French General inspects liberated Colmar.

French General inspects liberated Colmar. Shortly after the Nazis were routed from Colmar February 3, 1945, General Guy Schlosser (center), Commanding General of the Fifth French Armored Division, First French Army, inspects a sector of the liberated city, the third largest in Alsace. Colmar, occupied by the Nazis since 1940, was freed by Seventh U.S. Army infantrymen who entered the city from the north and French armored formations who pushed in from the west. The rout of the Germans was the signal for the collapse of all organized enemy resistance in Southern Alsace. Less than a week later, February 9, 1945, General de Lattre de Tassigny, Commander of the First French Army, telegraphed the French Minister of War: 'I have great pleasure in announcing that the battle of Alsace ended this morning at eight o'clock. French troops and their American comrades are standing on the Rhine along the whole length of their front'.