Simonnet, Sréphane Forteresses allemandes dans la France libérée

Une histoire illustrée

Using previously unpublished photographs, this illustrated book sheds light on a little-known episode of the Second World War. Lorient, Saint-Nazaire, La Rochelle, Royan, the Pointe de Grave, Dunkirk. While the Allied troops that landed in Normandy advanced eastwards, these ports on the Atlantic and North Sea coasts remained occupied by the Germans. Determined to fight to the last man, the enemy trapped more than 210,000 civilians. It was the beginning of an eight-month siege for the Allied troops and the FFI, eight months of additional occupation for the population, before surrender came in April and May 1945. Using footage from French and German war reporters, Stéphane Simonnet tells the painful, dramatic and sometimes heroic story of the Atlantic enclaves from the perspective of the people.