Battlefields

June 6, 1944. Operation Overlord was a colossal undertaking. 150,000 Allied Forces landed on five beaches in Normandy, France. It was the first phase in the liberation of Western Europe. When GIs from the First U.S. Army landed, the Allies believed the Germans would withdraw to the Seine. The American Forces would then advance to Brittany, the banks of the Loire, and Paris, but they were wrong!

Dieppe 1942, the mention of this name and date is enough to recall the sinister memory of an allied raid composed essentially of Canadian troops. On August 19, after 9 hours of fighting, 1,197 Allied soldiers, including 913 Canadians, were killed. 48 French civilians also died. At the height of the fighting, the attackers lost four men per second. The Dieppe raid turned into a massacre!

August 26th, 1944, General de Gaulle has just returned to Paris. For the inhabitants of the capital, this is deliverance after four years of occupation. In ten days of combat, 1,000 resistant fell; 582 Parisians died; General Leclerc's 2nd Armored Division lost 141 men; the US forces also lost many men. Equally, 3,200 German soldiers also perished. Discover what actually happened in Paris.

The Alps Front, June 1940. A handful of French soldiers are about to face a flood of 300,000 Italians. Everywhere in France, you see defeat. The Government fled to Bordeaux on June 14th. While France is breaking down, General Olry and his men remain stationed on the Alps. During ten days of fierce battle, the Italians will lose more than 6,000 men without seizing an inch of French territory.