FredsWalks

05/08/2026

🇺🇸250th Anniversary🇫🇷
Admiral de Grasse left the West Indies to crush British resistance at Yorktown on August 3, 1781. In the summer of 1781, de Grasse was in Saint-Domingue. He was preparing to es**rt an impressive convoy of 160 merchant ships loaded with sugar, spices, cocoa, and indigo to France.

The squadron under his command comprised twenty-four ships of the line, including the flagship *Ville de Paris*. Frigates and corvettes were also part of the fleet. Thanks to Louis XVI’s passion for the navy and the shipbuilding program he launched between 1774 and 1778, the Royal Navy now possessed an unprecedented fleet.

And Louis XVI fully intended to make it available to the American rebels to drive the British Crown out of America. Just as de Grasse was preparing to leave the West Indies, the Count of Rochambeau—who was leading the French expeditionary force allied with the American rebels—intervened.

He asked Admiral de Grasse to abandon this es**rt mission and transport troops six hundred kilometers south of New York, to the Chesapeake Bay estuary. For it was there that Yorktown was located—a large town in Virginia where eight thousand British soldiers were concentrated. That represented nearly a quarter of their troops in the Thirteen American Colonies.

Rochambeau wanted to win a decisive victory against them. Louis XVI left the decision to de Grasse, who chose to intervene and departed from Saint-Domingue on August 3, 1781, with 3,000 soldiers on board. He arrived at Chesapeake on September 1; British Admiral Graves arrived at dusk on September 4, determined to do battle with the French... .

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08/07/2026

“I will reply to Roosevelt (...) that, in my view, his plan [for postwar decolonization] risks endangering the West. (...) In order to secure Soviet support, will we not have to grant them—at the expense of Polish, Baltic, Danubian, and Balkan interests—advantages that threaten the overall balance of power? How can we be certain that China (...) will remain as it is? While it is true (...) that the colonial powers must renounce direct administration of the peoples they govern (...) it is also true that this liberation cannot be achieved against their will, lest it unleash, among disorganized masses, a xenophobia and anarchy that would be dangerous for the entire world. ”

July 7, 1944, Charles de Gaulle, interview in Washington (“War Memoirs”). While the Anglo-American landings had taken place in Normandy a month earlier, de Gaulle made his first official visit to the United States in July 1944. He arrived in Washington on July 6, where he was received by high-ranking officers of the U.S. Army. The aim at that time was to restore de Gaulle to his status as a mere military officer in Roosevelt’s eyes, as Roosevelt had still not recognized the Provisional Government of the French Republic established by de Gaulle.

Roosevelt would not recognize de Gaulle’s legitimacy until October 1944, whereas the British had recognized him as early as August 1940 and the Russians as early as September 1941. De Gaulle was then received at the White House by Roosevelt, Secretary of State Cordell Hull, and Admiral Leahy, the former U.S. ambassador to Vichy.

A conversation ensued during which de Gaulle warned Roosevelt of the dangers of a forced decolonization process carried out against the former colonial powers. Decolonization without consultation, he argued, could in this case “unleash, among disorganized masses, a xenophobia and anarchy that would be dangerous for the entire world.”

De Gaulle would board a plane again on July 11, bound for Quebec, where he encountered the French community of America for the first time. He was thus following in the footsteps of Tocqueville, who, a little over a century before him, had discovered—to his astonishment—that the French heritage in America remained intact in the St. Lawrence River valley.

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Illustration: General de Gaulle’s speech in Brazzaville (January 30, 1944), all rights reserved

27/06/2026

Algiers: A Hub of the Slave Trade.

Louis XIV sent Admiral Duquesne to bombard the port of Algiers on June 26, 1683. This bombardment took place against the backdrop of the Franco-Algerian War, which began in 1681 and would not end until 1688.

This occurred against a broader backdrop of détente on the European continent, following the Dutch War (1672–1678) and preceding the War of the League of Augsburg, which would last nearly ten years (1688–1697). At the same time in Europe, the brief War of the Reunions took place between October 1683 and August 1684. This war enabled Louis XIV to annex to the crown the hinterlands of certain cities located in the Spanish Netherlands (present-day Belgium).

Between 1681 and 1688, Louis XIV thus had free rein in the West, so he turned his attention to the southern shore of the western Mediterranean. Louis XIV intended to remind the Berber regencies who was the “King of the Universe,” as his courtiers liked to call him at Versailles.

It was against this backdrop that the Franco-Algerian War broke out in 1681. Before hostilities began, France and the Regency of Algiers had concluded a peace treaty. Algiers agreed to cease the slave trade involving French captives in its port, and in return, Versailles pledged to release prisoners held by the Dey.

But the release of the captives was delayed; the Dey of Algiers broke the peace agreement and declared war on France on October 18, 1681. Acts of piracy against the French navy resumed: ships were boarded, and their crews were once again sold into slavery in the port of Algiers.

Aware of this issue, Louis XIV dispatched Admiral Duquesne to Algiers to remind the Dey of the commitments he had made regarding the cessation of the slave trade involving French people in his port. A first series of bombardments took place from July 23 to September 12, 1682, carried out by some forty French ships.

With the arrival of autumn, the French fleet returned to Toulon, with the firm intention of returning the following spring. Duquesne was back in Algiers on June 26, 1683, at the head of a fleet of about one hundred ships, including seventeen ships of the line, three frigates, sixteen galleys, and seven bomb galleys.

The bombardment of Algiers resumed until July 29. These operations led to the liberation of more than five hundred Europeans who had been enslaved. Two further expeditions would be necessary, in 1684 and 1688, to secure a definitive peace between the Dey of Algiers and the King of France. This peace would last for more than a century.

While respecting the French flag, the Algerian corsairs continued their acts of piracy and the slave trade by attacking ships from other European monarchies. It is estimated that between 600,000 and one million Europeans were enslaved in North Africa between 1530 and 1640 (“Europe and Islam: Fifteen Centuries of History” by Henry Laurens, John Tolan, and Gilles Veinstein).

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Illustration: Augustin Burdet, “Duquesne Secures the Release of Christian Captives After the Bombardment of Algiers in 1683,” engraving based on a work by François-Auguste Biard.

19/06/2026

The American Civil War in France.

The American Civil War spilled over into France during the naval battle of Cherbourg on June 19, 1864. During the Civil War, the Confederate CSS Alabama stopped in Cherbourg for repairs. Ever since leaving the shipyards in Liverpool, it had been sinking Union ships one after another. Its record of victories was remarkable; it sank a total of sixty-eight ships.

When the U.S. consul in France learned of the CSS Alabama’s presence in Cherbourg, he urgently dispatched the USS Kearsarge. Alerted by press reports, the Alabama accepted the challenge and set out to face the Kearsarge. The Alabama was sunk before a large crowd that had gathered to watch the duel, including the Impressionist painter Édouard Manet.

Illustration: Jean-Baptiste Henri Durand-Brager (1814–1879), The Battle Between the USS Kearsarge and the CSS Alabama, 1864, Union League Club of New York.

162 years to the day, June 19, 1864.

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07/06/2026

7 June 1940: The Jules Verne bombed Berlin.

During the Battle of France, following, among other things, a German bombardment of Parisian targets on June 3, 1940, France decided to strike Berlin. On June 7, 1940, the Farman F.223.4 Jules Verne of the French Naval Aviation, under the command of Lieutenant Commander Henri Dailliére, took off from Bordeaux-Mérignac, headed north, then flew over the Dutch and Danish coasts at nightfall and, around midnight, dropped eight 250 kg bombs and 80 other 10 kg bombs on the outskirts of Berlin. This was the first bombing that the German capital had ever underwent and was above all psychological. It was to be repeated by the French three days later.

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04/06/2026

The French excluded from the Normandy landings by the Anglo-Saxons.

Charles de Gaulle and Winston Churchill met on 4 June 1944 in England. It was an opportunity for the British Prime Minister to announce to the leader of Free France the landings scheduled for 5 June (which ultimately took place on 6 June).

Charles de Gaulle recalled the scene on 30 October 1963 in the presence of Alain Peyrefitte. At the time, Peyrefitte (acting on Georges Pompidou’s instructions) was attempting to persuade the Head of State to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the Normandy landings (which he refused to do).

Excerpt from ‘C’était de Gaulle’:

‘Churchill summoned me from Algiers to London on 4 June; he had me brought to a train where he had set up his headquarters, just as a lord summons his butler. And he announced the landings to me, without any French units having been scheduled to take part. We had a heated argument. I reproached him for placing himself under Roosevelt’s command, instead of imposing a European will upon him (he emphasised ‘European’).

He shouted at me at the top of his lungs: ‘De Gaulle, mark my words: when I have to choose between you and Roosevelt, I will always prefer Roosevelt! When we have to choose between the French and the Americans, we will always prefer the Americans! When we have to choose between the continent and the open sea, we will always choose the open sea!’ (He had already told me this. The memory is indelible.)

And you would have me go and commemorate their landing, when it was the prelude to a second occupation of the country? No, no, don’t count on me! (…) The 6 June landing was an Anglo-Saxon affair, from which France was excluded. They were determined to establish themselves in France as if it were enemy territory! Just as they had done in Italy and were preparing to do in Germany!

They had prepared their AMGOT, which was to govern France with absolute authority as their armies advanced. They had printed their own counterfeit currency, which would have been legal tender. They would have behaved as if in a conquered country. That is exactly what would have happened had I not imposed—yes, imposed—my Commissioners of the Republic, my prefects, my sub-prefects, my liberation committees!

And you would have me go and commemorate their landing, when it was the prelude to a second occupation of the country? No, no, don’t count on me! I’m quite happy for things to proceed amicably, but that’s not my place! (…) And besides, it would contribute to the belief that, if we were liberated, we owe it solely to the Americans. That would be tantamount to dismissing the Resistance as null and void. Our natural defeatism is all too prone to adopting such views. We must not give in to it!

To take part in the commemoration of a day when the French were asked to surrender themselves to others rather than to themselves—no! (…) On the other hand, my place will be at Mont Faron on 15 August, since French troops played a decisive role in the landings in Provence, since our First Army was involved there from the very first minute, and since its lightning advance up the Rhône valley forced the Germans to evacuate the whole of the Midi and the Massif Central under pressure from the Resistance.

And I shall commemorate the liberation of Paris, then that of Strasbourg, since these are French feats, since the French from home and abroad united there, around their flag, their anthems, their homeland! But to join in the commemoration of a day when the French were asked to surrender themselves to others rather than to themselves—no!

The French are already too prone to believing that they can rest easy, that they need only leave it to others to defend their independence! We must not encourage them in this naïve confidence, for which they will later pay with ruin and massacres! We must encourage them to rely on themselves!

Come now, come now, Peyrefitte! We must have a better memory than that! We must commemorate France, not the Anglo-Saxons! I have no reason to celebrate this with fanfare. Tell that to your journalists.”

Those who gave their lives for their country on our soil, the English, the Canadians, the Americans, the Poles, Sainteny and Triboulet will be there to honour them with dignity. ”

NOTE: In 1964, Sainteny and Triboulet were Minister for Veterans Affairs and Minister for Cooperation respectively.

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29/05/2026

30 May 1692: The Battle of Barfleur.

-Again during the war of the League of Augsburg-
For the control of the Channel in the context of a future landing in England of an expeditionary force of 25,000 men and march on London to restore James II of England on the throne, his cousin Louis XIV is convinced by his advisers to attack the Anglo-Dutch fleet.
The vice-admiral of Tourville, in spite of himself, met the enemy fleet off the Cotentin and although he was clearly outnumbered by 44 to 99, he inflicted very heavy losses on the enemy.
In the evening of the fighting, the English commander Russell gave the order to retreat with 5,000 dead against 1,700 French, the balance sheet being in favor of Tourville.
It was one of the most beautiful French naval battles.
When Louis XIV heard about the battle, he said "Is Tourville safe? because lost ships can be replaced, but not a man like him...".

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Illustration: The Soleil Royal, present at the Battle of Barfleur.

07/05/2026

To all social media travel junkies, take heed !!!

22/04/2026

21/04/2026