France Archives

France

Before the Battle of the Bulge: Forming the 551st “GOYAs”

By Donald Roberts II

By summer’s end 1944 Adolf Hitler, along with much of his staff, began to realize that Germany was in serious danger of losing the war. Read more

A painting by Jean Watteau (1684-1721) shows French infantry on the march, complete with donkeys and camp followers.

France

The Duke of Marlborough Unleashed at the Battle of Ramillies

By Vince Hawkins

The War of Spanish Succession, fought between 1701 and 1711, witnessed the emergence of some of Europe’s greatest military commanders. Read more

Thick sulphurous smoke pours from the flaming wreckage of a B-17 bomber in a French field.

France

The Hidden Freedom Trail

by Adam Lynch

A few moments after his stricken Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber tore apart, co-pilot Ralph Patton hurriedly put his bail-out plan into action. Read more

Napoleon Bonaparte, commanding the French Army of Italy, issues orders during an assault over a bridge at Lodi. At one point in the struggle, Bonaparte led a charge himself. The victory here gave much confidence to both commander and army.

France

Napoleon’s Italian Campaign: A Year Against the Odds

By Jeremy Green

The newly appointed 26-year-old commander-in-chief of the French Army of Italy arrived at Nice headquarters on March 27, 1796. Read more

Rifles in hand, a French patrol proudly poses for the camera in front of a log blockhouse fortification atop a rocky outcrop in Belgium.

France

On May 10, 1940, a daring group of German parachutists descended on the mighty Belgian fortress of Eben Emael, compelled its surrender, and opened the way for the German Army’s drive into Belgium. Read more

France

Philip vs Edward at the Battle of Crécy

By Robert Suhr

Philip of Valois, for long have we made suit before you by embassies and all other ways which we knew to be reasonable, to the end that you should be willing to have restored unto us our right, our heritage of France, which you have long kept back and most wrongfully occupied.” Read more

Early 15th-century Italy was a caldron of warfare from which mercenaries like Bartolomeo Colleoni could make a name and a fortune. Below is a 1432 battle between Florentines and Sienese.

France

Bartolomeo Colleoni’s Art of War

By Jonathan North

Bartolomeo Colleoni was a Renaissance success story. A simple mercenary, he rose from obscurity to the most important position on the Italian peninsula: commander-in-chief of the armies of Venice. Read more

France

Eleventh-Hour Peril: The U.S. Naval Escape from China

by Eric Niderost

On November 11, 1941, the U.S. Navy gunboats USS Luzon and Oahu were ordered to “make quietly all preparations within the ship for a cruise at sea.” Read more

Shortly after a surrender to U.S. forces, German officers hand out rations of bread to hungry soldiers.

France

The German 11th Panzer Division: Giving Up the Ghost

By Brig. Gen. Raymond E. Bell Jr.

It was an impressive sight. Upon the reviewing stand as honored guest was General Dwight D. Read more

Donning camouflage, a team of OSS operatives lands ashore. Despite initial skepticism, the OSS more than proved its worth during numerous operations in Italy and North Africa.

France

OSS Operation Ginny

By Don Smart

The three rubber dinghies struggled through the rough surf in the pitch black night toward an inhospitable stretch of rocky beach. Read more

Portrait of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, painted c. 1618 by Peter Paul Rubens.

France

The Battle of Grandson

By Eric Niderost

On Friday, September 28, 1473, Charles, Duke of Burgundy arrived at Trier to meet with the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III. Read more

France

Napoleon Bonaparte & the Patriotic War of 1812

By Frank Quinn

For many, the fascination of military history lies in the “What if …” What if Hitler had not ordered the Luftwaffe to shift from bombing RAF airfields to bombing London in 1940? Read more

After fighting all night and clearing over 100 pillboxes in the Siegfried Line, men of the 36th Infantry Division collapse on a sidewalk in Berg Zabern, Germany. The end of the war is a month away.

France

Sleep in the Military: Not Dead, Just Dead Tired

By Kevin M. Hymel

One of the most precious resources in war, and the one most often in short supply, is sleep. Read more

Utilizing the natural terrain around Puebla, French Zoaves take cover while preparing to move on Mexican positions. Despite the superior pedigree of Comte de Lorencez’s French forces, General Ignacio Zargaoza’s homegrown defenders would serve as more than a match.

France

“Viva El Cinco de Mayo!” The Battle of Puebla

By Ron Gilliam

A hard, late-afternoon rain was falling on May 5, 1862, and the slopes at the foot of Puebla, Mexico’s twin forts were too slippery for another assault. Read more

French Emperor Napoleon III, center, directs action at the height of the Battle of Solferino. Painting by Adolphe Yvon.

France

Solferino: Birth of a Nation

By Eric Niderost

Long columns of blue-clad French troops marched east though the sun-baked plains of northern Italy in late June 1859. Read more

Bare-headed, French King John II leads a swirling melee at the climax of the Battle of Poitiers in this 1830 painting by Eugene Delacroix.

France

Death at the Hawthorn Hedge: Poitiers, 1356

By William E. Welsh

The Black Death that ravaged England and France for a half-dozen years in the mid-14th century served merely as a brief intermission between the first and second acts of the painfully protracted struggle known as the Hundred Years’ War. Read more

France

The Fairey Swordfish Torpedo Bomber

By Phil Zimmer

Radar, atomic bombs, jet engines and early cruise missiles were among the numerous technological advances of World War II. Read more

France

The Siege of Paris

By Louis Ciotola

The final outcome of the Franco-Prussian War was decided on September 2, 1870. On that day, more than 100,000 French troops, including Emperor Napoleon III, surrendered to the Prussian Army at Sedan. Read more

France

Commodore John Barry: Naval Hero of the American Revolution

By Neil Cosgrove

Most histories of the American Revolution give the fledgling Patriot navy only one hero: John Paul Jones. While not begrudging Jones’s recognition, it seems unfair to represent the Continental Navy with a single fighting captain. Read more

France

Napoleon’s Last Great Victory: The Battle of Dresden

By Eric Niderost

Marshal Gouvion Saint-Cyr was in a tight spot, and he knew it. It was the morning of August 26, 1813, and Saint-Cyr and his French XIV Corps were defending Dresden, the capital of Saxony, from a large and menacing Allied army that outnumbered his own by at least four to one. Read more

From Around the Network

Charlie Mott: Flying Tiger Caged

Why the U.S. Dropped the Atomic Bomb on Japan in WWII

Commodore John Barry: Naval Hero of the American Revolution

Roscoe C. Blunt, Jr.’s “Foot Soldier”