Paris: Editions G. P., [1945]

Alsace and Lorraine were more heavily fought over than any other part of France except Normandy. French tanks had entered Strasbourg on 23 November 1944. In January 1945 the Germans had forced back the Allies, but by the end of January the offensive had petered out. The much later liberation of Colmar was due to the battle of the ‘Poche de Colmar’ (Colmar Pocket), an area in central Alsace held by the Germans. On 2/3 February the French 152nd Infantry Regiment, Colmar’s pre-war garrison, entered the city and by 9 February there were no German troops left on the west bank of the Rhine in the Colmar region.