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L'Australie et la Nouvelle-Zélande dans la Grande Guerre

Caterpillar Valley cemetery near Longueval

The Men of Glières

Military parade on the Glières Plateau. Source: Photo by Raymond Perrillat / Association des Glières.

German resistance to Nazism

Hermann Goering, Martin Bormann and Bruno Loerzer in the ruins of the Wolfsschanze conference hall after the 20 July 1944 attack on Hitler. Source: Deutsches Bundesarchiv. (German Federal Archive)

In Germany, resistance to Nazism was neither the act of a single group nor of a mass movement.

Although they were in the minority, German men and women from all political, social and religious categories fought Hitler, were exiled, imprisoned in the camps and died.

Camarón – 30 April 1863

Commemorations of the Battle of Camarón in Mexico. Source: Foreign Legion.

Created in 1831 by Louis-Philippe, the Foreign Legion has taken part in every conflict France has been involved with since and contributed to the formation of the French Empire.

In the mystique created around this elite corps, one exploit symbolises most its heroism and sense of duty: Camarón.

Decorations, signs of national gratitude

Croix de guerre 1914-1918 (Cross of War). Source: Photo Franck Beauperin

By establishing the Croix de Guerre 1914-1918 (Cross of War), the decree of April 1915 set down the principle of honouring individual acts of bravery and the remarkable feats performed by military formations. However, this design continued way beyond the First World War.

Other decorations rewarded special courage and selfless action demonstrated during armed operations.

Saint Pol Internment Camp

The people of Saint-Polois were unable to return home until the end of April 1945.

Prisoners at home...

Although France had been liberated, the Saint-Pol internment camp continued to hold those who did not want to leave. September 1944: the North liberated itself, and the noose was tightening around the Germans who were holed up in the Dunkirk Pocket, imprisoning no fewer than 12,000 Germans and 25,000 civilians. A truce was concluded on 4 and 5 October so as to evacuate almost all the civilians because a few uncooperative people, considered ”unproductive mouths to feed”, refused to leave. In order to better control them (and to get a hand on their food supplies), the occupants created four internment camps on 14 February 1945 at Coudekerque-Branche, Malo, Rosendaël and Saint-Pol.

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

Operation Overlord

The Canadian infantry lands on Juno Beach and marches to Bernières-sur-Mer on 6 June 1944. Source: Canadian National Archives.

This was the code name for the Battle of Normandy.

Le système Séré de Rivières

1870-1871. The Franco-German conflict

Réservistes français de 1870.

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.