History France War

When Nicholas Shakespeare stumbled across a trunk full of his late aunt's personal belongings, he was unaware of where this discovery would take him and what he would learn about her hidden past. The glamorous, mysterious figure he remembered from his childhood was very different from the morally ambiguous young woman who emerged from the trove of love letters, journals, and photographs, surrounded by suitors and living the precarious existence of a British citizen in a country controlled by the enemy during World War II.

The challenges facing General Dwight Eisenhower before the Invasion of Normandy were not merely military, but political as well. He knew that to liberate France, and to hold it, the Allies needed local help, which would necessitate coordinating with the highly independent French resistance groups known collectively as the maquis. The Allies' objective was to push the Germans out of France. The French objective, on the other hand, was a France free of all foreign armies, including the Allies.

Le 18 juin 1940 : naissance de Charles de Gaulle. Naissance à Londres derrière un micro avec des mots qui promettent à la France, vaincue par les chars et les avions, la victoire par les chars et les avions. Mais la France n'est pas à l'écoute. La France est sur les routes, dans les villes surpeuplées du Sud-Ouest et du Midi, dans les camps de prisonniers. La France ne parle le 18 juin que d'un seul appel, d'un seul discours, celui que le maréchal Pétain a lancé le 17 juin pour dire qu'il fallait cesser le combat et demander l'armistice. Et la France est d'accord.

Vividly capturing the heady times in the waning months of World War II, Ronald Weber follows the exploits of Allied reporters as they flooded into liberated Paris after four dark years of Nazi occupation. He traces the remarkable adventures of the men and women who lived, worked, and played in the legendary Hôtel Scribe, set in a highly fashionable part of the largely undamaged city. Press jeeps and trailers packed the street outside, while inside the hotel was completely booked with hundreds of correspondents.

Nel sesto volume della serie "Breve Storia di Napoleone Bonaparte" si ripercorrono gli avvenimenti essenziali della campagna che rappresenta il punto di svolta nella carriera militare di Napoleone Bonaparte e delle guerre napoleoniche: l'invasione francese della Russia nel 1812 termina con una disastrosa sconfitta e con la distruzione delle truppe francesi e dei contingenti stranieri. Il completo annientamento della Grande Armata cambierà la storia dell'Europa.

In 1914, an American journalist retired to a small house in France - only to find herself in the middle of World War I, and eventually having an impact on the US's actions in the war. This is the story of 59-year-old Mildred Aldrich and her experiences of the First World War. She retired to a small hilltop house called La Creste in 1914, with views across the Marne River and Valley, little realising that she would become embroiled in the first major battle of the war. In spite of the danger, she decided to stay and help the British and French soldiers.

La Revolución francesa es un acontecimiento complejo en el que se unen demandas sociales de todos los estratos con ideas procedentes de la Ilustración y con los diferentes avatares que condujeron a Francia de un monarca despótico a un gobernante imperial. No puede explicarse solamente atendiendo a los hechos, aunque sí debe explicarse ciñéndose a ellos: eso es exactamente lo que hace Breve Historia de la Revolución Francesa.

In the spring of 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated. Having overseen an empire spanning half the European continent and governed the lives of some eighty million people, he suddenly found himself exiled to Elba, less than 100 square miles of territory. This would have been the end of him, if Europe's rulers had had their way. But soon enough Napoleon imposed his preternatural charisma and historic ambition on both his captors and the very island itself, plotting his return to France and to power.

Gallipoli: the mere name summons the story of this well-known campaign of the First World War. And the story of Gallipoli, where in August 1915 the Allied forces made their last valiant effort against the Turks, is one of infamous might-have-beens. If only the Allies had held out a little longer, pushed a little harder, had better luck, Gallipoli might have been the decisive triumph that knocked the Ottoman Empire out of the First World War.

In the hours before dawn on 6th June 1944, an unprecedented assemblage of men, weapons, and machines swung into action.The long-awaited, highly secret D-Day invasion had begun. By the end of the day, the mission to liberate Europe would have made its most crucial advance. This book marks the 75th anniversary of D-Day through a rich account of the invasion and its aftermath. Drawing on the unparalleled collections of IWM, it reconstructs the historic landings and the subsequent battle for a foothold in Normandy.

“Nada está perdido para a França.” (De Gaulle) Foi assim, por uma transmissão radiofônica de Londres, após ver seu país invadido pelos alemães, que Charles de Gaulle convocou os franceses a lutarem pela Resistência. Ele liderou o país nos momentos mais difíceis e tornou-se herói nacional. Nos diversos conflitos dos quais participou, De Gaulle lutou, foi ferido, acabou preso e, depois, fugitivo.

The most celebrated general in history, Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) has for centuries attracted eminent male writers. Since Thomas Carlyle first christened him “our last Great Man”, regiments of biographers have marched across the same territory, weighing campaigns and conflicts, military tactics and power politics. With Napoleon, Ruth Scurr, one of our most eloquent and original historians, emphatically rejects the shibboleth of the “Great Man” theory of history, instead following the dramatic trajectory of Napoleon’s life through gardens, parks, and forests.

On October 2, 1918, Maj. Charles W. Whittlesey led the 77th Division in a successful attack on German defenses in the Argonne Forest of northeastern France. His unit, comprised of men of a wide mix of ethnic backgrounds from New York City and the western states, was not a battalion nor was it ever "lost", but once a newspaper editor applied the term "lost battalion" to the episode, it stuck.

My father's notebook, kept carefully throughout his World War One service, is a treasured family keepsake. It was, however, rarely actually read, much less consulted for its first-hand account of his experiences on the Western Front. We all knew the basics, that he had been on the front lines on Armistice Day, November 11, 1918, and had recorded that fact. I transcribed that day's moving entry a few years back, and sent it to each of his grandchildren.

The French painter Jean Hélion’s unique and deeply moving account of his experiences in Nazi prisoner-of-war camps prefigures the even darker stories that would emerge from the concentration camps. This serious adventure tale begins with Hélion’s infantry platoon fleeing from the German army and warplanes as they advanced through France in the early days of the war. The soldiers chant as they march and run, “They shall not have me!” but are quickly captured and sent to hard labor.

In The Last of the Doughboys, Richard Rubin introduced readers to a forgotten generation of Americans: the men and women who fought and won the First World War. Interviewing the war’s last survivors face-to-face, he knew well the importance of being present if you want to get the real story. But he soon came to realize that to get the whole story, he had to go Over There, too. So he did, and discovered that while most Americans regard that war as dead and gone, to the French, who still live among its ruins and memories, it remains very much alive.

Over the course of its history, England has engaged in an uncountable number of battles, but a select few have been celebrated like the Battle of Trafalgar, one of the most important naval battles in history. Before the battle, Napoleon still harbored dreams of sailing an invasion force across the English Channel and subduing England, but that would be dashed on October 21, 1805 by a British fleet that was outnumbered and outgunned.

On September 20, 1940, one of the most famous European art dealers disembarked in New York, one of hundreds of Jewish refugees fleeing Vichy, France. Leaving behind his beloved Paris gallery, Paul Rosenberg had managed to save his family, but his paintings - modern masterpieces by Cézanne, Monet, Sisley, and others - were not so fortunate. As he fled, dozens of works were seized by Nazi forces, and the art dealer's own legacy was eradicated.

History celebrates George Washington as the leader of the American Revolution and the father of his country. But what has gone previously unexamined is Washington's life as a 22-year-old lieutenant colonel who led 400 American militiamen against a bigger, more experienced French army and paid a high price. Not only did Washington lose over a third of his men but the Battle of Great Meadows was also the spark that ignited the French and Indian War.

In 1815 deposed emperor Napoleon returned to France and threatened the already devastated and exhausted continent with yet another war. Near the small Belgian municipality of Waterloo, two large, hastily mobilized armies faced each other to decide the future of Europe--Napoleon's forces on one side, and the Duke of Wellington's on the other.