General Charles de Gaulle had won Parisian hearts. He had also won a practically unchallenged right to rule France. His hour of triumph, ticked off by snipers' fire at him, was one for history. Eyewitnesses recorded it:
At 18 minutes past 3 on the afternoon of Saturday, August 26, General de Gaulle bent his tall, awkward body below the Arc de Triomphe and laid on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier two bunches of flame-colored gladioli. The flame at the tomb still burned. De Gaulle laid a Cross of Lorraine, fashioned of white roses, beside the gladioli, and stood at attention while a bugler sounded Aux Marts (taps).
As the General turned to start his march down the Champs Elysees, the person closest to him was a Negro in a dirty white shirt, his arm in a sling made of a dirty towel. He was one of the bravest fighters in Paris' week-long battle for liberation, and there was something significant in the nearness of this symbol of a new, militant, common man's France.
Not Since Bastille Day. De Gaulle stepped out on his long legs. Behind him were General Joseph-Pierre Koenig, commander of the French Forces of the Interior, and General Jacques Leclerc, the commander of France's Second Armored Division. On each side rumbled Leclerc's tanks. Behind the Generals marched leaders of the motley bands of the F.F.I., and behind them the most bizarre parade that ever trod this historic avenue.
There were cars of every kind but new ones, piled high with people. They waved flags and handkerchiefs, saluted, made the V sign. One girl sat on the hood of an old car, her arm aloft, her eyes burning with joy and pride. A captain sat on a tank, his hand held stiffly at attention, tears streaming down his face.
The crowd that packed the avenue from buildings to nearly midway of the road was a crowd of every kind of people. One woman, at least 70 years old, stood atop a ladder twelve feet above the sidewalk. Others climbed trees, peered out from windows and roofs. Perhaps not since Bastille Day had the people of France celebrated such a victory.
Then, the Shouting. Down the Champs Elysees into the Place de la Concorde went the procession, at the pace of De Gaulle's brisk walk. There he and the dignitaries got into cars and the procession proceeded down Rue de Rivoli at 40 m.p.h. to the Hotel de Ville. There the Committee of Liberation received De Gaulle as head of the Provisional Government. Then the procession crossed the river to lie Saint-Louis and Notre Dame.
In front of the Hotel de Ville the shooting started. Dozens of cars and jeeps jamming the square were suddenly slowed by a narrow street. A machine gun let go from the top story of a high building across from the Hotel de Ville. Then other machine guns and rifles fired from above. Everything stopped. People dived under cars, trucks, jeeps, while every man who had a gun or a pistol—and hundreds had—started firing. The thousands of pedestrians in the square stampeded, scattered, fell flat, piled three or four deep in places.
The shooting spread. Soon there was shooting all over Paris.