Newsletter

Les quatorze points de Wilson (8 janvier 1918)

General Pershing landing in Boulogne from the freighter

First World War

L'archiduc François-Ferdinand et la duchesse de Hohenberg dont l'assassinat va déclencher l'entrée en guerre des grandes puissances européennes

Normandy - Falaise Pocket

Canadian soldiers entering the city of Falaise. Source: Basse-Normandie Regional Council / National Archives of Canada

Nearly surrounded and under pressure from all sides, two German armies organised their retreat during the Battle of the Falaise Pocket.

The Norwegian campaign (9 April - 7 June 1940)

Chasseurs en route pour la Norvège.
Source : ECPAD France

History

Right from the start of the Second World War, Norway attracted the attention of the belligerents. It lay at a strategic maritime crossroads, its fjords could accommodate a large fleet, and iron ore from Swedish Lapland, potentially invaluable to the German war effort, passed through the port of Narvik.

First world war places of remembrance

American monument in Meaux, detail. Source: Musée de la Grande Guerre

The Memorial heritage of Paris and its greater region is not particularly rich in monuments relating to the memory of the first world war since Paris was not directly concerned by the fighting. Paris did not experience the war so few monuments concern military operations.

The National Day of Remembrance of the victims of racist and anti-Semitic persecutions by the French State and of tribute to the righteous of France

The monument erected near the Vélodrome d'Hiver, in Paris. Source: MINDEF/SGA/DMPA

La Victoire... et ensuite ?

14 July 1945

Défilé du 14 juillet 1945 à Paris. Vue aérienne de la place de la Bastille. ©ecpa>d

From the Arc de Triomphe to Place de la Nation and taking in Place de la Bastille where the official stand was located, the crowd gathered on the parade route through Paris adorned with tricolours. After an interruption lasting six years the French national holiday was again celebrated with Europe finally at peace and the country liberated.

August 1944 – The 2nd Armoured Division in Normandy

A Sherman M4 of the 12th regiment of Chasseurs d'Afrique of the 2nd Armoured Division landing from a Landing Ship Tank in Normandy in August 1944. Source: U.S. Federal Government, royalty-free

The Polish in France

General Jozef Pilsudski, between 1910 and 1920.

Józef Piłsudski, at the time he became the first head of state (Naczelnik Państwa) of the Polish Republic, 1919. Source: L'Album de la Grande Guerre, L'Illustration.

The Polish in France, 1914-1918

In 1914, split between Russia, the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and Prussia, the Polish were divided into two camps. Many hoped, at best, for independence to be granted by the future victor: the National Committee of Warsaw was banking on Russia, while the National High Committee of Vienna had their hopes in Austria, whose armies included Pilsudski's legions (30,000 men).

It rapidly became clear that the main threat to Poland's future came from Germany: Warsaw's occupation by the Reich's troops in August 1915 and the creation of a new kingdom announced in November 1916 by Governor-General Von Bessemer, who sought to recruit Polish soldiers.

Subscribe to Polish