France War

In this revisionist account of France's crushing defeat in 1940, Philip Nord argues that the nation's downfall has long been misunderstood. Nord assesses France's diplomatic and military preparations for war with Germany, its conduct of the war once the fighting began, and the political consequences of defeat on the battlefield. Ultimately, he finds that the longstanding view that France's collapse was due to military unpreparedness and a decadent national character is unsupported by fact.

Sharpe's mission had seemed simple: capture a small unguarded French coastal fort, cripple Napoleon's supply lines, and retreat across the sea. But behind the lines, Sharpe's old enemy, Pierre Ducos, awaits Sharpe's arrival with a battalion of French soldiers and a vicious commanding general who keeps the scalps of his dead enemies as trophies.

Eugene Bullard lived one of the most fascinating lives of the 20th century. The son of a former slave and an indigenous Creek woman, Bullard fled home at the age of 11 to escape the racial hostility of his Georgia community. When his journey led him to Europe, he garnered worldwide fame as a boxer, and later as the first African-American fighter pilot in history. After the war, Bullard returned to Paris a celebrated hero. But little did he know that the dramatic, globe-spanning arc of his life had just begun.

June 1940 – Like every frightened boy in France, Raoud Le Meir dreads the arrival of the rampaging German Army. Rumors of fields drenched in blood, endless caravans of tanks and skies filled with airplanes dropping bombs by the thousands strike fear through the French countryside. Days after Hitler enters Paris, a garrison of soldiers appears in Chivegny. Raoud’s father, the mayor, urges neighbors and friends to cooperate and works to maintain an uneasy peace, but Papa cannot quell his desire to fight. Facing relentless German demands, he makes a drastic decision, which leads to his ...

The first full history of the pioneering Special Forces units of World War II, dropped behind German lines into France to assist with the D-Day landings, told by a former U.S. Special Forces colonel with unique access to surviving veterans.

Winner of the 2024 Global Book Award Gold Medal for Biographical Historical Fiction Life has come almost too easily for Moonie until he is suddenly torn from his brother in 1915, due to the Great War. He now must carry on without him at their Jackson Hole ranch. But charming Cici then arrives from France, only to complicate matters even more. His brother had told her about their place while fighting overseas, making her determined to start a new life for herself. Yet Moonie tries to resist any attraction he has for her out of respect for his brother, sure she must have been a special love ...

In the tradition of Antony Beevor's Stalingrad, Nelson's Trafalgar presents the definitive blow-by-blow account of the world's most famous naval battle, when the British Royal Navy, under Lord Horatio Nelson, dealt a decisive blow to the forces of Napoleon. The Battle of Trafalgar comes boldly to life in this definitive work that recreates those five momentous, earsplitting hours with unrivaled detail and intensity.

ONE WOMAN'S ODYSSEY OF LIFE AND LOVE ACROSS NAZI GERMANY AND POSTWAR EUROPE “I want to live an extraordinary life.” Inge Krumm-Heller yearned to live the life of a modern, independent woman in Nazi Germany. From her childhood in East Prussia and labor service with the Reichsarbeitsdienst, to the hardships and air raids of the Second World War, Inge emerged ready to face a bold new world turned upside down by the American occupation. When a mysterious stranger brings news of Inge’s missing parents, she embarks upon an odyssey across the ruins of Europe to find them and, ultimately, to...

Raymond Poincaré was President of the Third French Republic at the outbreak of the Great War in 1914. These memoirs deal with the political, diplomatic and military events of the war between its outbreak and the end of the year. This translation is the first ever to be made of Poincaré's war memoirs - from the edition published in Paris in 1928 by Librarie Plon - and offers a unique perspective on the war, not just from the French point of view - too often ignored in British and other histories - but from that of the head of state of one of the world's major powers in a global war. ...

In the tradition of Agent Zigzag comes this breathtaking biography, as fast-paced and emotionally intuitive as the very best spy thrillers, which illuminates an unsung hero of the French Resistance during World War II - Robert de La Rochefoucald, an aristocrat turned anti-Nazi saboteur - and his daring exploits as a résistant trained by Britain's Special Operations Executive.

The battle of Crécy in 1346 is one of the most famous and widely studied military engagements in history. The repercussions of this battle were felt for hundreds of years, and the exploits of those fighting reached the status of legend. Yet cutting-edge research has shown that nearly everything that has been written about this dramatic event may be wrong. In this new study, Michael Livingston reveals how modern scholars have used archived manuscripts, satellite technologies and traditional fieldwork to help unlock what was arguably the battle’s greatest secret.

The leafy Avenue de Foch, one of the most exclusive residential streets in Nazi-occupied France, was Paris' hotbed of daring spies, murderous secret police, amoral informers, and Vichy collaborators. So when American physician Sumner Jackson, who lived with his wife and young son, Phillip, at Number 11, found himself drawn into the Liberation network of the French resistance, he knew the stakes were impossibly high.

High up in the mountains of the southern Massif Central in France lie tiny, remote villages united by a long and particular history. During the Second World War, the inhabitants of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon and its parishes saved thousands wanted by the Gestapo: resisters, Freemasons, communists, and, above all, Jews, many of them orphans whose parents had been deported to concentration camps.

When Pierrot becomes an orphan, he must leave his home in Paris for a new life with his aunt Beatrix, a servant in a wealthy Austrian household. But this is no ordinary time, for it is 1935 and the Second World War is fast approaching; and this is no ordinary house, for this is the Berghof, the home of Adolf Hitler. Pierrot is quickly taken under Hitler's wing and thrown into an increasingly dangerous new world: a world of terror, secrets, and betrayal from which he may never be able to escape.

H.G. Wells sets forth an intriguing first-hand observation of Italy, France, and Britain under severe duress during the "War to End All Wars," World War I. He insightfully examines the technological effects of modern warfare, particularly the introduction of the tank and aerial bombing on human nature.

Fismes, France, 1917 The life of French nurse Emma Bernier takes a drastic turn when a German plane crashes near her home. Despite the moral dilemma she faces, she decides to care for the wounded man, defying the social norms of war and confronting an inner conflict between her patriotic duty and her humanity. German lieutenant Lukas Richter, affected by the crash, suffers not only physical injuries but also memory loss that plunges him into the darkness of a forgotten past. Amid the uncertainty, Emma becomes his only anchor in an unfamiliar world—though at times, she too vanishes from ...

May 1940: The world is stunned as Hitler's forces invade France with a devastating blitzkrieg aimed at Paris. Within weeks, the French government has collapsed, and the City of Lights, revered for its carefree lifestyle, intellectual freedom, and love of liberty, has fallen under Nazi control — perhaps forever.

The Greater Journey is the enthralling, inspiring - and until now, untold - story of the adventurous American artists, writers, doctors, politicians, architects, and others of high aspiration who set off for Paris in the years between 1830 and 1900, ambitious to excel in their work.

Very few people know that Mark Twain wrote a major work on Joan of Arc. Still fewer know that he considered it not only his most important, but also his best work. He spent 12 years in research and many months in France doing archival work, and then made several attempts until he felt he finally had the story he wanted to tell.

In this thrilling historical spy novel from New York Times best-selling author Alan Furst, two heroic resistance fighters smuggle valuable information to occupied Paris to turn the tide of the World War II and defeat Nazi Germany.