The Battle of Normandy in 1944, codenamed Operation Overlord, was the invasion of Nazi occupied Western Europe by the western allies. With almost three million troops crossing the English Channel from England to Normandy in France, it still ranks as the world’s largest seaborne invasion.

The operation began with overnight paratrooper landings and a massive early-morning amphibious assault. It continued over some two months with a land campaign to establish, expand, and eventually break out of the Normandy bridgehead with both the surrender of the garrison of Paris and the fall of the Chambois pocket. It remains one of the best-known battles of World War II, and in common parlance the expression D-Day is now invariably understood to refer to the D-Day (starting date) of this battle — June 6, 1944.

The Prelude

Since the 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa), the soviets had fought Germany alone on the European mainland. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill committed the USA and UK to opening up a “second front” in Europe to ease the desperate soviet situation, initially in 1942, and again in spring 1943.

Rather than repeat the head-on frontal assults of World War I, the British initially favored attacking the peripheries of Europe, but were pursuaded by the US to pursue a direct frontal attack across the English Channel. Two preliminary proposals were drawn up; Operation Sledgehammer for an invasion in 1942, and Operation Roundup for a larger attack in 1943, which was adopted and became Operation Overlord, although it was delayed until 1944.

The process of planning was started in earnest in January of 1943 by the staff of SHAEF.

Choice of landing site

The operating radius of the Spitfire had limited the choices of landing site. Geography had reduced the choices further to two – the Pas de Calais, and the Normandy coast. While the Pas de Calais offered the best beaches and easy access to Germany, it was (for that reason) likely to be the expected site, and the best defended. Consequently the Normandy coast was chosen. As a result of the 1942 Canadian raid on Dieppe, it was also decided not to try to capture a port by direct assault from the sea in the initial landings.

Strength of the attack

It was not until December 1943 that General Eisenhower was named as Supreme Commander Allied Expeditionary Force, effectively giving him overall charge of the Allied forces in Europe. In January 1944 General Montgomery was named as operational commander for the invasion ground forces.

At that stage the plan required sealanding by three divisions, with two brigades landed by air. Montgomery quickly increased the scale of the initial attack to five divisions by sea and three by air. In total, 47 divisions would be committed; 21 American, the other 26 a mixture of British, Commonwealth and free European troops.

More than 6000 vessels would be involved in the invasion under the command of Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, including 4000 landing craft and 130 warships for bombardment. 12,000 aircraft under Air Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory were to support the landings, including 1000 transports to fly in the parachute troops. 5000 tons of bombs would be dropped against the German defences.

Objectives

The objectives for the first 40 days were to:

a) create a beachhead that would include the villages of Caen and Cherbourg (for it’s deep water port);
b) break out from the beachhead to liberate Brittany and it’s Atlantic ports, and to advance to a line roughly 125 miles to the south east of Paris from Le Havre through Le Mans to Tours.

The three month objective was to control a zone bounded by the rivers Loire in the south and Seine in the north east.

Deception plan

In order to persuade the Germans that the invasion would really be coming to the Pas de Calais, the Allies prepared a massive deception plan, called Operation Fortitude. An entirely fictitious First US Army Group was created, with fake buildings and equipment and sending false radio messages. General Patton was even mentioned as the unit’s commander. The Germans were eager to find the real landing location for themselves, and had an extensive network of agents operating throughout Southern England. Unfortunately for them, every single one had been ‘turned’ by the Allies, and was dutifully sending back messages confirming the Pas de Calais as the likely attack point. To keep the pretence running for as long as possible, the decption was continued into the battle, with air attacks on radar and other installations in the area.

Special preparations

Some of the more unusual preparations by the Allies included armoured vehicles specially adapted for the assault. Developed under the leadership of Major General Percy Hobart these vehicles included ‘swimming’ Duplex Drive Sherman tanks, mine clearing tanks (the Sherman Crab, a normal Sherman tank with a flail sticking out on the front that destroyed all mines without damage to the tank), bridge laying tanks and road laying tanks. The plan also called for the construction of two artificial Mulberry Harbours.

German response

In November 1943, when Hitler decided that the threat of invasion in France could no longer be ignored, Erwin Rommel was appointed Inspector of Coastal Defences, and later commander of Army Group B, the ground forces charged with the defense of Northern France. Rommel was of the firm belief that the only way to defeat an invasion was to counterattack the beaches as early as possible with armour, and wanted at least some armour placed close enough to the beaches to deliver an immediate counterattack. However his commander disagreed, and in resolving the dispute Hitler split the six available Panzer divisions in Northern France, allocated three directly to Rommel. The remaining three were placed a good distance back from the beaches, and could not be released without the direct approval of Hitler’s operations staff. The air defences of the North French coast comprised just 169 fighter aircraft.

The Plan

The order of battle was approximately as follows, East to West:

• British 6th Airborne Division and 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, airlanded by parachute and glider East of the River Orne to protect the left flank.
• 1 Special Service Brigade comprising No. 3, No. 4, No. 6 and No. 45(RM) Commandos landed at Ouistreham in Queen Red sector (left most). No. 4 Commando were augmented by 1 Troop and 8 Troop (both French) of No.10 (Inter Allied) Commando.
• British 3rd Infantr
  y Division and the 27th Armoured Brigade on Sword Beach, from Ouistreham to Lion.
• No. 41(RM) Commando (part of 4 Special Service Brigade together with Nos. 46(RM), 47(RM) and 48(RM) Commandos), landed on the far right of Sword Beach.
  Canadian 3rd Infantry Division, 2nd Armoured Brigade and No.48 (RM) Commando on Juno Beach, from St Aubin to La Riviere.
• No. 46(RM) Commando at Juno to scale the cliffs on the left side of the River Orne estuary and destroy a battery. (Battery fire proved negligible so No. 46 were kept off-shore as a floating reserve and landed D+1).
• British 50th Division and 8th Armoured Brigade on Gold Beach, from La Riviere to Arromanches.
• No. 47(RM) Commando on the West flank of Gold beach.
• US V Corps (US 1st Infantry Division and US 29th Infantry Division) on Omaha Beach, from St. Hondrine to Vierville sur Mer.
• US 2nd Ranger Batallion at Pointe du Hoc.
• US VII Corps (US 4th Infantry Division plus others) on Utah Beach, around Pouppevile and La Madeleine.
• US 101st Airborne Division by parachute around Vierville.
• US 82nd Airborne Division by parachute around Sainte-Mère-Église, protecting the right flank.
• Activities by the French resistance forces, the Maquis, helped disrupt Axis lines of communications.

The foreshore area had been extensively fortified by the Germans as part of their Atlantic Wall defences, causing the landings to be timed for low tide. It was guarded by 4 divisions, of which only one (352) was of high quality. Many others included Germans who (usually for medical reasons) were not considered suitable for active duty on the Eastern Front, and other nationalities (mainly Russians) who had agreed to fight for the Germans rather than endure a prisoner of war camp. The 21st Panzer division guarded Caen, and the 12th SS Panzer division was stationed to the south-east. Its soldiers had all been recruited directly from the Hitler Youth movement at the age of sixteen in 1943, and it was to acquire a reputation for ferocity in the coming battle. Some of the area behind Utah beach had been flooded by the Germans as a precaution against parachute assault.

Prior to the battle, the Allies had carefully mapped and tested the landing area, paying particular attention to weather conditions in the English Channel. A full moon was required both for light and for the spring tide. D-Day for the operation was originally set for June 5, 1944, but bad weather forced a postponement. The weather on June 6 was still marginal, but General Eisenhower chose not to wait for the next full moon. This decision helped catch the German forces off-guard, as they did not expect an attack in such conditions – so much so that on June 4 Rommel returned to Germany for his wife’s 50th birthday.

The Landings

Pegasus bridge
The British 6th Airborne Division were the first troops to go into action, at ten minutes past midnight. Their objectives were Pegasus Bridge and others on the rivers at the East flank of the landing area, and also a gun battery at Merville (see Operation Tonga). The guns were destroyed, and the bridges were captured and held until the Commandos relieved them late on the 6th June.

Ouistreham
No.4 Commando went ashore led by the French Troops as agreed amongst themselves. The Troops had separate targets in Ouistreham, the French a blockhouse and the Casino and the British two batteries which overlooked the beach. The blockhouse proved too strong for the Commando’s PIAT (Projector Infantry Anti Tank) guns but the Casino was taken with the aid of a Centaur tank. The British Commandos achieved both battery objectives only to find the gun mounts empty and the guns removed. Leaving the mopping-up procedure to the infantry, the Commandos withdrew from Ouistreham to join the other members of 1 SS Brigade (Nos.3, 6 and 45), in moving inland to join-up with the 6th Airborne.

Sword beach
On Sword beach the British got ashore with light casualties. However they failed to make the progress expected after that, and had advanced about five miles by the end of the day. In particular Caen, a major objective, was still in German hands by the end of D-Day.

Juno beach
The Canadians, on Juno beach, suffered heavy casualties in the initial landings, the highest on any of the beaches after Omaha. Despite this, many forces were able to get off the beaches quickly, and begin advancing south. One Canadian Brigade has the distinction of being the only Allied unit to meet its June 6th objectives.

Gold beach
At Gold the casualties were also quite heavy, partly because the swimming Sherman tanks were delayed, and the Germans had strongly fortified a village on the beach. However the 50th division overcame its difficulties and advanced almost to the outskirts of Bayeux by the end of the day. None got closer to their planned objectives.

No.47(RM) Commando were the last British Commandos to land and came ashore on Gold east of Le Hamel. Their task was to proceed inland then turn right (west) and make a ten mile march through enemy territory to attack the coastal harbour of Port en Bessin from the rear. This small port on the British extreme right, was well sheltered in the chalk cliffs. The special significance of this little port is that it was to be the point at which the Allies undersea fuel pipe PLUTO, (Pipe Line Under The Ocean), was to come ashore.

Omaha beach
On Omaha beach the US 1st Infantry were undergoing the worst ordeals of the landings. Their swimming Sherman tanks had been mostly lost before reaching shore. Their opposition, the 352nd Division, were some of the best trained on the beaches, and occupied positions on steep cliffs overlooking the beach. The official record stated that “Within 10 minutes of the ramps being lowered, [the leading] company had become inert, leaderless and almost incapable of action. Every officer and sergeant had been killed or wounded…It had become a struggle for survival and rescue”. The division lost over 4000 casualties. Despite this the survivors regrouped and pressed inland.

The massive concrete clifftop gun emplacement at Pointe du Hoc was the target of the US 2nd Ranger battalion. Their task was to scale the 100 metre cliffs under enemy fire with ropes and ladders, and then attack and destroy the guns, which were thought to command the Omaha and Utah landing areas. The emplacement was successfully reached, and the guns which had been moved out (probably during the preceding bombardment) were found and destroyed. The casualty rate for the landing troops was nearly fifty percent.

Utah beach
By contrast, casualties on Utah beach were 197 out of around 23,000 landed, the lightest of any beach. They too pressed inland and succeeded in linking up with parts of the airlanded divisions.

Vierville & Sainte-Mère-Église
The 82nd and 101st Airborne had been less lucky. Partly due to inexperienced piloting and partly due to the difficulty of the terrain they had landed badly scattered. Some fell in the sea or deliberately flooded areas. After 24 hours only 3000 of the 101st had rallied. Many continued to roam and fight behind enemy lines for days. The 82nd occupied the town of Sainte-Mère-Église for a time in the early morning of June 6th, giving it the claim to be the first town liberated in the invasion.

Mulberry harbours
Once the beachhead was established, two artificial Mulberry Harbours were towed across the English Channel in segments. One was constructed at Arromanches, the other at Omaha Beach. The Omaha harbour wa
s destroyed in severe storms around D+10. Around 9,000 tons of materiel was landed daily at the Arromanches harbour until the end of August, by which time the ports of Antwerp and Cherbourg had been secured by the Allies, and had begun to return to service.

German reaction

The German defenders positioned on the beaches put up relatively light resistance, being ill-trained and short on transport and equipment, and having been subject to a week of intense bombardment. The exception was the 352nd Infantry division, which defended Omaha beach, and the tenacity of their defence was responsible for the high casualty rate there. The German commanders took several hours to be sure that the reports they were receiving indicated a landing in force, rather than a series of raids. Their communication difficulties were made worse by the absence of several key commanders. The scattering of the American parachutists also added to the confusion, as reports were coming in of Allied troops all over northern Normandy.

Despite this the 21st Panzer division mounted a concerted counter attack, between Sword and Juno beaches, and nearly succeeded in reaching the sea. Stiff resistance by anti-tank gunners, and fear lest they be cut off caused them to withdraw before the end of 6th June. According to some reports the sighting of a wave of airlanded troops flying over them was instrumental in the decision to retreat.

After the Landings

The Allied invasion plans had called for the capture of Caen and Bayeux on the first day, with all the beaches linked except Utah, and a front line six to ten miles from the beaches. In practice none of these had been achieved. However overall the casualites had not been as heavy as some had feared (around 10,000 compared to the 20,000 feared by Churchill), and the bridgeheads had withstood the expected counterattacks.

Priorities in the days following the landing for the Allies were: to link the bridgeheads; to take Caen; and to capture the port of Cherbourg to provide a secure supply line.

The German 12th SS (Hitler Youth) Panzer division assaulted the Canadians on the 7th and 8th June, and inflicted heavy losses, but were unable to break through. Meanwhile the beaches were being linked – Sword on 7th June, Omaha on 10th, Utah by 13th. The Allies were actually reinforcing the front faster than the Germans. Although the Allies had to land everything on the beaches, Allied air superiority and the destruction of the French rail system made every German troop movement slow and dangerous.

Believing Caen to be the ‘crucible’ of the battle, Montgomery made it the target of three separate attacks from 7th June to 1st July, before it was surrounded and bombed on 7th July (Operation Charnwood). Seeking a decisive breakout into the open country that led to Paris, Montgomery then launched a major offensive from the Caen area with all three British armoured divisions, codenamed Operation Goodwood. Initially successful it was eventually stopped by determined and improvised resistance from the 1st and 12th Panzer divisions, supported by German engineers acting as infantry. The British tank casualties were very high; yet the German reserves had been committed to hold the line, and could not now be used to combat any offensive by the Americans.

The country behind Utah and Omaha beaches were characterised by bocage; ancient banks and hedgerows, up to ten feet thick, one to two hundred yards apart, impervious to tanks, gunfire and vision, making ideal defensive positions. The US infantry made slow progress, and suffered heavy casualties as they pressed towards Cherbourg. The elite airborne troops were called on again and again to restart a stalled advance. Hitler expected the Cherbourg garrison to resist to the end, and deny the port to the Allies. However after requesting that a single shot be fired at the gate, the commander of Cherbourg surrendered on 26th June.

Chronology

• June 5th/6th US 82nd Airborne Division (Operation Detroit) and 101st Airborne Division (Operation Chicago) and British 6th Airborne Division (Operation Tonga) are airlanded.
• June 6th – Seaborne D-Day landings
• June 25th – 29th Operation Epsom, an offensive to the west of Caen, repulsed by the German defenders.
• July 7th – Caen finally captured.
• July 17th – Erwin Rommel severely injured when his car was strafed by an Allied aircraft.
• July 18th – 20th – Operation Goodwood initiated.
• August 3rd – 9th – Operation Totalize, a trap to capture retreating German armour starts.
• August 16th – Operation Dragoon, a joint American/French landing on the French Riviera, begins.

Political Considerations
The Normandy landings were long foreshadowed by a considerable amount of political manoeuvring amongst the allies. There was much disagreement about timing, appointments of command, and where exactly the landings were to take place. The opening of a second front had been long postponed (it had been initially mooted in 1942), and had been a particular source of strain between the allies. Stalin had been pressing the Western Allies to launch a ‘second front’ since 1942. Churchill had argued for delay until victory could be assured, preferring to attack Italy and North Africa first.

The appointment of Montgomery was questioned by some Americans, who would have preferred the urbane General Alexander to have commanded the land forces. Montgomery himself had doubts about the appointment of Eisenhower because Eisenhower had very little field experience. (In the event, however, Montgomery and Eisenhower cooperated to excellent effect in Normandy: their well-known disagreements came much later.)

Normandy presented serious logistical problems, not the least of which being that the only viable port in the area, Cherbourg, was heavily defended and many among the higher echelons of command argued that the Pas de Calais would make a more suitable landing area on these grounds alone.

Historical Significance

Strategic Appraisal
Although ultimately successful, the Normandy landings were extremely costly in terms of men and material. The failure of the 3rd Division to take Caen, an overly ambitious target, on the first day was to have serious repercussions on the conduct of the war for well over a month, seriously delaying any forward progress. The fortuitous capture of Villers-Bocage followed by the failure to reinforce it, and its subsequent recapture by the Germans, was again to hamper any attempt to extend the Caen bridgehead and push on. By D+11, June 17th, the assault had stagnated.

A lot of the problem came down to the nature of the terrain in which much of the post-landing fighting took place, the bocages. These were essentially small fields separated by high earth banks covered in dense shrubbery, which were eminently defensible.

In the end the invasion of Normandy succeeded in its objective by sheer force of numbers. Many more troops and equipment continued to come ashore after D-Day. By the end of July, some 1 million Allied troops, mostly American, British and Canadian, were entrenched in Normandy.

Aftermath

The toehold that the allies established at Normandy was vital for the Western Allies (the British Commonwealth and the US) to bring the war to Germany’s front door. It has been pointed out that Soviets alone had the capacity to crush Germany by this time, and that this battle was unnecessary for the purpose of defeating the German Reich. By the time of D-Day, the Red Army was steadily advancing towards Germa
ny and four fifths of the German forces were in the East. In France, the Allies faced only about 20% of the German army.

Yet given the Soviets’ claim over Eastern Europe, one could ask if the result would have been a complete occupation of Europe by communist forces. American and British presence helped define the extent that communism would spread, and ensure that democracy would be safe in Western Europe. Thus the battle of Normandy needs to be understood both within the context of WWII and in that of the Cold War that would follow.

The visitor to Normandy today will find many reminders of June 6th, 1944. Most noticeable are the beaches, which are still referred to on maps and signposts by their invasion codenames. Then come the vast cemeteries, row on row of identical white crosses and Stars of David, immaculately kept, commemorating the Allied dead. Streets near the beaches are still named after the units that fought there, and occasional markers commemorate notable incidents. At significant points such as Pointe du Hoc and Pegasus Bridge, there are plaques, memorials or small museums. The Mulberry harbour still sits in the sea at Arromanches. In St Mere Eglise a dummy paratrooper hangs from the church spire. On Juno Beach the Canadian government plans to build a massive memorial and information centre, commemorating one of the most significant events in Canadian military history. Nobody in the area is going to forget Operation Overlord for a long time.

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The national flag of France, more commonly known as the Tricolore (Tricolour), features three equal vertical bands coloured blue (hoist side), white and red. It first appeared during the French Revolution and was a combination of the colours of the coat of arms of Paris (red and blue) and the royal colour (white), with the combination often being credited to the Marquis de Lafayette. The original configuration had the colour red at the hoist side, but this was changed when the flag was officially adopted as the national flag on February 15, 1794 during the First Republic.

After the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy following the defeat of Napoleon in 1815 the tricolore was replaced by the royal white standard with fleur-de-lis which had been in use before the Revolution. However, the revolution of 1830 saw Louis-Philippe, the Citizen-King, ascend to the throne who again designated the tricolour as the national flag, which it has remained ever since.

]]> http://www.france.com/french_history_101/flag_france_tricolore/feed/ 1 http://www.france.com/french_history_101/french_revolution/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=french_revolution http://www.france.com/french_history_101/french_revolution/#comments Sun, 11 Jan 2004 19:25:00 +0000 France.com http://www.france.com/french_revolution/ Causes
Many factors led to the revolution; to some extent the old order succumbed to its own rigidity in the face of a changing world; to some extent, it fell to the ambitions of a rising bourgeoisie, allied with aggrieved peasants and wage-earners and with individuals of all classes who were influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment. As the revolution proceeded and as power devolved from the monarchy to legislative bodies, the conflicting interests of these initially allied groups would become the source of conflict and bloodshed.

Certainly, all of the following must be counted among the causes of the revolution:

France in 1789 was one of the richest and most powerful nations in Europe. Only in Great Britain and the Netherlands did the common people have more freedom and less chance of arbitrary punishment. Nonetheless, a popular rebellion would first to bring the regime of King Louis XVI of France under control of a constitution, then to depose, imprison, try, and execute the king and, later, his wife Marie Antoinette.

Many factors led to the revolution; to some extent the old order succumbed to its own rigidity in the face of a changing world; to some extent, it fell to the ambitions of a rising bourgeoisie, allied with aggrieved peasants and wage-earners and with individuals of all classes who were influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment. As the revolution proceeded and as power devloved from the monarchy to legislative bodies, the conflicting interests of these initially allied groups would become the source of conflict and bloodshed.

Certainly, all of the following must be counted among the causes of the revolution:

• Resentment of royal absolutism.
  Resentment of the seigneurial system by peasants, wage-earners, and a rising bourgeoisie.
  The rise of enlightenment ideals.
  An unmanageable national debt, both caused by and exacerbating the burden of a grossly inequitable system of taxation.
  Food scarcity in the years immediately before the revolution.

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Treaty of Versailles of 1919 was the peace treaty that was created as a result of the six-month-long Paris Peace Conference of 1919 which put an official end to World War I. The treaty was ratified on January 10, 1920 and required that Germany accept responsibility for the war and was thus obliged to pay large amounts of compensation (known as war reparations). Like many other treaties, it is named for the place of its signing: the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles. On January 18, 1919 a peace conference opened in Versailles, France to work on the treaty.

Treaty of Versailles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Treaty of Versailles of 1919 was the peace treaty that was created as a result of the six-month-long Paris Peace Conference of 1919 which put an official end to World War I. The treaty was ratified on January 10, 1920 and required that Germany accept responsibility for the war and was thus obliged to pay large amounts of compensation (known as war reparations). Like many other treaties, it is named for the place of its signing: the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles. On January 18, 1919 a peace conference opened in Versailles, France to work on the treaty.

The treaty provided for the creation of the League of Nations, a major goal of US president Woodrow Wilson. The purpose of the organization was to arbitrate conflicts between nations before they lead to war.

]]> http://www.france.com/french_history_101/treaty_versailles/feed/ 0 http://www.france.com/french_history_101/dreyfus_affair/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dreyfus_affair http://www.france.com/french_history_101/dreyfus_affair/#comments Thu, 11 Dec 2003 16:05:00 +0000 France.com http://www.france.com/dreyfus_affair/ The Dreyfus Affair was a political cover-up which divided France for many years in the late 19th century.

]]> The Dreyfus Affair was a political cover-up which divided France for many years in the late 19th century.

It centered on the 1894 treason conviction of Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish artillery officer in the French army. Dreyfus was, in fact, innocent: the conviction rested on false documents, and when high-ranking officers realised this they attempted to cover up the mistakes. The writer Emile Zola exposed the affair to the general public in the literary newspaper L’Aurore (The Dawn) in a famous open letter to the Président de la République Félix Faure, titled J’accuse! (I Accuse!) on January 13, 1898. In the words of historian Barbara W. Tuchman, it was “one of the great commotions of history”.

The virulence of the passions aroused by the case was due to the spread of Anti-Semitism in France. This may have been due partly to the failure of the Union Générale–a Roman Catholic banking establishment which aimed at superseding Jewish finance–in 1885; it also may have been partly due to the publication of Edouard Drumont’s book La France Juive in 1886.

But the case itself was more immediately the outcome of the continuous attack upon the presence of the Jews as officers in the French army, spearheaded by Drumont and others in the journal “La Libre Parole” (founded with the help of the Jesuits in 1892.) The articles of the “Libre Parole,” which denounced French Jewish officers as being future traitors, led a Jewish captain of dragoons, Crémieu-Foa, to declare that he resented as a personal insult the slanderous assault made upon the body of Jewish officers. He fought a duel, first with Drumont, then with Lamase, under whose name the articles had appeared. It had been agreed that the report of the proceedings should not be made public. The brother of Crémieu-Foa, following the advice of Captain Esterhazy, one of the Jewish captain’s seconds, communicated the information to the journal “Matin.”

The Marquis de Morès, who had been chief second of Lamase, and was a well-known anti-Semite and famous duellist, held Captain Mayer, chief second of Crémieu-Foa, responsible for the breach of confidentiality. Though innocent of the matter, Mayer accepted a challenge from the marquis. The duel was fought on June 23, the Jewish captain being mortally wounded at the first attack; he died a few days after the duel. Owing to the sensation that was caused by this event, the “Libre Parole” thought it wise to stop the campaign against the Jewish officers until further orders.

Dreyfus was pardoned in 1899, readmitted into the army, and made a knight in the Legion of Honour. The factions in the Dreyfus affair remained in place for decades afterwords. The far right remained a potent force, as did the moderate liberals. The liberal victory played an important role in pushing the far right to the fringes of French politics. It also helped encourage regulations such as the 1911 separation of Church and state. The coalitions of partisan anti-Dreyfusards remained toghether, but turned to other causes. Groups like Maurras’ Action Francais that were created during the affair continued for decades. The right-wing Vichy regime was composed mostly of old anti-Drefusards or their descendants. It is now universally agreed that Dreyfus was innocent, but his statues and monuments continue to be vandalised.

 

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La Marseillaise is a song written and composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle on April 24, 1792. Its original name is Chant de marche de l’Armée du Rhin (Marching song of the Rhine Army). It became the rallying call of the French Revolution and was so-called because it was first sung on the streets by troops from Marseille upon their arrival in Paris.

La Marseillaise was rearranged by Hector Berlioz around 1830.

In 1917, after the collapse of the tsarist regim La Marseillaise became the national anthem of Russia, the Russian lyrics being very different from the French lyrics. It was soon replaced with The International by the Bolsheviks.

The song was banned in Vichy France and German occupied areas during World War II and singing it was an act of resistance

In France itself, the anthem (and particularly the lyrics) has become a controversial issue since the 1970s. Some consider it militaristic and racist, and many propositions have been made to change the anthem or the lyrics. However, La Marseillaise has been associated throughout history with the French Republic and its values. Thus, no change is likely to occur.

Recently, and despite the lyrics, it was largely sung by anti-racist protesters after the accession of Jean-Marie Le Pen to the second turn of presidential election in 2002.

Fiction
The song was part of a famous scene in Casablanca in which French resistance sympathizers tried to sing the song louder than the Nazi soldiers who were singing “Die Wacht am Rhein”.

Music
There is various versions of the music, excerpt avaiblable at French National Defence website.

The official one from the French President website in RealAudio File (116 Ko) or Wave File (660 Ko).

]]> http://www.france.com/french_history_101/la_marseillaise/feed/ 0 http://www.france.com/french_history_101/history_france/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=history_france http://www.france.com/french_history_101/history_france/#comments Mon, 15 Sep 2003 08:07:00 +0000 France.com http://www.france.com/history_france/
Gaul
Settled mainly by the Gauls and related Celtic peoples (apart from a shrinking area of Basque population in the south-west), the area of modern France comprised the bulk of the region of Gaul (Latin Gallia) under Roman rule from the 1st century BC to the 5th century AD.

Franks
In 486, Clovis I, leader of the Salian Franks to the east, conquered the Roman territory between the Loire and the Somme, subsequently uniting most of northern and central France under his rule and adopting (496) the Roman Catholic form of Christianity in preference to the Arianism preferred by rival Germanic rulers.