This French queen was the only woman to lead a Crusade – and she was good
The Crusades usually calls to mind European knights duking it out with Islamic warriors in long and protracted series of battles over control of the Holy Land. No doubt we…
Why Napoleon wasn’t executed after his defeat at Waterloo
In the modern era, if a military officer took control of a government, went to war and conquered some neighbors before crowning himself emperor, the world would call him a…
A single French airplane bombed Berlin before the fall of France
By June 7, 1940, France was fighting for its life. On May 10th of that year, Nazi Germany invaded Belgium and the Netherlands along with France and quickly overwhelmed all…
The last invasion of Britain was stopped cold by wine and Welsh women
In 1797, Britain had been at war with Revolutionary France for nearly five years and it was not going well for the English and its Coalition allies. That doesn’t mean…
This French military officer was the real-life ‘Last Samurai’
Jules Brunet wasn’t really the “last” samurai anymore than Tom Cruise’s character in the movie of the same name was. But he was a military officer sent to Japan to…
The 5 fastest conquests of France in military history
The French, despite actually being very good in a war, take a beating as the butt of military history jokes. Most of this is due to the speed of the…
Today in military history: A young Rommel captures French artillery during WW1
On Jan. 29, 1915, German lieutenant Erwin Rommel led the gutsy capture of French artillery positions during The Great War. Twenty-five years before he would become the “Desert Fox” of…
Why the French Army thought it could win at Dien Bien Phu
More than a decade before the United States’ involvement in Vietnam, the country was controlled as a French colony. Even back then, the Vietnamese were fighting against outside forces in…
Learn about the French Foreign Legion from an American enlistee
How many military branches make you surrender your passport, catalog everything you brought to the recruitment center and give you a new identity, all before you sign your enlistment contract?
That’s the French Foreign Legion and that’s ex…