Eighty years ago this week the resistance spearheads an uprising against the Germans in Paris

 

 

Under the orders of the Communist Henry Rol-Tanguy, who had placed himself at the head  of the resistance in the Paris region a rising was proclaimed against the German occupiers as the Allied armies approached the city. The police and other government services had already gone on strike and this broadened into a general strike. Barricades were erected and sporadic fighting broke out with German forces, although there was no full scale battle. The Swedish consul brokered a short-lived truce under which the Germans did not attack buildings occupied by resisters, who agreed not to attack Germans retreating from the city

Marshal Petain and Pierre Laval had (separately) been attempting to position themselves to negotiate with the invading allies. How much of this was known to the Germans is unclear but they had no intention of letting Petain play any role other than their puppet. He was detained in Vichy and - under the threat that the town would be bombed if he refused - was taken by force to Germany where he was installed at Sigmaringen Castle.

Representatives of China, Britain, the US and the Soviet Union ("the four policemen") met at Dumbarton Oaks near Washington to discuss the future of the world after the war. As the Soviets refused direct conversations with the Chinese, discussions  had to be held in two successive sets of three power talks. In practice the conference was to discuss the creation of an organisation to succeed the failed League of Nations of the interwar period.