donowitz:

“Photo taken in July 1945 in Lorient, of General De Gaulle (C) shaking hands with children, two months after the German capitulation. Lorient is a commune and a seaport in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France. Lorient was the location of a German U-boat (submarine) base during World War II. Between 14 January 1943 and 17 February 1943, as many as 500 high-explosive aerial bombs and more than 60,000 incendiary bombs were dropped on Lorient. The city was almost completely destroyed, with nearly 90% of the city flattened. Thousands of French civilians, as well as German military and naval men, were killed.”