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Fort D'Ivry
Fort d'Ivry was built in the Paris suburb of Ivry-sur-Seine between 1841 and 1845, as one of the forts in a ring of strong points surrounding Paris. The fort is about 1 kilometre outside the Thiers Wall, built by the same program in response to a perception that Paris was vulnerable to invasion and occupation. The fort was upgraded in the 1870s, to cope with improvements in artillery performance as part of the Séré de Rivières system. In 1946, the fort was vacated by the garrison. It is now the home of the Communication and Audiovisual Production Company for the Department of Defense (''Établissement de communication et de production audiovisuelle de la Défense'', E.C.P.A.D.). Description Fort d'Ivry dominates a crossroads just to the north of the fort, one of the major approaches to Paris leading to the Porte d'Ivry in the Thiers wall. The pentagonal fort has bastions at each of its five points. The original construction is in stone, with rough stone for the majority of ext ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thiers Wall
The Thiers wall (''Enceinte de Thiers'') was the last of the defensive walls of Paris. It was an enclosure constructed between 1841 and 1846 and was proposed by the French prime minister Adolphe Thiers but was actually implemented by his successor. The long wall and ditch made a complete circuit around the city as it stood at the time of the July Monarchy. It was bombarded by the Prussian Army during the Franco-Prussian War, captured by government troops during the Paris Commune and refortified at the start of the First World War. However, by then it had become obsolete as a fortification, was a barrier to the expansion of the city, and the area immediately outside of it, known as "the zone", had become a shanty town. The wall was demolished in the interwar period; its path today can be traced by the Boulevards of the Marshals which originally ran just behind the fortifications and by the Boulevard Périphérique which was later built just outside. A few remnants of the wall ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thiais
Thiais () is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. The name Thiais comes from Medieval Latin ''Theodasium'' or ''Theodaxium'', meaning "estate of Theodasius", a Gallo-Roman landowner. The Austrian writer Joseph Roth, exiled due to his opposition to the Nazi regime, lived at Thiais at the end of the 1930s and is buried at the local cemetery. The tomb of Russian writer Yevgeny Zamyatin is also there. Expatriate American journalist and novelist William Gardner Smith died there in 1974. Population Transport Thiais is served by Pont de Rungis–Aéroport d'Orly station on Paris RER line C. It is also served by Choisy-le-Roi station on Paris RER line C. This station, although administratively located on the territory of Choisy-le-Roi, lies closer to the town center of Thiais than Pont de Rungis – Aéroport d'Orly station does, and is thus used by people in Thiais. Education The commune has: * Seven preschools (''écoles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fortifications Of Paris In The 19th And 20th Centuries
The fortifications of Paris in the 19th and 20th centuries comprise: *The Thiers Wall, surrounding the city of Paris, and farther from the city, *The detached forts and their complementary fieldworks. They were built in two stages: *1840–1845: the Thiers Wall and the first ring of forts, about five kilometers from the city; *1874–1885: the second ring of forts, about twenty kilometers from the city. From a military point of view, Paris is a fortified camp situated in Paris Basin, a basin. During the 19th century, both Prussian invasions (1814–15 and 1870) saw the bombardment of Paris from the surrounding heights. Fortifications were extended outwards after each invasion as the range of artillery continued to develop, in order to deny the use of the heights to the enemy. Chronology Louis XIV 1670 The king demolishes the walls of Wall of Charles V, Paris, Charles V and Louis XIII. Paris becomes an open city and remains so for two centuries. 1689 Vauban recommends th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fighting occurring throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific, and parts of Asia. An estimated 9 million soldiers were killed in combat, plus another 23 million wounded, while 5 million civilians died as a result of military action, hunger, and disease. Millions more died in genocides within the Ottoman Empire and in the 1918 influenza pandemic, which was exacerbated by the movement of combatants during the war. Prior to 1914, the European great powers were divided between the Triple Entente (comprising France, Russia, and Britain) and the Triple Alliance (containing Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy). Tensions in the Balkans came to a head on 28 June 1914, following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Firing Squad
Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French ''fusil'', rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are usually readily available and a gunshot to a vital organ, such as the brain or heart, most often will kill relatively quickly. A firing squad is normally composed of several soldiers, all of whom are usually instructed to fire simultaneously, thus preventing both disruption of the process by one member and identification of who fired the lethal shot. To avoid disfigurement due to multiple shots to the head, the shooters are typically instructed to aim at the heart, sometimes aided by a paper or cloth target. The prisoner is typically blindfolded or hooded as well as restrained. Media portrayals have frequently shown the condemned being offered a final cigarette as well. Executions can be carried out with the condemned either standing or sitt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles De Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Republic from 1944 to 1946 in order to restore democracy in France. In 1958, he came out of retirement when appointed President of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister) by President René Coty. He rewrote the Constitution of France and founded the Fifth Republic after approval by referendum. He was elected President of France later that year, a position to which he was reelected in 1965 and held until his resignation in 1969. Born in Lille, he graduated from Saint-Cyr in 1912. He was a decorated officer of the First World War, wounded several times and later taken prisoner at Verdun. During the interwar period, he advocated mobile armoured divisions. During the German invasion of May 1940, he led an armoured divisio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean Bastien-Thiry
Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry (; 19 October 1927 – 11 March 1963) was a French Air Force lieutenant-colonel and military air-weaponry engineer. He was the creator of the Nord SS.10/ SS.11 missiles. He attempted to assassinate French President Charles de Gaulle on 22 August 1962, following de Gaulle's decision to accept Algerian independence. The attack made international headlines. Bastien-Thiry was the last person to be executed by firing squad in France. Though the assassination attempt almost claimed de Gaulle's life, the President and his entire entourage escaped injury. The event is depicted in Frederick Forsyth's novel, ''The Day of the Jackal'' (1971), and also in the film adaptation of the same name (1973), in which Bastien-Thiry was portrayed by actor Jean Sorel. Life Bastien-Thiry was born to a family of Catholic military officers in Lunéville, Meurthe-et-Moselle. His father had known de Gaulle in the 1930s and was a member of the Gaullist RPF. He attended the '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Organisation Armée Secrète
The ''Organisation Armée Secrète'' (OAS, "Secret Armed Organisation") was a far-right French dissident paramilitary organisation during the Algerian War. The OAS carried out terrorist attacks, including bombings and assassinations, in an attempt to prevent Algeria's independence from French colonial rule. Its motto was ' ("Algeria is French and will remain so"). The OAS was formed from existing networks, calling themselves "counter-terrorists", "self-defence groups", or "resistance", which had carried out attacks on the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) and their perceived supporters since early in the war. It was officially formed in Francoist Spain, in Madrid in January 1961, as a response by some French politicians and French military officers to the 8 January 1961 referendum on self-determination concerning Algeria, which had been organised by President de Gaulle. By acts of bombings and targeted assassinations in both metropolitan France and French Algerian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commando Delta
The Commando Delta organizations were assassination teams under the control of the Organisation armée secrète (OAS) in Algeria during the early 1960s. The teams "interdicted" European neighborhoods by assassinating Muslims who entered. The Commandos Delta were organized by Roger Degueldre in 1961. The "Delta" signified Degueldre, a lieutenant who deserted from the French Foreign Legion in 1961. The Commandos Delta were also responsible for the assassination of persons considered "soft" or traitors to the cause of French Algeria. However, a certain number of killings were alleged to have been done by the Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage (SDECE) security forces to discredit the OAS, carried out by the Service d'Action Civique or the Red Hand. As a result, it is not possible to clearly define which actions were ascribable to the Commandos Delta in the chaotic situation of the time. Organisation * BAO - Bureau d'Action Opérationnelle, (Lieutenant Ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roger Degueldre
Lieutenant Roger Hercule Gustave Degueldre (19 May 1925 – 6 July 1962) was a French officer who was the leader of the OAS Delta Commandos in the last months of French rule in Algeria. Early life There is some dispute about his origins but Jonathan Meades claimed that there was much 'disinformation' by the authorities to discredit him. For example there were allegations that he was a Belgian collaborator with the SS during World War II. He was born in Louvroil, Nord, France, a few kilometres from the Belgian border, into a working-class family. His father was a railway worker. When the Germans invaded in 1940, the family fled to the south of France. Career In 1942 Degueldre clandestinely entered the occupied zone to join the French Resistance under Roger Pannequin and engaged the 10th German Motorized Infantry Division at Colmar in January 1945. He then joined French Foreign Legion, under the name of Roger “Legueldre” with a claimed birth on 18 September 18, 1925 in Gruyer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune (french: Commune de Paris, ) was a revolutionary government that seized power in Paris, the capital of France, from 18 March to 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard had defended Paris, and working-class radicalism grew among its soldiers. Following the establishment of the Third Republic in September 1870 (under French chief executive Adolphe Thiers from February 1871) and the complete defeat of the French Army by the Germans by March 1871, soldiers of the National Guard seized control of the city on March 18. They killed two French army generals and refused to accept the authority of the Third Republic, instead attempting to establish an independent government. The Commune governed Paris for two months, establishing policies that tended toward a progressive, anti-religious system of social democracy, including the separation of church and state, self-policing, the remission of rent, the abolition of child l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
