Verenigde Staten. Colmar celebrates liberation. Major General Frank W.

Verenigde Staten. Colmar celebrates liberation. Major General Frank W. Milburn, Commander of the 21st Corps, Seventh U.S. Army (far left), General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, Commander of the First French Army (right), and Major General Norman D. Cota (behind General de Tassigny at left), Commander of the 28th Infantry Division of the Seventh U.S. Army, inspect tanks of the Fifth Armored Division, First French Army, during celebrations following the liberation of Colmar February 3, 1945. The Nazis, who had occupied Colmar since 1940, were defeated in the city when infantrymen under General Cota's command entered from the north and armored formations under General de Tassigny's command slashed in from the east. The liberation of Colmar, the third largest city in Alsace, was the signal for the collapse of organized Nazi resistance in Southern Alsace and less than a week later the enemy had been routed from a 90-mile stretch west of the Rhine River.