After having succeeded in regaining Strasbourg, the allied forces must stop before a strong zone of resistance of the Germans that, protected by the floodings of the river ILL forms a " pocket " around Colmar.

The general de LATTRE de TASSIGNY of the First French Army pings up two attacks that will leave from the north flank and the south flank of the pocket. For the first time, he will have under his orders some American divisions.

Colmar is freed February 2, 1945.

Taken in pincers Fepuary 5, the Wehrmacht folds back and the " pocket " of Colmar is defeated Fepuary 9, 1945.

Jean-Marie de LATTRE de TASSIGNY (1889-1952), Marshal of France,   was one of the signatories of the capitulation with the German headquarters in 1945.

Born in Mouilleron-en-Pareds (Vendée), descended of an old bourgeois family, Jean-Marie Gabriel de LATTRE chooses the cavalry in the exit of the military school of Saint-Cyr in 1908 and, after the school of application of Saumur, integrated a regiment of dragons. Versed to her demand in the infantry in 1915, one year after the starting point of World War I, four times injured, he finished the war as captain, after having won eight quotes to the fight.

Volunteer in 1925 to serve to Morocco, during the war of the Rif, he was wounded severely and must regain the metropolis the following year. Admitted in 1927 to the superior school of war, of which he took regimental adjutant, he was affected in 1931 to the headquarters of the general Weygand, remained then until 1935.

Named colonel, he ordered, of 1935 to 1937, the 5th regiment of infantry, based in Metz. Pupil of the Center of the high military studies, then chief of headquarters of the general Hering, military governor of Strasbourg, he was in 1939 youngest general of the French army.

Chief of headquarters of the Fifth Armee in Alsace, he fought in 1940, at the time of the war lightning of May - June, to the head of the 14th division of infantry, and opposed a resistance set against in the Wehrmacht, in the Aisne and the Ardennes. Named military commander of Puy-de-Dôme, then placed to the head of the XIIIe military region after the armistice, he founded several schools of settings.

Named in 1941 commander of the troops of Tunisie,  he came back in France in January 1942 and took the command of the 16th military division in Montpellier.

In rupture with the regime of Pétain, he was stopped and convicted at ten years of confinement for treason. Transferred in Fepuary 1943 in Riom, he escaped in September and won London, then Algiers.

Loaded by the general Giraud of the command of the B army (that had to receive in September 1944 the name of First French army), he prepared the landing of Provence, under the orders of the American general Patch. After the hold of the island of Elbe (of the 17 to June 20), de LATTRE disembarked in Provence the 17août 1944.

He signed the act of capitulation  of Germany, May 8, 1945, and  was named commander-in-chief of the French occupation army in Germany. To the head of the terrestrial strengths of the western union in 1948, he took in 1951 the French strength command in Indochina.

Sick, very affected by the death of his son,  he must be repatriated in France in November 1951. After his death, intervening in January 1952, he was raised to posthumous title to the dignity of Marshal of France.