<P> Paris was not bombed as often or as heavily as London or Berlin, but the factories and railway yards in the outer parts of the city and suburbs were frequent targets . A night raid on the La Chapelle railway station in the 18th arrondissement on 20 - 21 - April 1944 killed between 640 and 670 persons and destroyed hundreds of buildings . </P> <P> The Allies landed at Normandy on 6 June 1944 and two months later broke the German lines to advance toward Paris . As the Allies advanced, strikes organised by the Resistance disrupted the railways, police and other public services in the city . On August 19, the resistance networks gave the orders for a general uprising in the city . Its forces seized the prefecture of police and other public buildings in the heart of the city . General Leclerc's French 2nd Armored Division and the American 4th Infantry Division entered the city on August 25 and converged in the centre, where they were met by delirious crowds . The German commander of Paris, Dietrich von Choltitz, ignored an order from Adolf Hitler to destroy the monuments of the city and surrendered it on 25 August . General de Gaulle arrived on 26 August and led a massive parade down the Champs Élysées, all the way to Notre - Dame for a Te Deum ceremony . On 29 August, the US Army's entire 28th Infantry Division, which had assembled in the Bois de Boulogne the previous night, paraded 24 - abreast up the Avenue Hoche to the Arc de Triomphe, then down the Champs Élysées . The division, men and vehicles, marched through Paris "on its way to assigned attack positions northeast of the French capital ." </P> <P> The wear and tear of decades of neglect were painfully obvious in smoke - blackened stone facades, cracked and untended stucco, and peeling paintwork in post-World War II Paris . However, by the mid-1970s, Paris had been repaired and refurbished on a scale that echoed the age of Haussmann . </P> <P> The Liberation of Paris and the end of the war did not end the hardships of the Parisians . Rationing of bread continued until February 1948, and coffee, cooking oil, sugar and rice were rationed until May 1949 . Housing in Paris was old and run - down . In 1954, thirty - five percent of Paris apartment buildings had been built before 1871 . Eighty - one percent of Paris apartments did not have their own bathroom, and fifty - five percent did not have their own toilet, yet housing was expensive and in short supply . In 1950, the government began a new large - scale project to construct apartment blocks for low - income Parisians, called HLMs (habitations à loyers modérés), usually on the edges of the city or in the suburbs . </P>

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