FRANCE 1940

From Sedan to Sedan: A History of the French Army, 1870–1940
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The only history of the French Army from 1870 to 1940. Gathered here in a single volume are the texts of the new revised, corrected and expanded edition of the landmark work by General André Bourachot. The history of the French Army between the two great defeats that marked it indelibly is presented here in the most detailed and scrupulous manner...
WAR CRIMES - Rouen, 9 June 1940
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WAR CRIMES - Rouen, 9 June 1940

L20220337
€18.96
On the morning of 9 June 1940, the Wehrmacht's 5. Panzerdivision entered Rouen. A few days later, in the square of the Musée des Antiquités, the bodies of two Black men were discovered by municipal services. The following day, not far away, in the gardens of a property on the rue de Bihorel, the bodies of seventeen men murdered by German troops were...
HEALTH AND SPIRITS EXCELLENT - Prisoner of War 1939-1945 HEALTH AND SPIRITS EXCELLENT - Prisoner of War 1939-1945 2
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The journey of Sergeant Jean Voleau, between combat and captivity, traced through his correspondence On 2 September 1939, France is on the eve of declaring war on Germany in response to its invasion of Poland. But already a train is heading towards the Meuse and the German border, carrying a battalion of the 14th Algerian Rifles regiment. Seated on a...
KÉPI: A FRENCH MILITARY HEADGEAR, VOLUME 1, 1830–1939 KÉPI: A FRENCH MILITARY HEADGEAR, VOLUME 1, 1830–1939 2
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This headgear alone symbolises the French soldier, but it is also, by extension, the official representation of the military officer and the civil servant. Its history is presented here in its entirety for the first time. Exclusively male, the képi conveys a wealth of information about its wearer, starting with his unit and rank. Its model and shape also...
THE GREAT ALBUM OF CITROËN-KÉGRESSE VEHICLES IN UNIFORM -... THE GREAT ALBUM OF CITROËN-KÉGRESSE VEHICLES IN UNIFORM -... 2
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1st edition of the Great Album of Citroën-Kégresse half-tracks in uniform by François Vauvillier. When the word autochenille comes up in conversation among vintage car enthusiasts, the association of ideas immediately brings to mind two names that have entered legend: Citroën and Kégresse. While the former needs no introduction, the latter is no less...
DUNKIRK 1940 – Operation Dynamo DUNKIRK 1940 – Operation Dynamo 2
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DUNKIRK 1940 - Operation Dynamo

L20220001
€14.12
Four years before the Allied landings in Normandy, the French coastline was the scene of another major episode of the Second World War: Operation Dynamo, far less well known today than D-Day.
D2 TANKS IN COMBAT - Colonel De Gaulle's War Elephants D2 TANKS IN COMBAT - Colonel De Gaulle's War Elephants 2
Delivery 8/10 days
In 1937, Colonel de Gaulle moved from theory to practice. The man behind the "paper tank" — who in 1934 had written a veritable manifesto in favour of the armoured corps, Vers l'armée de métier, his most celebrated work — spent two years in Metz commanding a tank regiment, the 507e RCC. There, equipped with the powerful 20-tonne D 2 tanks built by...
THE 1ST DLM IN COMBAT: CAVALRY TANKS AND ARMORED VEHICLES, 1939-1940 THE 1ST DLM IN COMBAT: CAVALRY TANKS AND ARMORED VEHICLES, 1939-1940 2
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The crucial question of armoured divisions, championed by Colonel de Gaulle in 1934 with his crusade for a professional army, had obscured from the general public a major element in the development of the French army during the rearmament period: yes, France possessed, even before the war, divisions légères mécaniques (DLM) that were light in name only....
CHARS B IN COMBAT: MEN AND MATERIEL OF THE 15TH BCC CHARS B IN COMBAT: MEN AND MATERIEL OF THE 15TH BCC 2
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On that afternoon of 16 May 1940, a group of around twenty Chars B belonging to the French Army — 32-tonne vehicles each armed with a 75 mm gun and a 47 mm gun, making them the most powerful armoured materiel in existence in the world in 1940 — approached a small town that was about to enter History: Montcornet. Since the day before yesterday, the enemy...
GAMELIN - The Tragedy of Ambition
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€23.70
Gamelin, or the quintessence of military disaster. Maurice Gamelin (1872–1958) remains a figure indelibly associated with the crushing defeat of May 1940. It is worth looking beyond that commonplace and asking: how did this officer, regarded as one of the most brilliant of his generation, for whom everything had succeeded since his earliest youth and who...
THE FRENCH MILITARY BUTTON 1871-2021 THE FRENCH MILITARY BUTTON 1871-2021 2
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€18.91
The uniform button is something of the poor relation of militaria collecting. Small and highly varied, the enthusiast generally seeks it out only to complete a uniform. Yet it constitutes in its own right a fully-fledged collecting theme. More than a century after the publication of Captain Falloux's work, « Le bouton d'uniforme français », a gap remained...
STUKAS! The Luftwaffe's Dive Bombers
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€42.56
OUT OF STOCK The terrifying sound of its sirens (the famous "Trumpets of Jericho"), the perfect coordination of its attacks with the Panzers, and the deadly precision of its strikes are inseparable from the early successes of the Blitzkrieg in 1939 and 1940, before the Battle of Britain revealed its limitations: the Junkers Ju 87 Stuka is unquestionably...
PANZER KOMMANDEUR - At the heart of the Panzertruppen,...
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Panzer Kommandeur - The war memoirs of Hans von Luck, an officer who served in the most prestigious Panzer-Divisionen from 1939 to 1945, at last accessible in French! Having fought on every front — from the plains of northern France in 1940, through Russia in 1941, Libya and Egypt in 1942, Normandy and Alsace in 1944, and finally Germany in 1945 — von...
ALPS 1940, THE UNDEFEATED ARMY ALPS 1940, THE UNDEFEATED ARMY 2
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ALPS 1940, THE UNDEFEATED ARMY

L20210156
€18.91
Alps 1940, the undefeated army. Résistance Libération collection, Stéphane Lavit, Jérôme Croyet. This book does not aim to retell the official history of the Armée des Alpes. Nor is it an exhaustive compilation; the idea is to provide a sense and a general understanding of what these troops were in 1939 and 1940, particularly in the key sector of the...
In the Storms of History - Memoirs of Colonel de La...
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In April 1961, Colonel de La Chapelle commanded the famous 1er régiment étranger de cavalerie. Convinced that "there are things that simply are not done", he chose to commit his unit to the Algiers putsch. This courageous officer began his career at the age of 20 as a simple soldier. During the twenty-seven years in which he would serve France under arms,...
2000 Years of French Fortification - From the 4th Century... 2000 Years of French Fortification - From the 4th Century... 2
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2000 YEARS OF FRENCH FORTIFICATION From the 4th century BC to the Atlantic Wall Oppida, castles, fortified churches, and urban ramparts dot the French landscape, while forts and Maginot works near the borders evoke former barriers. Why this omnipresent fortification? Historians, architects, and urban planners seek, for various reasons, an answer. They...
The Battle of the Alps – 1940
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The Battle of the Alps – 1940

L20210126
€28.34
OUT OF PRINT The definitive book on the Battle of the Alps, France's only victory in 1940. In June 1940, as France was suffering the worst military defeat in its history, the Army of the Alps resisted Italian assaults with success and even managed to counter the flanking attack launched by the Germans in the direction of Grenoble and Annecy.
ACHTUNG PANZER! – HEINZ GUDERIAN, INVENTOR OF THE BLITZKRIEG
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HEINZ GUDERIAN, INVENTOR OF THE BLITZKRIEG This book is not for every reader. This is neither a biography, nor the war memoirs of a celebrated soldier, still less a work recounting the adventures of combatants caught up in the thunder of battle. No, Achtung Panzer! is anything but that! It is a military essay — but no ordinary one: the very work that...
La Redoute Ruinée, Sentinel of the Col du...
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Perched at 2,400 m., the fort of the Redoute dominates the Col du Petit-Saint-Bernard, watching over it like a sleeping sentinel. Since the Neolithic period, this pass has been one of the main routes for crossing the Alps. Over the centuries, it was developed to facilitate passage. In the Petit-Saint-Bernard region, the post of the Redoute Ruinée was...
La Traction Avant Citroën sous l'Uniforme - Tome 2 La Traction Avant Citroën sous l'Uniforme - Tome 2 2
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The Citroën Traction Avant was the most-produced car in France before 1940: more than 250,000 examples were on the roads of the country and the world at the time. It is therefore no surprise to find it, during the Second World War, accompanying both armies and civilian populations on every front, in every territory, including the most remote. The...
THE FOREIGN LEGION - HISTORY AND UNIFORMS 1831 - 1962
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It is through 114 uniformed mannequins from the collections of the Musée de la Légion Étrangère, and in particular those of the Musée de l'Uniforme Légionnaire in Puyloubier, together with 112 exceptional and rare collection pieces presented here for the first time, that we invite you to follow the history and evolution of Foreign Legion uniforms from its...
THE SILENT ATTACK: THE CAPTURE OF THE BELGIAN BRIDGES AT... THE SILENT ATTACK: THE CAPTURE OF THE BELGIAN BRIDGES AT... 2
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The most celebrated and audacious attack of the Second World War: the capture of the Belgian fort of Eben-Emael on 10 May 1940 by German parachute troops. This operation saw for the first time the use of gliders and hollow charges, while simultaneously demonstrating the possibility of dropping paratroopers behind enemy lines, in true commando fashion.
The Maginot Line - Design, Construction, Fate
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€18.96
The Maginot Line is the third French fortified system. While its construction is explained by the prevailing context of the interwar period, it is also explained by a centuries-old pattern of behaviour aimed at securing French borders.
Grand Illustrated Book of the Gardien de la Paix Uniform... Grand Illustrated Book of the Gardien de la Paix Uniform... 2
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Rediscover the great chapters of French history through the evolution of the gardien de la paix and his uniforms, from 1829 — the year the world's first uniformed police force was created — to the present day. By the very nature of their profession, the gardiens de la paix found themselves at the heart of our history; they took part in it, often out of...
MAY–JUNE 40, the Invader's Gaze — Unpublished German... MAY–JUNE 40, the Invader's Gaze — Unpublished German... 2
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The present work revisits the German perspective on the Battle of France of May–June 1940. Unprecedented, drawn from a private collection of more than 2,000 photographs, this book presents essentially "private" images, in the sense that they were taken by the soldiers themselves as "souvenirs" to bring home — in which respect they fulfil the same role as...
Rouen 1940–1945: Through the Years of Occupation
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When a passionate local historian meets someone who loves the city where he grew up, it inevitably ends in an exchange of stories and anecdotes. But when both share a passion for historical photographs, it draws them even closer together, and projects begin to take shape. Thierry Chion and Jonathan Sobielga share a love of photographic testimony depicting...
Bitter Victory — Southern Soldiers from June 1919 to June...
  • -50%
Out of stock
Following "Des soldats méridionaux dans la guerre 1914–1918" published in 2018, here is the second volume, entitled "Amère Victoire. Des soldats méridionaux, juin 1919 à juin 1940." The Treaty of Versailles in June 1919 resolved none of the rivalries between nations still bled dry by the war of 1914–1918. The Midi attempted to rebuild a different world,...
INTELLIGENCE AND ACTION — From the "Phoney War" to...
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This work is a plea for intelligence and a tribute to those who practise it. The analysis of the past, from the "drôle de guerre" of 1940 onwards, allows us to trace the evolution of this discipline leading to the current Direction du renseignement militaire — through multiple experiences on various theatres: the Gulf, Chad, the Balkans, Cambodia and...
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