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“A history book that reads like a novel, this testimony comes from one of the last living eyewitnesses” of the Nazi occupation of France (Christiane Amanpour, CNN Chief International Correspondent). September 5, 1944 The Americans are approaching; we follow their progress impatiently on the radio, by intercepting messages reserved for the commandos. They cannot be beaten now. But it is up to us to do the impossible to speed up the progression of the bulk of their troops, to facilitate the advance of their spearhead, and, above all, to prevent the Germans from withdrawing to the Rhine in good order, with all their equipment. How many human lives will we manage to save? Hubert Verneret was...
The story of the greatest Special Forces unit the world has ever seen, told by the men who fought together. In 1941, maverick officer David Stirling – adventurer, gambler, rake – created the Special Air Service. The soldiers came from all walks of life: miners, desert explorers, Guardsmen, bored clerks in the pay corps. All felt frustrated by the conventional army and were determined to make their mark on the war. Together they created a tradition that would survive the capture of their leader, the death of so many of their comrades and even the disbanding of the SAS after the end of the war. With the co-operation of the regimental association, Gavin Mortimer interviewed nearly sixty veterans, including many of the desert ‘Originals’, many of whom had never before revealed their role. They spoke openly, with honesty and humour, about life in the SAS; the gruelling training that broke all but the toughest; the thrill of raiding desert airfields; the danger of parachuting into occupied France; and the fear of being caught by the Germans, knowing that Hitler had ordered the ‘liquidation’ of captured SAS soldiers. This is the SAS at war, in their own words.
This is a study of the Maquis in southern France, the Resisters who took to the woods and hills in the struggle against the German Occupation in the Second World War. H. R. Kedward's detailed and perceptive account explores what participation in the Maquis meant for those involved both at the time and subsequently. He examines the motivations of the maquisards and how the circumstances of occupation and resistance affected the ways of life of rural communities in the south of France. This is a rich and original book, which achieves a fruitful integration of extensive archival research and oral history. Professor Kedward's scholarly and readable history allows the voices of individuals to be heard, and offers us important insights into the nature of community and regional tradition. From the many fascinating case-studies, fully supplemented by detailed maps, emerge a sense of place, a clearer understanding of the maquisard, and an unsentimental assessment of the place of the Maquis in French history. -
This collection of essays uses as a starting point Robert O. Paxton's: Vichy France : old guard and new order, 1940-1944 (1972). Takes up where Paxton left off and shows how the last 25 years of scholarship have made problematic the tidy categories used to describe behaviour during the Vichy years. Examines ways in which scholars have analyzed their historical legacy.
In the world of military history there is no brand as potent as that of the SAS. They burst into global prominence in 1980 with their spectacular storming of the Iranian Embassy, and there have been hundreds of books, films, documentaries and even reality TV shows about them. But what there hasn't been is a guide to the scenes of some of their most famous Second World War operations. That is why Gavin Mortimer’s vivid two-volume account of their daring missions in German-occupied France in 1944 is such compelling reading. SAS actions in France delayed German reinforcements reaching the battlefront in Normandy, later sewing confusion among the Germans as they withdrew. The SAS trained the F...
This book, first published in 1985, examines various aspects of the intellectual achievements of writers and artists in the Vichy period; a strong emphasis on the ambiguity of much of their work emerges from the research. It goes a long way in answering the question of what it was like living under the fascist Vichy regime, and what the collaborators and resistance thought about their purpose and patriotism.
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The significant and sustained popular interest in the Second World War is matched by the scale and scope of scholarly engagement in the subject. The articles selected for this volume cover a wide range of topics reflecting the fact that the largest recorded war in history and the most intense period of global instability in the twentieth century, was fought by many different states, large and small, over differing periods of time and for many different reasons. In an area where there is no shortage of material to choose from, the articles presented here are distinguished for their depth of scholarship, stylistic elegance and inter-disciplinary confidence.