France

Misadventure in the Sinai

Many historians consider the Suez-Sinai campaign in the autumn of 1956 the last hurrah for British and French colonialist efforts in the Middle East. Read more

France

WWI’s Verdun Battlefield Today

From a distance, the bush- and tree- covered hills seem innocuous, even welcoming. But as you drive upwards and peer through the leafy undergrowth, you began to perceive that there is something wrong, even sinister, about this place. Read more

France

The Rise and Fall of the German U-Boat

On the evening of October 13, 1939, the German submarine surfaced off the Orkney Islands in the North Sea. Read more

France

How World War 1 Reshaped The Course of Europe

On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, visited the city of Sarajevo and were assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, a 20-year-old Yugoslav nationalist. Read more

France

‘Goosebumps’: Flint Whitlock Visits the D-Day Invasion Landings

I feel deeply honored to have been chosen by the Smithsonian Institution to lead D-Day trips to England and France (one took place in May; the other two were scheduled to take place in September and October). Read more

France

Daring POW Escapes: Allied Officers at Austria’s Oflag XVIIA

Spring had finally arrived in the mountainous area of the Austrian Waldviertel, land of long winters and short summers. Read more

France

Taking Guam from Japan in 1944

Above all, the island was defendable.

From Ritidian Point in the north to the extreme southern coastline, Guam is 34 miles long, made in an irregular shape covering 228 square miles, the largest of all Pacific islands between Japan and New Guinea. Read more

France

Looking Back on the Battle of the Bulge

In the Ardennes region of eastern Belgium, Adolf Hitler rolled the dice for the last time in World War II. Read more

France

Normandy’s Little Victims

War spared no one. As modern armies clashed in France’s Normandy countryside, French civilians found themselves in the crossfire or on the receiving end of bombs and heavy weapons. Read more