The Forgotten Angels of Dien Bien Phu
WIB history December 21, 2018
In November 1953 the French army began building a base in the mountains around Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam, hoping that it would lure the Viet Minh guerrilla fighters into an open battle. Eventually, 16,000 French personnel each manned the six fortified outposts named, as legend has it, after... Read more
An Angry Russian Sneaked a Pocket Pistol Into a Book Fair to Assassinate the French President
WIB history September 27, 2018
On May 6, 1932, Russian emigre Pavel Timofeyevich Gorgulov — a.k.a. Paul Gorguloff — assassinated French president Paul Doumer using an FN Model 1910. Doumer, elected in June 1931, was visiting a book fair for World War I veteran authors at Paris’s Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild. After purchasing several... Read more
This story originally appeared on Sept. 13, 2016. Imagine if the French had made Get Smart and you’ll have some idea of the surreal brilliance of A Very Secret Service. In Mel Brook’s American classic, super-agent Maxwell Smart bumbles his way through his fight against the agents of KAOS. Only... Read more
The French Cruiser ‘Emile Bertin’ Escaped Halifax With a Belly Full of Gold
WIB historyWIB sea March 1, 2018
In June 1940, the 581-foot-long French light cruiser Émile Bertin sat docked in Halifax, when back in Europe, French officers gathered in the late Ferdinand Foch’s railway car at Compiègne to sign the humiliating armistice with Nazi Germany — sealing continental France’s subordination to German hegemony for a following... Read more
During France’s intervention in the Chad-Libya war in 1987, the French restricted air traffic over Chad. No aerial traffic was allowed in an area that extended from the 16th parallel to the outskirts of the capital N’Djamena. Civilian pilots didn’t always respect these air-traffic measures, especially as civil flights... Read more
The Ghost Plane of Faya-Largeau
WIB history January 9, 2018
After years of conflict, on Sept. 10, 1987, Chad and Libya agreed to a ceasefire the next day at noon. However, Libyan air patrols continued. Indeed, Muammar Gaddafi seemed to believe any military action short of an actual attack was acceptable. Not coincidentally, in October the United States handed... Read more
In 1986, French Troops in Chad Faced Mysterious Attackers
WIB history January 4, 2018
On its arrival in Chad as part of Operation Épervier, France’s intervention in the Chad-Libya war, the French military set up a radar center in the town of Moussoro, north of the capital N’Djamena starting in mid-February 1986. The radar would become the apparent target of a mysterious raiding... Read more
In mid-February 1986, French forces launched Operation Épervier — France’s intervention in the Libya-Chad war. The French air force deployed to Chad’s capital N’Djamena around a dozen Jaguar A fighter-bombers and up to six Mirage F.1C interceptors from various units along with a few Mirage F.1CR tactical reconnaissance fighters. The... Read more
France’s Monstrous Char B1 Tank Ate German Panzers for Breakfast
WIB history November 20, 2017
At five o’clock in the morning on May 16, 1940 a company of the 8th Panzer Regiment lay in an ambush position along a rubble-strewn street of the French town of Stonne. The day before, the unfortunate village had changed hands several times as French troops attempted to stem... Read more
Around noon on Oct. 4, 2017, a team of 12 U.S. Army Special Forces operators and 30 soldiers from the Nigerien Security and Intelligence Battalion were departing the village of Tongo Tongo, near the Nigerien-Malian border, when they were ambushed by roughly 50 insurgents from an “ISIS-affiliated group” riding... Read more