On June 4, 1944 (the 14th of the fourth lunar month), the Allies captured Rome. France sent troops on a chaotic Italian battlefield On June 4, 1944, the Allies defeated the Nazi final resistance with astonishing speed and entered Rome that night. They were warmly welcomed by many residents of the city. Rome had little strategic value to the Allies. But it was one of the capitals of the Axis countries and the first capital to be liberated from the Nazis. A German army stubbornly made its final defensive resistance outside the city gate. But when U.S. General Mark Clark ordered his troops to open fire, the Germans retreated. The Allies quickly fanned through the city, engaged a guard team in the Roman Forum, destroyed a police patrol car near Trajan's Column, and searched for Nazi snipers who might have fallen behind. In the last Allied assault, the city of Rome suffered little damage, and the city's residents cooperated with the Allies to clear the streets. The retreating German troops ignored Adolf Hitler's orders and did not bomb the bridges over the Tiber River. The city's monuments remain intact, except that the railway yard appears to have suffered considerable damage. The Allies have marched 15 miles in the past 24 hours. They moved so quickly that they were attacked many times along the way by the enemy in small patches of Nazi positions. More than 1000 German troops were captured and 600 enemy vehicles were destroyed. The U.S. military was extremely excited to occupy Rome.