Battle for Paris, and another 1,500 were wounded. German surrender – 25 August Despite repeated orders from Adolf Hitler that the French capital be destroyed before being given up, Choltitz surrendered on 25 August at the Hôtel Meurice. He then signed the official surrender at the Paris Police Prefecture. Choltitz later described himself in Is Paris Burning? (Brennt Paris?) as the saviour of Paris, for not blowing it up before surrendering. The same day, Charles , President of the Provisional Government of the French Republic moved back into the War Ministry and made a rousing speech to the crowd from the Hôtel de Ville. The day after 's speech, General Leclerc's 2nd Armored Division paraded down the Champs-Élysées, while marched down the boulevard and entered the Place de la Concorde. On 29 August, the U.S. Army's 28th Infantry Division paraded 24-abreast up the Avenue Hoche to the Arc de Triomphe, then down the Champs Élysées, greeted by joyous crowds. The uprising in Paris gave the newly established Free French government and , enough prestige and authority to establish a provisional French Republic, replacing the fallen Vichy regime, which had fled into exile. Southern France – August 1944 Planning and goals When first planned, the campaign in southern France and the landings in Normandy were to take place simultaneously—Operation Overlord in Normandy, and "Anvil" (as the southern campaign was originally called) in the south of France. A dual landing was soon recognized to be impossible; the southern campaign was postponed. The ports in Normandy had insufficient capacity to handle Allied military supply needs and French generals under pressed for a direct attack on southern France with the participation of French troops. Despite objections by Churchill, the operation was authorized by the Allied Combined Chiefs of Staff on 14July and scheduled for 15August. The goal of the southern France campaign, now known as Operation Dragoon was to secure the vital ports on the French Mediterranean coast (of Marseille and Toulon.) and pressure German forces with another front. The US VI Corps landed on the beaches of the French Riviera () on 15 August 1944 shielded by a large naval task force, followed by several divisions of French Army B (commanded by Jean de Lattre de Tassigny.). They were opposed by the scattered forces of the German Army Group G, (HeeresgruppeG) which had been weakened by the relocation of its divisions to other