<P> On 6 June 1944 (known as D - Day), after three years of Soviet pressure, the Western Allies invaded northern France . After reassigning several Allied divisions from Italy, they also attacked southern France . These landings were successful, and led to the defeat of the German Army units in France . Paris was liberated by the local resistance assisted by the Free French Forces, both led by General Charles de Gaulle, on 25 August and the Western Allies continued to push back German forces in western Europe during the latter part of the year . An attempt to advance into northern Germany spearheaded by a major airborne operation in the Netherlands failed . After that, the Western Allies slowly pushed into Germany, but failed to cross the Ruhr river in a large offensive . In Italy, Allied advance also slowed due to the last major German defensive line . </P> <P> On 22 June, the Soviets launched a strategic offensive in Belarus ("Operation Bagration") that destroyed the German Army Group Centre almost completely . Soon after that another Soviet strategic offensive forced German troops from Western Ukraine and Eastern Poland . The Soviet advance prompted resistance forces in Poland to initiate several uprisings against the German occupation . However, the largest of these in Warsaw, where German soldiers massacred 200,000 civilians, and a national uprising in Slovakia, did not receive Soviet support and were subsequently suppressed by the Germans . The Red Army's strategic offensive in eastern Romania cut off and destroyed the considerable German troops there and triggered a successful coup d'état in Romania and in Bulgaria, followed by those countries' shift to the Allied side . </P> <P> In September 1944, Soviet troops advanced into Yugoslavia and forced the rapid withdrawal of German Army Groups E and F in Greece, Albania and Yugoslavia to rescue them from being cut off . By this point, the Communist - led Partisans under Marshal Josip Broz Tito, who had led an increasingly successful guerrilla campaign against the occupation since 1941, controlled much of the territory of Yugoslavia and engaged in delaying efforts against German forces further south . In northern Serbia, the Red Army, with limited support from Bulgarian forces, assisted the Partisans in a joint liberation of the capital city of Belgrade on 20 October . A few days later, the Soviets launched a massive assault against German - occupied Hungary that lasted until the fall of Budapest in February 1945 . Unlike impressive Soviet victories in the Balkans, bitter Finnish resistance to the Soviet offensive in the Karelian Isthmus denied the Soviets occupation of Finland and led to a Soviet - Finnish armistice on relatively mild conditions, although Finland was forced to fight their former allies . </P> <P> By the start of July 1944, Commonwealth forces in Southeast Asia had repelled the Japanese sieges in Assam, pushing the Japanese back to the Chindwin River while the Chinese captured Myitkyina . In September 1944, Chinese force captured the Mount Song to reopen the Burma Road . In China, the Japanese had more successes, having finally captured Changsha in mid-June and the city of Hengyang by early August . Soon after, they invaded the province of Guangxi, winning major engagements against Chinese forces at Guilin and Liuzhou by the end of November and successfully linking up their forces in China and Indochina by mid-December . </P>

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