Liberation of Rennes
Part of theliberation of France
US advancement into Brittany in WW2
Date 4 August 1944 Location Rennes,France Result Allied victory
Belligerents
United States Free France	Germany Bezen Perrot
Commanders and leaders
George Patton John Shirley Wood Pierre Herbart Yves Milon	Eugen König Paul Hausser
Units involved
8th Infantry Division French Forces of the Interior	XXV Army Corps
Casualties and losses
At least 50 killed 20 captured	At least 60 killed At least 130 injured

Theliberation of Rennes, along with its surrounding settlements, took place on 4 August 1944 by the joint action of theFrench Forces of the Interior (FFI) and the8th Infantry Division of theUnited States Army led byGeneral Georges S. Patton, ending four years of occupation of thecity by theNazi Germans as part of the liberation ofBrittany.^[1][2][3]

The city has been captured since 18 June 1940 by German troops without resistance, after the France's defeat in theBattle of France.^[4]

Rennes faced bombardment numerous times in June 1944 during theBattle of Normandy. On June 8, AmericanMartin B-26 Marauder bombers were ordered to bomb the marshalling yard used by the17th SS Panzergrenadier Division which was moving up to northern France to confront the Allied bridgehead inNormandy. In 9 June the Royal Air Force bombed strategic German targets. Three days later, US Air ForceBoeing B-17 Flying Fortress, again, carried out several raids on the city, some of which were intercepted byMesserschmitt Bf 109 and others shot down byFlak guns of the German anti-aircraft defense force.^[5]

After the success ofOperation Cobra and the ensuing breakthrough atAvranches July 1944, theAllies' trampling on theOperation Overlord ends and the liberation of Brittany begins.

Initially wishing to bypass Rennes in order to charge on Brest Lorient and Saint-Nazaire, the main Breton ports, which had been transformed, for the most part, into by theWehrmacht, the Americans found themselves blocked in Rennes by the resistance of multiple German units.^[6]

On 1 August 1944, while the Americans had just liberatedAvranches, the progression of a spearhead from the 4th Armored Division was hampered at 3 p.m. by a German anti-aircraft unit at a place called Maison-Blanche. ElevenM4 Sherman tanks and threehalf-tracks, killing 50 soldiers, wounding 20, and 20 others were captured.^[7] The Saint-Laurent church, to the north, serving as an observatory for the German gunners, was destroyed as well.

Americanartillery then hit the city. On August 2, due to communication problems in the American General Staff and the absence of infantry available to penetrate the city, no progress was made and Major-GeneralJohn Shirley Wood hadRennes bypassed to the west with his combat groups A and B, going down toChâteaubriant, but he was forced to move towardsVannes andLorient when he wanted to go back toAngers in the direction ofParis.^[8] This halt in front ofRennes had two harmful consequences; on the morning of 3 August, the Germans sent off a train of 800 resistance fighters and 400 Allied prisoners in the direction ofGermany and, on the night of the 3 to the 4th of August, ColonelEugen König received authorization fromGeneral Paul Hausser, commanding the7th Army, to evacuate the city being encircled. The servants of the German DCA batteries evacuate after having put them out of service. On the evening of 3 August, units of the 8th US Infantry Division had launched an assault against the city in theGantelles sector. On the morning of the 4th, soldiers of the 13th infantry  regiment of the 8th division  entered the town around 9:00 am without encountering any resistance.^[9]

On 3 August at the end of the afternoon, the town hall ofRennes had been controlled by the Resistance, under the orders ofPierre Herbart, andYves Milon, appointed president of the special delegation. His mastery of English, necessary for relations with the American army, would have been a decisive asset in his appointment to this post.^[10] TheVichy mayor, René Patay, and his deputies and secretaries were ousted. The Germans tried to set fire to the building, but it was quickly brought under control.^[7] On 4 August, the resistance fighterVictor Pierre Le Gorgeu takes office as Commissioner of the Republic instituted by the Provisional Government of theFrench Republic, installed byPierre Herbart.

General de Gaulle thus succeeded in setting up his administration in the first major liberated city in France, avoiding the establishment of an allied military government in the occupied territories, theAllied Military Government in Occupied Territories (AMGOT).

The scattered units under the command of ColonelEugen König will retreat towardsSaint-Nazaire. During their retreat, several fights opposed them to the FFI and the Americans, because the surrounding areas had already been liberated. 60 German soldiers were thus killed and 130 others wounded in total.^[7]

• Military history of Rennes
• Conflicts in 1944
• 1944 in France
• August 1944 in Europe
• Battles of World War II involving France
• Battles of World War II involving Germany
• Battles of World War II involving the United States
• George S. Patton

• CS1 French-language sources (fr)