With whatever personal possessions they can manage, Belgian refugees flee the German army in the summer of 1940.

Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque

WWII Heroes: Aristides de Sousa Mendes

by Michael D. Hull

Panic and confusion reigned across France as the bright, warm spring of 1940 turned into summer.

Blitzkrieg, a brutal new mode of warfare, was on the loose in Western Europe. Read more

Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque

The Allied Liberation of Paris

By John E. Spindler

At dusk on August 24, 1944, south of Paris, about half a mile from Croix de Berny crossroads, stood a tall, lanky man tapping a malacca cane. Read more

Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque

Debacle at Dakar

By David H. Lippman

The director flicked his finger, and General Charles de Gaulle began reading his address into the British Broadcasting Corporation’s microphone, speaking from London to his defeated countrymen across the English Channel, calling upon them to continue resistance in the face of overwhelming German supremacy. Read more

Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque

Leclerc and Liberation

By Michael D. Hull

After the humiliating fall of France in June 1940, two impassioned patriots—a general and an infantry captain—refused to accept defeat and determined, against all odds, to exact retribution from the German invaders. Read more

Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque

The Birth of the Viet Minh: World War II’s Prelude to the Vietnam War

By John Brown

In the late 18th century, the French established Catholic missions in Indochina, and until the 1820s they enjoyed local protection, but after that persecution began and increased steadily, particularly under Emperor Tu-Duc, who reigned from 1847 to 1883 and wanted to stamp out Christianity. Read more

Forty years after the death of Napoleon Bonaparte on the island of St. Helena, his body was entombed in a sarcophagus at Les Invalides in Paris.

Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque

The Tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte

by Michael Haskew

Exiled on the island of St. Helena since his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon Bonaparte, once Emperor of France and master of the greatest expanse of European territory since the days of the Roman Empire, died at the age of 51 on May 5, 1821. Read more