In the United States there has been a wide divergence of views on the role of France's Navy in World War II. We have tended to remain trapped by wartime half-truths. This book attempts to set the record straight. Koburger's study discusses the history of U.S. dealings with Vichy France, especially in the French Antilles and St. Pierre et Miquelon. It describes and examines TORCH--U.S. landings in French North Africa--and its impact on us; the subsequent establishment of U.S. bases there and elsewhere on French soil; the rebuilding by the U.S. of the French Navy; and the results of our...

Previous books written about naval warfare in the Baltic from 1939 to 1945 focus only on single navies, while the role of smaller secondary players--the Finnish, Danish or Swedish navies--tends to be ignored. This book looks at the overall picture, with each player receiving his proper due. One of the narrow seas, the Baltic has a set of characteristics and operational problems different from those on any open ocean. It is these challenges that this book seeks to emphasize, challenges which the U.S. Navy will now face.

In the Post-Cold War Era, the possibility of large-scale military conflict between the superpowers has been replaced by the probability of a series of minor--and perhaps not so minor--regional ones. Many, if not most of those, will take place within reach of seaborne expeditionary forces. France organized such an expedition at the close of World War II, in 1945-1946, to return to Indochina. This account of that expedition provides a good case study of what such expeditions involve and, moreover, illustrates many politico-military lessons--and warnings--for those like the U.S., who would...