82 years ago, on 9 September 1943, Ajaccio became the first town in France and Allied Europe to free itself from enemy occupation.
It was a seminal moment that made Corsica the first French territory to be liberated.
A few weeks later, on 5 October 1943, General de Gaulle set foot on liberated French soil for the first time, at Campo dell'Oro airfield.
On 8 October, in Ajaccio, he paid tribute to the courage of the Corsicans by declaring:
👉 «Corsica had the good fortune and honour of being the first part of France to be liberated. The Corsican patriots [...] could have waited for the victory of the allied armies to settle their fate happily. But they themselves wanted to be the victors.»
Let us honour the memory of those who fought for freedom and recall with pride this luminous page in our history.
