Showing results for "France" in Military & War

Brought to you by Penguin. In six weeks in 1940, France was over-run by German troops and surrendered. One junior French general, refusing to accept defeat, made his way to England. On 18 June he spoke to his compatriots over the BBC, urging them to rally to him in London. At that moment...

In December 1943, with the rising realization that the Allies are planning to invade Fortress Europe, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel is assigned the title of General Inspector for the Atlantic Wall. His mission is to assess their readiness. His superior, theater commander, crusty old Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, who had led the Reich to victory in the early years of the war, is now fed up with the whole Nazi regime. He lives comfortably in a plush villa in a quiet Paris suburb, waiting for the inevitable Allied invasion that will bring about their final defeat.

In 1940, Private Raymond Bailey, a 21 year old Vauxhall motors apprentice, serving with the 1st Kensington Regiment, was captured in Northern France, becoming a Nazi prisoner of war. But he wouldn't remain one for long... The Longest Walk Home is the incredible account of his daring 2,000 mile...

“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.

Volume Five begins on an optimistic note. The French recognition of the United States on February 6, 1778, along with the promise of military assistance, renewed Washington’s confidence in eventual success. But before that day arrived in 1781, three years of hardship, privation, and suspense would intervene. Throughout this ordeal George Washington’s towering presence was the catalyst that kept everything together.

The French Revolution facilitated the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, but after gaining power he knew that his first task was to end it. In this book William Doyle describes how he did so, beginning with the three large issues that had destabilized revolutionary France: war, religion, and monarchy.

During the course of his time in enemy territory he broke out from a column of prisoners while having a Nazi machine gun aimed at him, fought against his captors with stolen weapons, hid in stinking manure, and even posed as a member of the Irish Republican Army in order to throw his captors off the scent of his true identity.

The astonishing untold story of the author's father, the lone American on a 4-person SOE commando team dropped behind German lines in France, whose epic feats of irregular warfare proved vital in keeping Nazi tanks away from Normandy after D-Day. When Daniel Guiet was a child and his family...

This is the true story of four brave women secretly sent into the darkness of Nazi-occupied France to carry out Winston Churchill’s plan to "set Europe ablaze." Caught in a web of deception surrounding the preparations for the D-Day invasion, their mission ended in betrayal and sacrifice. An engrossing history based on first-hand interviews with agents of the Special Operations Executive and revelations about the secret organization and the courageous women who served it.

In the cold morning of June 6, 1944, thousands of German soldiers were in position from Port en Bessin eastward past Colleville on the Normandy coast, aware that a massive invasion force was heading straight for them, although according to Allied Intelligence, they shouldn't have been there. The presence of 352 Division meant that the number of defenders was literally double the number expected - and on the best fortified of all the invasion beaches. What makes this account of the bloody struggle unique is that it is told from the German standpoint, using firsthand testimony....

Bayard naquit vers 1475, au château de la Bussière dans la vallée de Grésivaudan. Envoyé très jeune à Grenoble, il se forma sous la direction de Mgr Alleman, évêque de cette ville. À l'âge de 13 ans, rappelé au château paternel, il ne rêve plus que de faits d'armes et de batailles. C'est alors que son oncle le présenta au Duc de Savoir Charles Ier, qui tenait à ce moment sa cour à Chambéry et qui le prit comme page. Bayard suivit ce prince quand il alla rendre visite à Lyon au roi Charles VIII. Bayard, invité à manœuvrer son cheval devant le roi, le fit avec une telle maîtrise que celui-ci le demanda au Duc de Savoie.

The rousing story of Lafayette - “adopted son” of George Washington - and his vital role in the American Revolution. In this long-overdue history of Marquis Gilbert de Lafayette, acclaimed French author Gonzague Saint Bris recounts Lafayette’s invaluable contributions to the American War of Independence and, later, the French Revolution of 1789.

L'aventure des anciens combattants d'Afrique subsaharienne, ceux que l'on a appelés "les Tirailleurs Sénégalais", engagés par dizaines de milliers aux côtés de la France tout au long des grands conflits du XXe siècle, fait partie de la mémoire commune partagée par l'Afrique noire et la France. Commencée dès 1857 pour s'achever en 1964, cette longue page d'histoire a laissé, entre fierté et rancœur, glorification et oubli, des traces profondes. Le livre audio proposé aujourd'hui par RFI est le fruit d'un patient inventaire dans les archives sonores en France, complétées grâce à la collecte de témoignages effectuée par les radios publiques africaines.