Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque

Philippe Leclerc: The French Desert Fox

On November 28, 1947, a converted North American B-25 Mitchell medium bomber crashed in the Algerian desert, killing all aboard. Read more

Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque

Patton in Lorraine: Breaking the Moselle Line

By mid-September 1944, the U.S. Third Army was poised to strike at the soft underbelly of Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich along a fabled corridor in northeastern France used for centuries by armies tramping across Europe. Read more

Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque

Debacle at Dakar

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

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

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

Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque

WWII Heroes: Aristides de Sousa Mendes

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 Tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte

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

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