Division Leclerc

Division Leclerc PDF Author: Merlin Robinson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472830083
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 65

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Book Description
'General Leclerc' was the nom de guerre adopted by the Gaullist officer Philippe de Hautcloque, to protect his family in occupied France. He became France's foremost fighting commander, and his armored division (the '2e DB') its most famous formation. Starting as a small scratch force of mostly African troops organised and led by Leclerc in French Equatorial Africa, it achieved early success raiding Italian and German positions in co-operation with Britain's Long Range Desert Group. Following the Allied victory in North Africa it was expanded and reorganised as a US Army-style armoured division, with American tanks and other armoured vehicles. Shipped to the UK, in spring 1944, it was assigned to Patton's US Third Army, landing in time for the Normandy breakout and being given the honour of liberating Paris in August 1944. Combining a thorough analysis of their combat and organisation with detailed colour plates of their uniforms and equipment, this is the fascinating story of Free France's most effective fighting force.

Division Leclerc

Division Leclerc PDF Author: Merlin Robinson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472830083
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 65

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Book Description
'General Leclerc' was the nom de guerre adopted by the Gaullist officer Philippe de Hautcloque, to protect his family in occupied France. He became France's foremost fighting commander, and his armored division (the '2e DB') its most famous formation. Starting as a small scratch force of mostly African troops organised and led by Leclerc in French Equatorial Africa, it achieved early success raiding Italian and German positions in co-operation with Britain's Long Range Desert Group. Following the Allied victory in North Africa it was expanded and reorganised as a US Army-style armoured division, with American tanks and other armoured vehicles. Shipped to the UK, in spring 1944, it was assigned to Patton's US Third Army, landing in time for the Normandy breakout and being given the honour of liberating Paris in August 1944. Combining a thorough analysis of their combat and organisation with detailed colour plates of their uniforms and equipment, this is the fascinating story of Free France's most effective fighting force.

Free France's Lion

Free France's Lion PDF Author: William Moore
Publisher: Casemate
ISBN: 1612000681
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 544

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Book Description
But for his early death, many Frenchmen believe Leclerc would have been their greatest figure to emerge from World War II. De Gaulle himself admitted to his son-in-law that he gave up smoking when Leclerc died, in order to retain his health in case France needed him, because Leclerc was no longer there. From the fall of France until 1943, Leclerc dovetailed his operations with the British effort in North Africa, establishing himself as a dynamic combat leader in the battles against Rommel. But once the conflict shifted to European soil he became even more prominent as the commander of the 2nd French Armored Division (the famous 2e DB). For the next two years he was under the operational control of either Patton's Third Army, as in the Normandy breakout, Hodges' First Army, at the Westwall, or Patch's Seventh Army in the south. His career not only includes the liberation of Paris, for which he is most famous, but the retaking of Strasbourg and the reduction of the Colmar Pocket. Helping to spearhead the advance into Germany itself, Leclerc’s armor comprised a rock upon which American units could rely, and its waving the tricolor during the Allied counter-invasion went far toward retrieving French prestige in the war. By the German surrender in May 1945, Leclerc is one of very few Frenchmen of whom it can be said that he never stopped fighting to regain France's freedom, from the debacle of 1940 right through to the end. After VE-Day Leclerc was dispatched to reassert French authority in Indo-China, an uphill task given the atrophy suffered by the French colonial government due to its isolation from its homeland and local Japanese superiority. While being partly successful in the south and Cambodia, Leclerc soon discovered that the Viet Minh were harder to dislodge in the North, and that Ho Chi Minh was more than a match for frequently changing postwar French governments. Recognizing that France had neither the means nor the will to recover control, Leclerc advised his government to "negotiate at all costs." This didn't happen, leading to Dien Bien Phu eight years later and thence to US involvement. Surprisingly, Leclerc has never yet been the subject of a thorough biography in English. Nevertheless many Americans and Englishmen will inevitably have noticed the plethora of monuments to Leclerc in any moderately sized French town. With a fast-paced narrative covering combat at all levels of command and a foreword by Martin Windrow, author of The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam, Free France's Lion will make fascinating reading for any serious student of the full scope of World War II.

The Americans from Normandy to the German Border

The Americans from Normandy to the German Border PDF Author: Brooke S. Blades
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1526756730
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
Rare World War II photographs detailing the massive American contribution to the 1944 campaign in northwest Europe from August to mid-December. Following the dramatic breakout from the Normandy bridgehead, events moved fast with the liberation of Paris quickly following and the Allies closed in on the German border. But the apparent collapse of the Nazis was illusory. As lines of communication lengthened and German resistance stiffened, the Allied High Command was divided on the right strategy. The ill-fated Operation Market Garden brought home the reality that the war would continue into 1945. The Siegfried Line was penetrated, and Aachen fell. But the American First Army suffered heavy casualties in the Hurtgen Forest. As winter set in, the third Army crossed the Moselle River and into the Saar. The stage was set for the costliest battle in American history—The Bulge, to be covered in the third and final volume of this trilogy. With his superb collection of images and grasp of the historic significance of the actions so graphically described, Brooke Blades’s latest book will be appreciated by all with an interest in the final stages of the Second World War.

Americans in Paris

Americans in Paris PDF Author: Charles Glass
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101195568
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 544

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Book Description
Acclaimed journalist Charlie Glass looks to the American expatriate experience of Nazi-occupied Paris to reveal a fascinating forgotten history of the greatest generation. In Americans in Paris, tales of adventure, intrigue, passion, deceit, and survival unfold season by season, from the spring of 1940 to liberation in the summer of 1944, as renowned journalist Charles Glass tells the story of a remarkable cast of expatriates and their struggles in Nazi Paris. Before the Second World War began, approximately thirty thousand Americans lived in Paris, and when war broke out in 1939 almost five thousand remained. As citizens of a neutral nation, the Americans in Paris believed they had little to fear. They were wrong. Glass's discovery of letters, diaries, war documents, and police files reveals as never before how Americans were trapped in a web of intrigue, collaboration, and courage. Artists, writers, scientists, playboys, musicians, cultural mandarins, and ordinary businessmen-all were swept up in extraordinary circumstances and tested as few Americans before or since. Charles Bedaux, a French-born, naturalized American millionaire, determined his alliances as a businessman first, a decision that would ultimately make him an enemy to all. Countess Clara Longworth de Chambrun was torn by family ties to President Roosevelt and the Vichy government, but her fiercest loyalty was to her beloved American Library of Paris. Sylvia Beach attempted to run her famous English-language bookshop, Shakespeare & Company, while helping her Jewish friends and her colleagues in the Resistance. Dr. Sumner Jackson, wartime chief surgeon of the American Hospital in Paris, risked his life aiding Allied soldiers to escape to Britain and resisting the occupier from the first day. These stories and others come together to create a unique portrait of an eccentric, original, diverse American community. Charles Glass has written an exciting, fast-paced, and elegant account of the moral contradictions faced by Americans in Paris during France's dangerous occupation years. For four hard years, from the summer of 1940 until U.S. troops liberated Paris in August 1944, Americans were intimately caught up in the city's fate. Americans in Paris is an unforgettable tale of treachery by some, cowardice by others, and unparalleled bravery by a few.

Riviera to the Rhine

Riviera to the Rhine PDF Author: Jeffrey J. Clarke
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : World War, 1939-1945
Languages : en
Pages : 632

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The History of the French First Army

The History of the French First Army PDF Author: Marshal de Lattre de Tassigny
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000458482
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 485

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Book Description
This book, first published in 1952, gives a detailed first-hand account by its commanding officer of the French First Army, from its successful landings in the South of France through its liberation of Marseilles and breakout across the Rhine and victory beyond the Danube. It is a remarkable campaign, overshadowed by the armies of the British and Americans in Northern Europe, and detailed here with precision and passion by one of France’s leading military minds.

Who's Who in Twentieth Century Warfare

Who's Who in Twentieth Century Warfare PDF Author: Spencer Tucker
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134565151
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
This authoritative biographical guide to warfare in the twentieth century is at once fascinating reading and an invaluable work of reference for anyone interested in modern military history. As well as the First and Second World Wars, this Who's Who takes in key figures from conflicts in Vietnam, Korea and others. Those whose lives and careers are covered here include not only major military leaders, but also politicians, inventors and other key public figures central to the course of twentieth-century military history. From Che Guevara to Mao Zhedong, from Albert Speer to Norman Schwarzkopf, and from Josef Stalin to Charles de Gaulle - this volume's breadth of coverage makes it a unique and indispensable guide to an important and absorbing element of modern history.

The Bravest of the Brave, Michel Ney

The Bravest of the Brave, Michel Ney PDF Author: Andrew Hilliard Atteridge
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : France
Languages : en
Pages : 470

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Marshal Ney - Bravest Of The Brave

Marshal Ney - Bravest Of The Brave PDF Author: Andrew Hilliard Atteridge
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
ISBN: 1908692472
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 562

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Book Description
Few of Napoleon’s Marshals have been involved in such controversy as the son of a cooper from Sarrelouis, Michel Ney. His reputation has been argued over fiercely by military historians, Bonapartists, revisionists and romantics for almost two centuries since his untimely demise at the hands of his own countrymen in the gardens of the Luxembourg. This volume paints a sympathetic picture of Marshal Ney, drawing on the memoirs of his subordinates and Général Bonnal’s Vie Militaire du Maréchal Ney to combine into the best single volume biography yet published in English. Atteridge writes concisely but vividly, and does not shy away with the controversies that have dogged Ney’s reputation, whilst providing a clear framework of the events. The details are accompanied by numerous maps, including excellent details on the often overlooked Battle of Hohenlinden in 1800 which secured the French Republic. From the early days of the French Republic, Ney fought fiercely and with much skill, through to the dark days of the retreat from Russia in 1812 in which he saved the remnants of the vast army Napoleon led to their destruction. His actions in the Hundred Days, for which he lost his life in a trial whose outcome was predetermined, are analyzed clearly and he deserved a better lot than he received for his efforts. Ney was a pivotal figure in an era of giants and Atteridge’s book does him the justice his brave and valorous character demands. Highly recommended. Atteridge’s book forms a companion to his other single volume biography of Marshal Murat and his work on the varied personalities on Napoleon’s Brothers. Author- Andrew Hilliard Atteridge (1844–1912) Linked TOC and 8 Illustrations and 8 maps.

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Parameters PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Military art and science
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description