Paris fell to Nazi Germany on June 14, 1940, one month after the German Wehrmacht stormed into France. Eight days later, France signed an armistice with the Germans, and a puppet French state was set up with its capital at Vichy. Elsewhere, however, General Charles de Gaulle and the Free French kept fighting, and the Resistance sprang up in occupied France to resist Nazi and Vichy rule. From August 19 â 25, 1944 the French 2nd Armored Division and the U.S. 4th Infantry Division fought the Nazis at Paris ab a formal surrender was signed on the afternoon of the 25th. On August 26, Free French General Charles de Gaulle led a joyous liberation march down the Champs dâElysees.