Which French city held up the advance of British troops for over a month shortly after D-Day?
"British army was ""supposedly fluffing its lines""; in 1962 the historian Alexander McKee described the D-Day rush on Caen degenerating into a ""plodding advance by a few hundred riflemen"", a failure which condemned the British to costly battles of attrition. Buckley wrote that critics had it that the British ""bungled matters again"" at Villers Bocage a week after D-Day, when the 7th Armoured Division was ""stopped dead in its tracks, apparently by the action of a single Tiger tank"". For the next few weeks, despite plentiful resources, the British attacks on Caen ""seemingly made little headway"", while the US First"
"to cover both threatened cities. The French army then remained inactive for more than a month. This apparently allowed the much-delayed Eugène to bring his army from the Rhine River. On 5 July, however, the French unexpectedly moved west, taking the cities of Bruges and Ghent (although about 300 British soldiers held out in Ghent for a few days). This extremely demoralized Marlborough and his army, and he did not recover until Eugène was at his side. The French army had the entire length of the Scheldt River from the French border to the newly taken city of Ghent. Only"
"because French reserves had been held back and the success of the attack had come as a surprise. By 15 May the advance had been stopped, although the fighting continued until 18 June. In May the German Army captured a French document at La Ville-aux-Bois describing a new system of defence. Rather than relying on a heavily fortified front line, the defence was to be arranged in a series of echelons. The front line would be a thinly manned series of outposts, reinforced by a series of strongpoints and a sheltered reserve. If a slope was available, troops were deployed"
"September: but, on the 20 September, Prince Augustus received information from Paris that hostilities were to cease throughout the whole of France. As with the advance of the armies commanded by Wellington and Blücher, the Austrian-allied Army of the Upper Rhine, also bypassed fortresses and fortified towns as they entered France. For example, with the news of the capture of Paris by the British and Prussian troops and the suspension of hostilities; which was concluded on 24 July, included the fortress of Strasbourg, Landau, La Petite-Pierre, Sélestat, Lichtenberg, Phalsbourg, Neuf-Brisach and Belfort. One notable exception was Huningue and its governor"
"the defenders of Saint-Dizier, running low on supplies, sought terms. On 17 August, the French capitulated, and were permitted by the Emperor to leave the city with banners flying; their resistance for 41 days had broken the Imperial offensive. Some of Charles's advisers suggested withdrawing, but he was unwilling to lose face and continued to move towards Châlons, although the Imperial army was prevented from advancing across the Marne by a French force waiting at Jâlons. The Imperial troops marched rapidly through Champagne, capturing Épernay, Châtillon-sur-Marne, Château-Thierry, and Soissons. The French made no attempts to intercept Charles. Troops under Jacques"
"morning, Giraud relented. He refused to leave immediately for Algiers, but rather stayed in Gibraltar until November 9. Pro-Allied elements in Algeria had agreed to support the Allied landings, and in fact seized Algiers on the night of November 7–8; the city was then occupied by Allied troops. However, resistance continued at Oran and Casablanca. Giraud flew to Algiers on November 9, but his attempt to assume command of French forces was rebuffed; his broadcast directing French troops to cease resistance and join the Allies was ignored. Instead, it appeared that Admiral François Darlan, who happened to be in Algiers,"
"columns continued their advance, the first by Vaucouleurs, Joinville, Brienne le Château, Troyes, and Auxerre; and the other, by Neufchâteau, Chaumont, Bar-sur-Aube, Vendeuvre-sur-Barse, Bar-sur-Seine, and Châtillon: at which points (Auxerre and Châtillon) they halted on 18 July. On 21 July, the corps entered into cantonments between Montbard and Tonnerre. With the exception of a few sorties of little consequence, General Rapp remained very quiet in the Fortress of Strasbourg. The news of the capture of Paris by the British and Prussian troops led to a Suspension of Hostilities which was concluded on 24 July and extended to the Fortress of"
"defences in Normandy. The initial attempt by I Corps to reach the city on D-Day was blocked by elements of the 21st Panzer Division and with the Germans committing most of the reinforcements sent to meet the invasion to the defense of Caen, the Anglo-Canadian front rapidly congealed short of Second Army's objectives. Operation Perch in the week following D-Day and Operation Epsom (26–30 June) brought some territorial gains and depleted its defenders but Caen remained in German hands until Operation Charnwood (7–9 July), when the Second Army managed to take the northern part of the city up to the"
"Gap. The battle resulted in the destruction of most of Army Group B west of the Seine, which opened the way to Paris and the Franco-German border for the Allied armies on the Western Front. Six weeks after D-Day, the Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944, the German Army was in turmoil. While the Allied Army experienced great difficulty in breaking through the German lines (the city of Caen was supposed to have been captured on the first day of the invasion and was not taken until late in July) the German Army's defence of this area of"
"UK and coordinated resistance movements in occupied and Vichy France. By August 1944, 260,000 French regulars and 300,000 FFI were fighting in France. After four years of occupation and strife, Allied forces, including Free France, liberated France in 1944. Paris was liberated on August 25, 1944. On September 10, 1944 Charles de Gaulle installed his provisional government in Paris. This time he remained in Paris until the end of the war, refusing to abandon even when Paris was temporarily threatened by German troops during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944. But France could now again participate as a"
"citadel. The resulting attack lasted from nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, and succeeded in silencing the defences, and starting serious fires throughout the French positions. Troops were then landed and drove the French into the hills, where they maintained their resistance, secretly supplied with provisions by the Dutch. Moore then received intelligence on 11 March that a large French naval force had arrived. He consequently shifted his position to Prince Rupert's Bay in Dominica to be able to outflank any attempt by this enemy fleet to relieve Guadeloupe. No such attempt was made and Guadeloupe and"
"and French kings. In May 1349 it was extended for twelve months. Calais was vital to England's effort against the French for the rest of the war, it being all but impossible to land a significant force other than at a friendly port. It also allowed the accumulation of supplies and materiel prior to a campaign. A ring of substantial fortifications defending the approaches to Calais were rapidly constructed, marking the boundary of an area known as the Pale of Calais. The town had an extremely large standing garrison of 1,400 men, virtually a small army, under the overall command"
"battle and harassed the French supply lines while preventing Aiguillon from being blockaded. After a five month siege the French were ordered north to confront the main English army, which on 12 July had landed in Normandy under Edward III of England () and commenced the Crecy campaign. This left the French defences in the south west both weak and disorganised. Lancaster took advantage by launching two subsidiary offensives and himself marching north and storming the rich city of Poitiers. He then took the surrender of a large number of towns and castles in Saintonge and Aunis before returning to"
"Siege of Belfort The Siege of Belfort (3 November 1870 – 18 February 1871) was a 103-day military assault and blockade of the city of Belfort, France by Prussian forces during the Franco-Prussian War. The French garrison held out until the January 1871 armistice between France and the German Empire obligated French forces to abandon the stronghold in February 1871. Belfort is located in a gap between the mountainous southern Vosges and the Jura Massif, strategically positioned as the gateway between Alsace and central France. At the beginning of the war, the French Army of the Rhine was routed in"
"its march, in two columns: the first by Neufchâteau, toward Sedan, the other by Recogne, toward Bouillon. Sedan capitulated on 25 June after a few days' bombardment. An attempt was made to take Bouillon by a ""coup de main"", but its garrison was strong enough to frustrate this project. The place was not considered of sufficient importance to render a regular siege expedient, and it was therefore simply invested, from 25 June until 21 August by troops of the Netherlands Corps under Prince Frederick of the Netherlands, (Like the German Corps, the Netherlands Corps did not take part in the"
"catch up to the vanguard as it continued to pursue the English for several miles. After the English abandoned the Siege of Orléans on 8 May 1429, the survivors of the besieging forces withdrew to nearby garrisons along the Loire. A month later, having gathered men and supplies for the forthcoming campaign, the French army, under the nominal command of the Duke of Alençon, set out to capture these positions and the bridges they controlled. On 12 June they took Jargeau by storm, then captured the bridge at Meung-sur-Loire and marched on, without attacking the nearby castle, to lay siege"
"the French the ability to concentrate and the fear of air attack negated their mass and mobile use by Weygand. On 10 June, the French government declared Paris an open city. The German 18th Army advanced on Paris aginst determined French opposition but the line was broken in several places. Weygand asserted it would not take long for the French Army to disintegrate. On 13 June, Churchill attended a meeting of the Anglo-French Supreme War Council at Tours. He suggested a Franco-British Union, which the French rejected. On 14 June, Paris fell and the Parisians unable to flee the city"
"Cambrai, Englefontaine, and Le Cateau-Cambrésis which is where Wellington had his headquarters. The next week (25 June – 1 July) would see the French reach Paris with the Coalition forces who were about a days march behind them also arrive in the Paris area. By July 1 the Anglo-allied army were facing the French, who were positioned behind a strong defensive line in the northern suburbs of Paris, while the Prussians had ceased two bridges down stream of Paris and had crossed the river Seine and were about to approach Paris from the south west. In the the French army"
"northern English cities, but when the Scots probed into northern England they were sharply rebuffed by the local defenders. David II agreed a truce, to last until 29 September, in order to fully mobilise the Scottish army, which was assembling at Perth. By the time the truce expired, the French had been decisively beaten at Crécy and the English were besieging Calais. The French were also in difficulty in south-west France, where their front had collapsed, with the major city and provincial capital of Poitiers, from the border of English Gascony, falling on 4 October. On 7 October the Scots"
"big counter-attacks against the Fourth Army, which disorganised the French offensive. Over the next few days, the French used artillery-fire to keep pressure on the Germans. A counter-attack on the night of drove the French out of a salient west of Perthes, until another French attack recovered most of the lost ground. French attacks continued for another two weeks, took small amounts of ground and drove off several German counter-attacks but had made few gains, by the time that the offensive was suspended, on 13 January. Supporting attacks in Artois and Champagne by the Second Army, Eighth Army and the"
"was captured on 4 September 1944, the Port of Antwerp was not opened until 28 November as the approaches to the port were held by the Germans until the (delayed) Battle of the Scheldt was won. Two French ports were eventually available; the port of Boulogne on 14 October after Operation Wellhit and the port of Calais in November after Operation Undergo. Montgomery insisted that the First Canadian Army clear the German garrisons in Boulogne, Calais and Dunkirk (which was held until 9 May 1945) first before the Scheldt although the French ports were ""resolutely defended"" and had all suffered"
"forces in the Battle of France. German forces penetrated the casemate line and moved behind French lines. Despite the withdrawal of the mobile forces that supported the fixed fortifications, the three ""ouvrages"" successfully fended off German assaults before the Second Armistice at Compiègne, but were unable to hinder German activities to their south. The positions and their garrisons finally surrendered on 1 July 1940. Following the war several positions were reactivated for use during the Cold War. One position, Ouvrage Four-à-Chaux, is open to the public and may be visited. The Vosges sector was part of the larger Fortified Region"
"the French had been preparing and the defenses of the city were well in place. The two armies went back and forth for three days. Each time one army made headway, the opposing army would push back, gaining ground. On the fourth day, The Prussian army pulled back and the fighting ceased for a while. The fighting renewed the next day and continued sporadically until January 31, 1871. At this point, the Army of the Vosges was tired and had taken many casualties. Because of this, the Army of the Vosges pulled out of Dijon and retreated to Courcelles. The"
"resistance on 12 March. Bordeaux was largely anti-Bonapartist and had a majority that supported the Bourbons, so the British troops were treated as liberators. In 1870, at the beginning of the Franco-Prussian war against Prussia, the French government temporarily relocated to Bordeaux from Paris. This happened again during the First World War and again very briefly during the Second World War, when it became clear that Paris would soon fall into German hands. However, on the last of these occasions the French capital was soon moved again to Vichy. In May and June 1940, Bordeaux was the site of the"
"French occupied the town for the duration of the war. Despite Dupleix promise earlier to hand the territory over to the Nawab of the Carnatic, Dupleix refused to do so. A force of 10,000 sent by the Nawab to enforce the agreement was routed by a small French force led by Captain Louis Paradis. The French subsequently tried to take Fort St David but found the resistance much tougher, and were ultimately forced to withdraw. The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle that ended the war made provision for Madras to be returned to the British in exchange for Louisbourg in Acadia which"
"in British hands except Fort Desaix, a powerful position intended to protect the capital Fort-de-France, which had been bypassed during the British advance. In a siege lasting 15 days the Fort was constantly bombarded, the French suffering 200 casualties before finally surrendering. The capture of the island was a significant blow to French power in the region, eliminating an important naval base and denying safe harbours to French shipping in the region. The consequences of losing Martinique were so severe, that the French Navy sent a battle squadron to reinforce the garrison during the invasion. Arriving much too late to"
"German troops and suffered a harsh occupation for four years. The mayor of the town, Achille Carlier, was condemned for hiding wounded French and British on the arrival of German troops. Carlier was put on trial in Brussels. He was defended by a German lawyer and convicted. After a difficult approach through the valley of the Ecaillon, the city was relieved on 4 November 1918 by New Zealand troops. In a major movement of British troops who had distinguished themselves in Ghissignies, Louvignies, Jolimetz and Orsinval, taking the old fortress was given to the New Zealand troops encircling the city,"
"English defense. Breaking with siege warfare custom, the French army followed the 15 June capture of the bridge at Meung-sur-Loire not with an attack on that town or its castle but with an assault on neighboring Beaugency the next day. Unlike Meung-sur-Loire, the main stronghold at Beaugency was inside the city walls. It survives to the modern age and forms an imposing rectangular citadel. During the first day of fighting the English abandoned the town and retreated into the castle. The French bombarded the castle with artillery fire. That evening de Richemont and his force arrived. Hearing news of an"
"installed in positions to the south of Amiens, and discharged field guns upon the city on 5 June. A last offensive of German armour in numeric superiority, committed from 6 to 8 June, overcame the Franco-British lock, the city definitely fell on 8 June and the Wehrmacht continued its breakthrough in the direction of its next target, Paris. However, the German losses were high: Nearly 200 tanks. Despite the later fighting, the cathedral and a few neighbourhoods were spared, including those Henriville and Saint-Leu. It had been defended by a battalion, the 7th Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment, a Territorial infantry"
"the southern bank of the Loire river in central France, about ten miles east of Orléans. Conquered by the English a few years earlier as a staging point for a planned invasion of southern France, the city was defended by a wall with several towers and fortified gates. A ditch just on the outside of the walls further enhanced the defenses. Outside the walls, suburbs had grown. There was a single fortified bridge, of strategic significance during the latter part of the war, crossing the Loire River to the north bank. The city was defended by approximately 700 troops armed"
"of the island. By 9 February, the entire island was in British hands except Fort Desaix, a powerful position intended to protect the capital Fort-de-France, which had been bypassed during the British advance. In a siege lasting 15 days the Fort was constantly bombarded, the French suffering 200 casualties before finally surrendering. The capture of the island was a significant blow to French power in the region, eliminating an important naval base and denying safe harbours to French shipping in the region. The consequences of losing Martinique were so severe, that the French Navy sent a battle squadron to reinforce"
"June 1944, to capture the city and the Carpiquet area. German resistance prevented the town from being captured on D-Day, a result considered possible by Lieutenant-General Miles Dempsey the Second Army commander. For the next three weeks, positional warfare took place around Caen as both sides attacked and counter-attacked for minor tactical advantage on the Anglo-Canadian front and as part of a strategic intent to force the Germans to keep their most powerful armoured units away from the US First Army, as it captured Cherbourg and then pushed southwards through the bocage towards St. Lô. From the Second Army conducted"
"cities of France, and the centre of Huguenot resistance. Cardinal Richelieu acted as the commander of the besieging troops (during those times when the King was absent). Once hostilities started, French engineers isolated the city with entrenchments 12 kilometres long, fortified by 11 forts and 18 redoubts. The surrounding fortifications were totally completed in April 1628, manned with an army of 30,000. They also built with 4,000 workmen a 1,400-metre-long seawall, to block the seaward access to the city. The initial idea for blocking the channel leading to the harbour of La Rochelle in order to stop all supplies to"