England's Last War Against France : Fighting Vichy 1940-42
Author(s): Colin Smith
RARE AND COLLECTIBLE | MILITARY HISTORY
Most people think that England's last war with France involved point-blank broadsides from sailing ships and breastplated Napoleonic cavalry charging red-coated British infantry. But there was a much more recent conflict than this. It went on for over two years and cost several thousand lives. Under the terms of its armistice with Nazi Germany, the unoccupied part of France and its substantial colonies were ruled from the spa town of Vichy by the government of Marshal Philip Petain, the victor of Verdun, one of the bloodiest battles of the First World War. Between July 1940 and November 1942, while Britain was at war with Germany, Italy and ultimately Japan, it also fought land, sea and air battles with the considerable forces at the disposal of Petain's Vichy French. When the Royal Navy sank the French Fleet at Mers El-Kebir almost 1,300 French sailors died in what was the 20th century's most one-sided sea battle. British casualties were nil. In the House of Commons, MPs greeted Churchill's brutal resolve not to risk the warships of their very recent ally falling into German hands with cheers and threw their order papers in the air.
It is a wound that has still not healed, for undoubtedly these events are better remembered in France than in Britain. Despite the appalling losses on both sides, the war the British and eventually the Americans fought against France in 1940-42 has never been written about as an entity. An embarrassment at the time, its maritime massacre and the bitter, hard-fought campaigns that followed rarely make more than footnotes in accounts of Allied operations against Axis forces. Until now.
2009. A fine, unmarked and unread copy in a fine, unclipped d/w. Scans available if required
Product Information
First-class historian who attracts excellent review attention. 'An excellent book, unfailingly well written' - John Keegan, Daily Telegraph, on 'Alamein'. 'A magisteral account of the British retreat in Malay... unforgettably well told' - Neal Ascherson, Observer on 'Singapore Burning'.
"Colin Smith, a veteran war correspondent, has built an impressive reputation as a military historian... a fascinating story." -- MAX HASTINGS THE SUNDAY TIMES - 16.08.09 "grim revelations about the thousands of allies killed by troops loyal to Vichy." -- Our Choice of the Best Recent books THE SUNDAY TIMES - 23.08.09 "his descriptions of these obscure battlefield encounters are thrilling and his narrative is spruce and peppery." -- CHRISTOPHER SILVESTER THE DAILY TELEGRAPH - 29.08.09 "Colin Smith...military historian and reconteur..." "there is much of the flavou of Waugh's Sword of Honour trilogy in Smith's delight in arcane detail and rumbustious anecdote." "a narrative of war that has much of Patrick O'Brian about it." "there are few who can, like Smith, bring to life these lesser-known battles and the unknown soldiers, sailors and airmen, most of them dead now, who faced death and won these wars for us then." -- CARMEN CALLIL THE GUARDIAN 24.10.09 "battles in dramatic detail, using not only official records and personal diaries, but eyewitness accounts from participants" -- CHARLES GLASS LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS - December 2009 "excellent account of a woefully understudied 'war within a war'...Astonishingly, this is the first book" -- ANDREW ROBERTS LITERARY REVIEW - December 2009 "Colin Smith's light yet detailed touch superbly outlines a wasteful and depressing story... A quality read with many political and military twists and turns." SOLDIER MAGAZINE - December 2009 "Hidden Gem! Not as widely reviewed as it should have been given its quirky take on the well ploughed field of World War Two studies." THE OLDIE - December 2009 "Smith's considerable achievement is to unmask the reality and make us understand this painful period far better than ever before." CATHOLIC HERALD - 12.10.09 "This well-documented and intriguing history unearths one of the least-known episodes of the Second World War... Smith's writing is dispassionate, his writing robust, his sources well-chosen and well-used and his talent for military history self-evident." GOOD BOOK GUIDE - SEPT 09 "absorbing... a fascinating and compelling read." WESTERN DAILY PRESS - 19.09.09 "a classic on the conflict with Hitlers Vichy allies... a superb book on an astonishing array of long-buried incidents." OXFORD TIMES 03.10.09
Colin Smith is the acclaimed author of 'Singapore Burning' and co-author of 'Alamein - War Without Hate'.
General Fields
- :
- : Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd
- : Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd
- : 0.828
- : 01 July 2009
- : 234mm X 153mm X 40mm
- : United Kingdom
- : books
Special Fields
- : 36 B/W Photo\Illu(s),8 Diagram(s),9 Map(s)
- : European history: Second World War; Military history; Battles & campaigns; World history: Second World War
- : 512
- : 944.0816
- : Hardback
- : Colin Smith