One could hardly doubt, in March 1943, that the Battle of the The Atlantic had not reached its apogee and that, in the three or four months which would follow, one of the two adversaries had to slide towards defeat. Admiral Donitz was playing his last cards. Its fleet included 240 submarines. He con
It is difficult, in the midst of all the seas which divide and unite the Commonwealth, to estimate the vast expanse over which the Battle of the Atlantic was fought. The term itself is restrictive, as the battle was taking place far beyond the Atlantic Ocean. German submarines and warships also oper
In early 1941, the difficulties and complexities of the Battle of the Atlantic began to really make themselves felt. The heavy losses experienced by merchant ships in 1940, of which 2,186,158 tons had been sunk by submarines, were partly compensated by the use of many merchant navy vessels for war.
The Admiralty dreaded above all the losses caused to them by the merchant ships which the Germans had armed for combat. These, fast and well armed, were sent from Germany to act individually in the oceans. The difficulty was to find them. At the beginning of the war, groups of them had been formed t
The English Admiralty knew that several hundred new submarines were in construction. The number already existing was therefore tiny compared to that of those who were to arrive. Before the war, in a book on submarine warfare, Admiral Donitz had estimated that 300 more submarines would be needed to w
The losses of merchant ships caused by U-boats throughout 1940 are telling. In January and February, we deplore the loss of 85 boats, for a total of 290,000 tons. In March, April and May, a large number of U-boats having been withdrawn from the Atlantic to take part in the Norwegian campaign, the lo
. The first six months of 1940 had been relatively calm in the Atlantic. Bad weather in January had prevented the submarines from continuing their operations. In addition, a large number had been withdrawn to take part in the Norwegian campaign. But by June they were back, not yet very many as the
As the sky battle raged between the Royal Air Force and German bombers and fighter planes, determined to pound England into submission, another battle unfolded in English territorial waters. The plan Hitler had adopted to defeat Britain rested not so much on an invasion across the English Channel (w
Submarines, however, were by no means the only danger faced by merchant ships of the English Navy. From the first week of the war, some were sunk or damaged by mines of a new type, with magnetic influence, against which the English still had no response. However, on November 23, a German plane was t
In September 1939, the Kriegsmarine began submarine warfare with less than thirty operational submersibles. Two years later, following an intense construction effort, Admiral Dônitz was able to launch at least 250 U-boats on a mission, of which around 100 were permanently in operational areas.The No
Much of the goal that Dragoon set was reached. Once the wounds of the war had healed, Marseilles and Toulon were able to muster huge quantities of equipment and reinforcements. Fourteen American divisions landed in the port of Marseilles alone over the next few weeks; some days, we reached 17,000 to
As the day of August 15 went by , the situation of the German troops was deteriorating. The beaches of the Riviera were teeming with Allied tanks, vehicles and supply crates that a steady stream continued to reinforce. In the evening, the Allied forces had taken 2,000 prisoners and captured six town
A swarm of Apex, small unmanned craft equipped with noisemakers, was then sent to the beaches to complete the work of the dredgers. The latter had already cleared the mines and obstructions of the channels near the beaches. The Apexes, packed with 10 tons of explosives each, were to blow up the last
The period preceding the landing saw an upsurge in raids and espionage activities by the 500 maquisards of the French Forces of the Interior (F.F.I.).However, the Germans remained a surprising indecision, not knowing how to predict the site chosen for the landing. Genoa, the Adriatic, a double attac
The only valuable German troop present in the region belonged to the XI Panzer Gespent (“Ghost” division) stationed in the Toulouse-Carcassonne-Albi triangle. But for General Walther Botsch (Chief of Staff of the XIX Army), the value of the Panzers was questionable. Like all the other armored units
Few campaigns of the Second World War gave rise to such bitter discussions as Operation Dragoon, the Allied landings in Provence on August 15, 1944. First called Anvil, this operation was ardently supported by the Americans - the President Franklin D. Roosevelt and General Dwight D. Eisenhower in th
Name given to the reserve cadets of the Ecole dApplication de la Cavalerie, in Saumur, when they, in June 1940, armed with their training equipment, opposed the German advance on the Loire in a fight of sacrifice. In May 1940, the French armies engaged in Belgium and in the North of France were una
Despite a common idea, the French army was far from inferior to the German army in quality and quantity, except in the fields of aviation and anti-aircraft defense. However, the sky is not empty, as has often been said, even if the French fighters really capable of competing with their German counte
the invasion of France On June 6, the offensive then resumed towards the south with an overwhelming numerical superiority and despite heroic resistance from certain French units, the German advance was very rapid. The German forces arrive at the edge of the Cher (border of the future line of demarc
The Battle of Dunkirk (code name Operation Dynamo) took place from May 25 to June 3, 1940. Jostled by the Blitzkrieg engaged by the German army during the Battle of France, the British army as well as units of the French army had to retreat towards the north of France. Operation Dynamo Caught in
Julius Caesar climbed the steps of power in a meteoric rise; the Senate quickly named him dictator for life. In Antiquity, a dictator was one who received full powers from the Assembly to carry out a specific mission in a given time. But he assumes them for life. However, Caesar lacks a royal titl
One of the main collateral damage of wars is the destruction of historical and artistic heritage. Despite the precautions taken to protect the monuments -let us remember that emblematic image of La Cibeles covered with sandbags-, bombardments or fire sometimes deteriorate, if not completely eliminat
Charles Dickens, photographed in 1867 by Jeremia Gurney and London in the 19th century • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / ISTOCKPHOTO No one better than Charles Dickens was able to capture the two facets of the London of his time. The bright side of the leap into modernity, and the dark side of child poverty
The invasion of Poland is often presented as a simple German military walk. But this is not the case. The Poles were defeated for a number of reasons but in any case they fought and often heroically. One such case is the battle at Yordanov which took place between September 1 and 3, 1939 between