Home Army resistance was fighting for the liberation of Warsaw.
General Eisenhower was aware that Adolf Hitler had ordered the German armed forces to completely destroy the city of Warsaw. General Eisenhower was also aware that Adolf Hitler had ordered the German armed forces to completely destroy the city of Paris in the event of an Allied attack.
On August 19, 1944, a faction of the French Resistance under Henri Rol-Tanguy staged an uprising in Paris. Charles de Gaulle threatened to send the 2e DB into Paris, alone, to prevent the uprising from being crushed, as was then happening in Warsaw, the Polish capitol.
General Eisenhower agreed to let the French 2nd Armored Division and the U.S. 4th Infantry Division liberate Paris. In the early morning of August 23, 1944, Leclerc’s 2e DB left the south of Argentan on its march to Paris. Progress of the march was slowed by poor road conditions, huge French crowds, and fierce combat near Paris.
Avenue des Champs-Élysées, Paris, France – August 26, 1944
On August 24, General Leclerc sent a small advance party to enter the city, with the message that the 2nd Armored Division would be there the following day.
This advance party, commanded by Captain Raymond Dronne, were the men of the 9th company of the 3rd Battalion of the Régiment de marche du Tchad.
Dronne and his men arrived at the Hôtel de Ville (City Hall), in the center of Paris, shortly before 9:30 pm on the evening of August 24.
On August 25, the 2nd Armored Division and the U.S. 4th Infantry Division entered Paris and liberated the city.
Adolf Hitler had ordered General Dietrich von Choltitz, the German military governor of Paris, to destroy the city, rather than let it be captured intact by the Allies.
Following his order to destroy Paris, Hitler reportedly called General von Choltitz on the phone, asking him, “Brennt Paris?” (“Is Paris burning?”)
General von Choltitz ignored Hitler’s order, and did not destroy Paris.
On August 25, 1944, General von Choltitz surrendered the city to the French at the Hôtel Meurice, the newly established French headquarters.
General Charles de Gaulle of the French Army arrived to assume control of the city as head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic.
Hard fighting to capture the city of Paris had cost the 2nd Armored Division 35 tanks, 6 self-propelled guns, and 111 vehicles.
The following day, August 26, a great victory parade took place on the
Avenue des Champs-Élysées. The people of Paris turned out in huge numbers, and the street was lined with a jubilant crowd acclaiming General de Gaulle and the liberators of Paris.
Alsace and Lorraine
The 2nd Armored Division later fought in the tank battles in Lorraine, destroying the German 112th Panzer Brigade at the town of Dompaire on September 13, 1944.
Later, the 2nd Armored Division operated with U.S. forces during the assault into the Vosges Mountains. Serving as the armored exploitation force for the U.S. XV Corps, the 2nd Division forced the Saverne Gap. They thrust boldly forward, unbalancing German defenses in northern Alsace, and liberated Strasbourg on November 23, 1944. The Presidential Unit Citation was awarded to the division for this action.
Fighting in Alsace until the end of February 1945, the 2nd Armored Division was sent to reduce the Royan Pocket on the western coast of France in March–April 1945.
Germany
The 2e DB forced the Germans in the Royan Pocket to surrender on April 18, 1945. The 2nd Armored Division crossed France again, and rejoined the Allied 6th Army Group for final operations in Germany.
Elements of the French 2nd Armored Division operated with the U.S. 12th Armored Division. They pursued remnants of German Army Group G across Swabia and Bavaria, and occupyed the town of Bad Reichenhall on May 4, 1945.
Eventually, the 2nd Armored Division finished the war at the Nazi resort town of Berchtesgaden in Southeastern Germany.
2e Division Blindée Combat Casualties
According to the Defence Historical Service, the 2e DB counted 1,224 dead (including 96 Maghrebis) and 5,257 wounded (including 584 Maghrebis) at the end of the campaign in northwestern Europe. According to another source, the unit counted 1,687 dead, including 108 officers, and 3,300 wounded.
The division had killed 12,100 Axis soldiers, captured 41,500, and destroyed 332 heavy and medium tanks, 2,200 other vehicles, and 426 cannons of various types.
Cold War
On May 13, 1945, SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force) relinquished operational control of the 2nd Armored Division to France. From 23 to 28 May 1945, the 2nd Armored Division moved to its new garrison in the region of Paris. The division was deactivated on March 31, 1946.
The French Army was extensively reorganised in 1977, with three-brigade divisions being dissolved and small divisions of four or five regiments and battalions being created.
Records from the late 1960s and early 1970s show the 501 Régiment de Chars de Combat (501e RCC) being part of the 2nd Brigade of the 8th Armored Division, part of the 1st Corps of the First Army (France). The 2nd Brigade of the 8th Armored Division – ‘qui est l’heritière des traditions de la 2e DB’ – carried on the traditions of the 2nd Armored Division.
The 2nd Armored Division appears to have been reformed at this time. From the late 1970s until 1999, the 2nd Armored Division was headquartered in Versailles, and was subordinated to the French III Corps. The 2nd Armored Division became the 2nd Armored Brigade in 1999.