Forgotten Blitzes

Forgotten Blitzes
Author: Claudia Baldoli
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2012-05-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 1441147519

Forgotten Blitzes analyses how states and civil society in Vichy France and Fascist Italy reacted to the experience of Allied bombing between 1940 and 1945.

The Bitter Road to Freedom

The Bitter Road to Freedom
Author: William I Hitchcock
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 800
Release: 2008-10-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 141659454X

The Bitter Road to Freedom is a powerful, deeply moving account of an earth-shattering year in the history of the U.S. and Europe. Americans are justly proud of the role their country played in liberating Europe from Nazi tyranny. For many years, we have celebrated the courage of Allied soldiers, sailors, and aircrews who defeated Hitler's regime and restored freedom to the continent. But in recounting the heroism of the "greatest generation," Americans often overlook the wartime experiences of European people themselves—the very people for whom the war was fought. In this brilliant new book, historian William I. Hitchcock surveys the European continent from D-Day to the final battles of the war and the first few months of peace. Based on exhaustive research in five nations and dozens of archives, Hitchcock's groundbreaking account shows that the liberation of Europe was both a military triumph and a human tragedy of epic proportions. This strikingly original, multinational history of liberation brings to light the interactions of soldiers and civilians, the experiences of noncombatants, and the trauma of displacement and loss amid unprecedented destruction. This book recounts a surprising story, often jarring and uncomfortable, and one that has never been told with such richness and depth. Ranging from the ferocious battle for Normandy (where as many French civilians died on D-Day as U.S. servicemen) to the plains of Poland, from the icy ravines of the Ardennes to the shattered cities and refugee camps of occupied Germany, The Bitter Road to Freedom depicts in searing detail the shocking price that Europeans paid for their freedom.

Author:
Publisher: V&R unipress GmbH
Total Pages: 630
Release:
Genre:
ISBN:

War Tourism

War Tourism
Author: Bertram M. Gordon
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2018-11-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1501715895

As German troops entered Paris following their victory in June 1940, the American journalist William L. Shirer observed that they carried cameras and behaved as "naïve tourists." One of the first things Hitler did after his victory was to tour occupied Paris, where he was famously photographed in front of the Eiffel Tower. Focusing on tourism by German personnel, military and civil, and French civilians during the war, as well as war-related memory tourism since, War Tourism addresses the fundamental linkages between the two. As Bertram M. Gordon shows, Germans toured occupied France by the thousands in groups organized by their army and guided by suggestions in magazines such as Der Deutsche Wegleiter fr Paris [The German Guide for Paris]. Despite the hardships imposed by war and occupation, many French civilians continued to take holidays. Facilitated by the Popular Front legislation of 1936, this solidified the practice of workers' vacations, leading to a postwar surge in tourism. After the end of the war, the phenomenon of memory tourism transformed sites such as the Maginot Line fortresses. The influx of tourists with links either directly or indirectly to the war took hold and continues to play a significant economic role in Normandy and elsewhere. As France moved from wartime to a postwar era of reconciliation and European Union, memory tourism has held strong and exerts significant influence across the country.

What Soldiers Do

What Soldiers Do
Author: Mary Louise Roberts
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 364
Release: 2014-04-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 0226923118

"What do soldiers do presents a devastating new perspective on the Greatest Generation and the liberation of France, one in which the US military used the lure of easy, sexually available French women to sell soldiers on the invasion, thus unleashing a 'tsunami of male lust' among the war-weary GIs. The resulting chaos-ranging from flagrant public sex with prostitutes to outright rape and rampant venereal disease-horrified the battered and demoralized French population and caused serious friction between the two nations at a crucial point as the war drew to a close."--Page 4 of cover.

A Dictionary of French Connectors

A Dictionary of French Connectors
Author: James Grieve
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 544
Release: 2016-03-23
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 1134779771

Connecting words and phrases are essential for discussion, clarity and fluency in any language. French is particularly reliant on connecting language: also and in fact have around 15 equivalent words and expressions in French. This is the first French-English dictionary to focus on this fascinating and crucial part of the language. The dictionary presents nearly 200 full entries in alphabetical order, including: de plus; et ce; or; c'est dire que; en fait; au total; voila. Entries define, discuss and exemplify the whole range of connecting language in French. 2000 examples add further clarity and are chosen from a wide range of registers and mainly contemporary prose.

War and Liberation in France

War and Liberation in France
Author: H. Footitt
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2004-03-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 0230509975

This book, coinciding with the sixtieth anniversary of the Liberation of France, takes a unique approach to the events of 1944, by seeing them as shared experiences which brought ordinary Anglo-Americans and French people into contact with each other in a variety of different communities. The book looks at the Liberation through 5 case-studies: Normandy, Cherbourg, Provence, the Pyrénées-Orientales and Reims, and uses the words of participants at the time to describe the developing relationship between Liberators and Liberated.

The British Tommy in North-west Europe, 1944-1945: Organisation, armament, and vehicles

The British Tommy in North-west Europe, 1944-1945: Organisation, armament, and vehicles
Author: Jean Bouchery
Publisher:
Total Pages: 152
Release: 1998
Genre: History
ISBN:

The latest Histoire & Collections book depicts the British Army from Normandy to VE Day in unprecedented detail. Because of the extensive coverage of armored vehicles, this volume will prove to be especially useful to modelers and dioramists. Over 600 color illustrations including wartime photos, detail shots of original items and plates covering camouflage and markings.

Gold Beach

Gold Beach
Author: Philippe Bauduin
Publisher:
Total Pages: 128
Release: 2019-11-27
Genre: Antiques & Collectibles
ISBN: 9782840485469

Of D-Day, everybody remembers the American paratroopers dropping over Sainte-Mère-Eglise, the bloodbath at Omaha Beach, the heroic capture of the Point du Hoc, or again the 177 French Commandoes landing at Ouistreham. What everybody forgets was that in the middle of this front, there was a sector, Gold Beach, where the Allied offensive turned out to be particularly effective, so much so that by the evening of 6 June the 25 000 British soldiers who set foot on the beaches at Asnelles and Ver-sur-mer had reached their objectives, in particular the control of the Caen-Bayeux road and liberated Bayeux the next day. But Gold Beach was also the story of the technical expertise resulting in the building of the artificial port at Arromanches and changing Port-en-Bessin into a "petrol station" supplying the whole of the Allied armada. It was in the Gold Beach sector that Sergeant Stan Hallis earned his Victoria Cross (the highest British military award) in recompense for his acts of bravery, the only one awarded in Normandy. It was for all these reasons that the British Government chose Gold Beach and in particular the village of Ver-sur-Mer to set up the Memorial bearing the names of some 21 000 United Kingdom soldiers killed on D-Day or during the Battle of Normandy. A book was therefore needed for Gold Beach to obtain a rightful place of its own in history among the five landing beaches. Thanks to the exceptional documentation gathered over more than half a century by Philippe Bauduin, a recognized specialist of D-Day, born in Ver-sur-mer, this richly illustrated book reminds you of what was at stake in this sector of D-Day, and tells the story of what happened there, nearest the participants. After the success of Jour-J, ce qu'on ne vous a pas raconté, les secrets du Débarquement, published in 2016, Philippe Bauduin and Jean-Charles continue their work together with this most recent book devoted to 6 June 1944.