FRANCE 1940

PANZER KOMMANDEUR - At the heart of the Panzertruppen,...
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PANZER KOMMANDEUR - At the heart of the Panzertruppen, memoirs of Hans von Luck

L20210161
€30.33
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...
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In the Storms of History - Memoirs of Colonel de La...
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In the Storms of History - Memoirs of Colonel de La Chapelle - From the Phoney War to...

L20210151
€18.86
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,...
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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

L20220177
€59.72
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.
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ACHTUNG PANZER! – HEINZ GUDERIAN, INVENTOR OF THE BLITZKRIEG
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ACHTUNG PANZER! – HEINZ GUDERIAN, INVENTOR OF THE BLITZKRIEG

L20210122
€23.70
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...
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La Redoute Ruinée, Sentinel of the Col du...
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La Redoute Ruinée, Sentinel of the Col du Petit-Saint-Bernard

L20210116
€34.12
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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La Traction Avant Citroën sous l'Uniforme - Tome 2

L20210115
€37.87
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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THE FOREIGN LEGION - HISTORY AND UNIFORMS 1831 - 1962

L20210101
€16.11
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 SILENT ATTACK: THE CAPTURE OF THE BELGIAN BRIDGES AT VELDWEZELT, VROENHOVEN AND...

L20210079
€42.65
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.
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The Maginot Line - Design, Construction, Fate
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The Maginot Line - Design, Construction, Fate

L20210071
€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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Grand Illustrated Book of the Gardien de la Paix Uniform and Its History

L20210069
€37.87
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...
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MAY–JUNE 40, the Invader's Gaze — Unpublished German... MAY–JUNE 40, the Invader's Gaze — Unpublished German... 2
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MAY–JUNE 40, the Invader's Gaze — Unpublished German Photographs of the Debacle

L20210060
€23.70
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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Rouen 1940–1945: Through the Years of Occupation

L20210053
€25.59
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...
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Bitter Victory — Southern Soldiers from June 1919 to June 1940

L20210052
€11.85 €23.70
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,...
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INTELLIGENCE AND ACTION — From the "Phoney War" to...
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INTELLIGENCE AND ACTION — From the "Phoney War" to Special Operations: 80 Years of...

L20210049
€18.96
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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1940, THE FRENCH SOLDIER Volume 1 1940, THE FRENCH SOLDIER Volume 1 2
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1940, THE FRENCH SOLDIER Volume 1

L20160212
€28.39
The French Soldier 1940. Volume 1. Uniform, headgear, badges, by Olivier Bellec. The French Army of 1939–40 was in the midst of transformation. The concepts that prevailed at the end of the 19th century regarding uniforms and equipment were giving way to more modern ones, stemming in particular from mechanisation and technical progress. The equipment then...
THEY FOUGHT May-June 1940 - Unpublished Photos and... THEY FOUGHT May-June 1940 - Unpublished Photos and... 2
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THEY FOUGHT May-June 1940 - Unpublished Photos and Testimonies of the Battle of France

L20200278
€23.70
The defeat of 1940 remains the greatest political and moral drama to have shaken France in the 20th century. Beaten in six weeks, the French have since retained the impression of an ill-equipped national army and a poorly commanded country, quicker to flee than to resist the enemy. More broadly, the "syndrome of forty" is a deep trauma in the collective...
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From Antwerp to Dunkirk - 1940 War Memoirs
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From Antwerp to Dunkirk - 1940 War Memoirs

L20200276
€17.06
This book traces the war of an ordinary soldier. In a sober style, Lucien Richard, a corporal conscripted into the 121st RI, gives a day-by-day account of the episodes of his campaign against Germany in 1940. Setting off like his comrades — confident and determined — to aid Holland, he is forced to face the reality: aircraft and tanks give the Germans an...
France 1940 – Massacred!
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France 1940 – Massacred!

L20200260
€23.70
The tragic fate of African and Indochinese soldiers in Picardy and Normandy No, this book has nothing demagogic about it — the author neither seeks to flatter nor to promote himself. Those put forward are the men themselves: the actors of the bloody fighting on the Somme in June 1940, the massacres of which African soldiers were victims, and those that...
1940 - A Strange Defeat
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1940 - A Strange Defeat

L20200193
€8.53 €17.06
May–June 1940 Disaster, rout, shipwreck, collapse, catastrophe… The defeat of the French army in 1940 was experienced as a genuine shockwave. Its speed and brutality reinforced the ideological victory of the future Vichy government and plunged the country into the darkest hours of its history. Yet nothing seems able to shake the distorted view that...
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THE HISTORY OF THE MARINE INFANTRY THROUGH THEIR UNIFORMS THE HISTORY OF THE MARINE INFANTRY THROUGH THEIR UNIFORMS 2
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THE HISTORY OF THE MARINE INFANTRY THROUGH THEIR UNIFORMS

L20200147
€18.96
On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Bazeilles in 1870 — which is also the feast day of the Marine Infantry — the EMSOME (État-major spécialisé pour l'Outre-mer et l'Étranger) publishes with Histoire & Collections this work, which retraces the history of the Marine Infantry, formerly the Colonial Troops, through their uniforms....
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THE INEXORABLE DEFEAT – May–June 1940
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THE INEXORABLE DEFEAT – May–June 1940

L20200140
€65.40
After forty-five days of fighting in which heroism vied with cowardice and courage with failure, France reached the end of its ordeal. It is the causes of this inexorable defeat — from the most obvious to the most unsuspected — that this book sets out to analyse point by point.
ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF FRENCH BOMBER AIRCRAFT 1939-1942
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ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF FRENCH BOMBER AIRCRAFT 1939-1942

L20200131
€42.56
REPRINT IN PROGRESS - AVAILABILITY APRIL 2021 - RESERVE YOUR COPY In keeping with the two reference works "Encyclopédie des avions de chasse français" and "Camouflages et marques de l'Aviation Française", Caraktère editions are pleased to announce the release of a third volume dedicated to French bomber and reconnaissance aircraft.
MAURIENNE 1940
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MAURIENNE 1940

L20200124
€34.12
On 3 September 1939, following Hitler's invasion of Poland, France and the United Kingdom declared war on Germany. Italy, an ally of that country, announced its non-belligerence. Autumn and winter passed in reinforcing the defensive dispositions amid a certain torpor. In spring, the snowmelt revived the transalpine threat. From 10 May onwards, with the...
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JUNE 1940 THE BATTLE OF ABBEVILLE – From the Rhineland to Caen with the Company of the "List" Regiment
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JUNE 1940 THE BATTLE OF ABBEVILLE – From the Rhineland to Caen with the Company of the...

L20200120
€20.38
The chronicle of the journey of the horse-drawn infantry gun company of the famous "List" Regiment, which distinguished itself in 1914 and was also the regiment of one Adolf Hitler. Day by day, we follow this unit from the Rhineland to Normandy, passing through Saint-Quentin, Amiens, Le Havre, Rouen and Giberville, near Caen. Day by day, we share the...
DE GAULLE IN HELMET – A New Approach to the Drama
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DE GAULLE UNDER FIRE – A New Approach to the Drama

L20200117
€23.70
A gripping account of a brief but violent period in the life of General de Gaulle who, from 28 May to 5 June 1940, resisted the Germans on the Somme at the head of five hundred tanks.
The Strange Capture, May 1940 – Unpublished Notebooks of...
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The Strange Capture, May 1940 – Unpublished Notebooks of a 1st Army Staff Officer

L20200108
€16.02
"That evening, a coded telegram was received from Grand Headquarters, the content of which was as follows: 'Commander Fauvelle has set out your situation to me and to Mr Paul Reynaud. I do not underestimate your difficulties. I am counting on you to save everything that can possibly be saved, in honour of the colours in your keeping.' For anyone who can...
ALL THE ARMORED VEHICLES OF THE FRENCH ARMY - From... ALL THE ARMORED VEHICLES OF THE FRENCH ARMY - From... 2
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ALL THE ARMORED VEHICLES OF THE FRENCH ARMY - From Origins to 1940

L20200076
€37.87
2nd edition of Tous les blindés de l'armée française des origines à 1940, by François Vauvillier. When France entered the war in September 1939, its rearmament effort since the adoption of the first new-model equipment in 1935 had been considerable: more than 2,700 modern combat vehicles — tanks and armoured cars — had been delivered over four years by...
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1940 - TRUTHS AND LEGENDS
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1940 - TRUTHS AND LEGENDS

L20200073
€12.32
The defeat of 1940: how did it come to this? On 13 May 1940, three days after the start of the German offensive, the lines of the French army were breached. On 17 June, Pétain called for a cessation of fighting. On 22 June, the armistice was signed in the forest of Compiègne. On 10 July, deputies and senators voted full powers to the Marshal. In two...
THE DRAMA OF 1940 - General André Beaufre
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THE DRAMA OF 1940 - General André Beaufre

L20200071
€18.01
« The wind of History, when it rises, overpowers the will of men, but it is for men to foresee these storms, to contain them, and even, at the limit, to know how to harness them. » A member of the Grand Quartier général at the time of the Wehrmacht's invasion of France, General André Beaufre was the powerless witness to a collapse without precedent in...
THE SOLDIERS OF 1940. A SACRIFICED GENERATION
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THE SOLDIERS OF 1940. A SACRIFICED GENERATION

L20200067
€22.75
The history of the « phoney war », which mobilised five million French soldiers from 1939 to the defeat of June 1940, has long been reduced, in our national memory, to the Fernandel of La vache et le prisonnier or the adventures of La Septième compagnie. Eighty years after that « strange defeat », the heroes of Dunkirk or of the Maginot Line — prisoners...
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ROMMEL IN NORMANDY - France 1940
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ROMMEL IN NORMANDY - France 1940

L20200055
€23.70
Rommel's passage through Normandy in June 1940 is often overshadowed. The author sought to highlight this brief episode, which was far from straightforward for his division, which nonetheless captured three Norman ports. Ancelle, Boos, Elbeuf, Yvetot, Fécamp, Saint-Valery-en-Caux, Le Havre, L'Aigle, La Haye-du-Puits, Marinvast, Cherbourg — Rommel is one...
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