Battlefields

Following an Allied attack on Dieppe in the summer of 1942, Hitler launched the construction of a huge command centre in France, intended to coordinate the defence of Europe in the event of a landing. Margival, a commune in the Aisne, was chosen. No fewer than 475 bunkers were to be built there over an area covering 90 square kilometres. The largest building, which was over 100 metres long, would be the largest German transmission centre during the Second World War.

Throughout the First World War, mine warfare damaged many strategic promontories on the front, but it was in Vauquois, a small village in the Meuse, that it took on its full destructive scale. In the heart of this small hill 290 metres high, the French and Germans dug kilometres of galleries. They also blew up more than 500 mines, thus changing the landscape forever: the village of Vauquois was wiped out in this turmoil. Serge Tignères delved into the bowels of the earth to discover and understand this little-known episode of the First World War.

In March 1918, General Ludendorff led a series of offensives on the Western Front and wanted to get closer to Paris. The Germans wanted to act quickly to eliminate their enemies before American reinforcements were deployed in France. In June, a formidable battle began in the Belleau Woods in the Aisne. The Marine Corps - then little known - intervened. Thanks to them and the sacrifices of the poilus, the capital would not fall.

Since the occupation of the free zone and the dissolution of the armistice army in 1942, the plateau, a veritable natural fortress at an altitude of 1000 meters in the Dauphiné Alps, has become a refuge for young French people who are resistant to compulsory work service. Trained and trained, these shadow soldiers must serve a plan that has been in development since March 1941: the mountain plan. The immense Vercors plateau, 150 km long and 50 km wide, is to serve as a drop zone for Allied paratroopers. Serge Tignères sets off to discover this little-known battle, a symbol of the resistance

In mid-September 1944, General Leclerc's men turned their sights towards Germany, after having liberated Paris. From now on, they were heading towards the banks of the Moselle. Without knowing it, they were heading straight towards Hitler's troops, who had decided to launch an offensive at the same time! On September 12, the 2nd Armored Division came across a small village whose name would go down in history: Dompaire. A position held by the 112th German Panzer Brigade. The terrible battle began... Two days later, against all odds, the German army was defeated. How did the French manage to annihilate one of the best-equipped Panzer brigades on the Western Front? How did they compensate for their inferiority? What tactics did they use on the ground?