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François De Grossouvre
François de Grossouvre (29 March 1918 – 7 April 1994) was a French politician who was appointed in 1981 by the newly elected President François Mitterrand with the tasks of overseeing national security and other sensitive matters, particularly those concerning Lebanon, Syria, Tunisia, Morocco, Gabon, the Persian Gulf countries, Pakistan and both Koreas. He was also in charge of the French branch of Operation Gladio, the stay-behind paramilitary secret armies created by NATO during the Cold War.Grossouvre biography from Brian Crozier, ''Free Agent'', 1993, and Daniele Ganser, 'NATO's Secret Armies: Operation Gladio an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the List of cities proper by population density, 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of the world's major centres of finance, diplomacy, commerce, Fashion capital, fashion, gastronomy, and science. For its leading role in the arts and sciences, as well as its very early system of street lighting, in the 19th century it became known as "the City of Light". Like London, prior to the Second World War, it was also sometimes called Caput Mundi#Paris, the capital of the world. The City of Paris is the centre of the Île-de-France Regions of France, region, or Paris Region, with an estimated population of 12,262,544 in 2019, or about 19% of the population of France, making the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beirut
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coast. Beirut has been inhabited for more than 5,000 years, and was one of Phoenicia's most prominent city states, making it one of the oldest cities in the world (see Berytus). The first historical mention of Beirut is found in the Amarna letters from the New Kingdom of Egypt, which date to the 14th century BC. Beirut is Lebanon's seat of government and plays a central role in the Lebanese economy, with many banks and corporations based in the city. Beirut is an important seaport for the country and region, and rated a Beta + World City by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Beirut was severely damaged by the Lebanese Civil War, the 2006 Lebanon War, and the 2020 massive explosion in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grenoble
lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint-André, jardin de ville, banks of the Isère , arrondissement = Grenoble , canton = Grenoble-1, 2, 3 and 4 , INSEE = 38185 , postal code = 38000, 38100 , mayor = Éric Piolle , term = 2020–2026 , party = EELV , image flag = Flag of Grenoble.svg , image coat of arms = Coat of Arms of Grenoble.svg , intercommunality = Grenoble-Alpes Métropole , coordinates = , elevation min m = 212 , elevation m = 398 , elevation max m = 500 , area km2 = 18.13 , population = , population date = , population footnotes = , urban pop = 451096 , urban area km2 = 358.1 , ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maquis (World War II)
The Maquis () were rural guerrilla bands of French and Belgian Resistance fighters, called ''maquisards'', during the Nazi occupation of France in World War II. Initially, they were composed of young, mostly working-class, men who had escaped into the mountains and woods to avoid conscription into Vichy France's '' Service du travail obligatoire'' ("Compulsory Work Service" or ''STO'') to provide forced labor for Germany. To avoid capture and deportation to Germany, they became increasingly organized into active resistance groups. They had an estimated to members in autumn of 1943 and approximately members in June 1944. Meaning Originally the word came from the kind of terrain in which the armed resistance groups hid, high ground in southeastern France covered with scrub growth called ''maquis'' (scrubland). from Dictionary.com Although strictly speaking it means thicket, ''maquis'' could be roughly translated as " the bush"; in Corsica, the saying ''prendre le maqui ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vichy Regime
Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its territory occupied under harsh terms of the armistice, it adopted a policy of collaboration with Nazi Germany, which occupied the northern and western portions before occupying the remainder of Metropolitan France in November 1942. Though Paris was ostensibly its capital, the collaborationist Vichy government established itself in the resort town of Vichy in the unoccupied "Free Zone" (), where it remained responsible for the civil administration of France as well as its colonies. The Third French Republic had begun the war in September 1939 on the side of the Allies. On 10 May 1940, it was invaded by Nazi Germany. The German Army rapidly broke through the Allied lines by bypassing the highly fortified Maginot Line and invading through ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Service D'ordre Légionnaire
The Service d'ordre légionnaire (SOL, "Legionary Order Service") was a collaborationist militia created by Joseph Darnand, a far right veteran from the First World War. Too radical even for other supporters of the Vichy regime, it was granted its independence in January 1943, after Operation Torch and the German occupation of the South Zone, until then dubbed "Free Zone" and controlled by Vichy. Pierre Laval himself (supported by Marshal Philippe Pétain) passed the law which accorded the SOL its independence and transformed it into the ''Milice'', which participated in battles alongside the Nazis against the Resistance and committed numerous war crimes against civilians. After the Liberation, some members of the Milice escaped to Germany, where they joined the ranks of the SS. Those who stayed behind in France faced either drumhead courts-martial, generally followed by summary execution, or simple lynching at the hands of ''résistants'' and enraged civilians. Creation of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Darnand
Joseph Darnand (19 March 1897 – 10 October 1945) was a French collaborator with Nazi Germany during World War II. A decorated soldier in the French Army of World War I and early World War II, he went on to become the organizer and ''de facto'' leader of the ''Milice française'', or French Militia, the collaborationist Vichy government's paramilitary police force. Darnand also served as an officer in the Waffen-SS. He was tried and executed after the war for treason. Early years and war service Darnand was born at Coligny, Ain, Rhône-Alpes in France. On 8 January 1916, he enlisted in the 35th Infantry Regiment. He was promoted to corporal in April 1917, sergeant on 1 June 1917 and to adjutant (warrant officer) in 1918. He volunteered for a squadron that undertook dangerous missions. For his efforts in July 1918 penetrating German lines in the Champagne sector with a small force that captured prisoners and secured information about a forthcoming German offensive, "Darnand ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Barril
Paul Barril (13 April 1946 in Vinay, Isère) is a former officer of the French ''Gendarmerie Nationale''. He authored several books about his military career, touching sensitive political subjects of the Mitterrand era. Barril was a gendarme until 1995. He was the second officer of the GIGN Special Forces unit for 10 years, before being involved in the creation of the Counterterrorist Cell of the Élysée during François Mitterrand's first mandate from 1981 to 1988. Since then, he has led several private security companies. He has been in the centre of controversies for his role in Africa, particularly in Rwanda during the Rwandan genocide in 1994 during which extremist Hutus mass exterminated hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Military career Barril was second officer of the GIGN from 1974 to 1982, as aid to ''commandant'' Christian Prouteau. In late 1979, he was dispatched to Saudi Arabia to help the Saudi government quell the Grand Mosque Seizure, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cuirassiers
Cuirassiers (; ) were cavalry equipped with a cuirass, sword, and pistols. Cuirassiers first appeared in mid-to-late 16th century Europe as a result of armoured cavalry, such as men-at-arms and demi-lancers, discarding their lances and adopting the use of pistols as their primary weapon. In the later part of the 17th century the cuirassier lost his limb armour and subsequently wore only the cuirass (breastplate and backplate), and sometimes a helmet. By this time, the sword or sabre had become his primary weapon, with pistols relegated to a secondary function. Cuirassiers achieved increased prominence during the Napoleonic Wars and were last fielded in the opening stages of World War I (1914-1918). A number of countries continue to use cuirassiers as ceremonial troops. The French term ''cuirassier'' means "one with a cuirass" ( fr , cuirasse), the breastplate armour which they wore. 16th and 17th centuries The first cuirassiers were similar in appearance to the fully armo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Organisation De Résistance De L'armée
The ''Organisation de résistance de l'armée'', ''O.R.A.'' (Fr: resistance organisation of the army) was a French paramilitary resistance organisation during the Second World War. It was created on 31 January 1943, following the November 1942 German invasion of the ''zone libre'' as a self-styled apolitical organisation bringing together former French military personnel in pursuit of active resistance against the German occupiers, but rejecting Charles de Gaulle. The ORA was founded by General Aubert Frère, president of the tribunal which had condemned de Gaulle to death in August 1940. Frère was arrested in 1943 and deported. He died in Struthof on 13 June 1944. The ORA's next leader was Major General Jean-Edouard Verneau, who was arrested on 23 October 1943 and died while being deported to Buchenwald on 14 September 1944. The leadership was then assumed by Major General Georges Revers, whose second was Brigadier General Pierre Brisac. The ORA grew quickly in the southern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vercors Plateau
The Vercors Massif is a range in France consisting of rugged plateaus and mountains straddling the '' départements'' of Isère and Drôme in the French Prealps. It lies west of the Dauphiné Alps, from which it is separated by the rivers Drac and Isère. The cliffs at the massif's eastern limit face the city of Grenoble. Background Over time, various features of the complex geography have been recognised including, the Quatre Montagnes (four mountains), the Coulmes (gorges), the Vercors Drômois (Drome Vercors), the Hauts-Plateaux (high plateaus) and, in the foothills, Royans, Gervanne, Diois, and Trièves. The massif is sometimes called the "fortress." The movement of people tends to be between the massif and the surrounding plains rather than between the various parts of the massif itself. Until the mid twentieth century, the name ''Vercors'' was used to describe only the township of La Chapelle-en-Vercors (with Royans), and the northern area around Lans-en-Vercors, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
