TAKING PARIS

Another history of the liberation of Paris.

Paris was taken by the Wehrmacht in 1940 and then taken back in 1944. Military historians have covered this ground in countless books, and this one is a middling entry in the genre. Best known as the co-author of the bestselling Killing series with Bill O’Reilly, journalist Dugard—who has also authored books on Christopher Columbus, Capt. James Cook, and others—delivers another breathless historical narrative that will find a receptive audience among fans of Dugard and the O’Reilly series. Despite the book’s title, there was no epic battle for Paris. In 1940, the French declared it an open city, so the Wehrmacht moved in without a fight and withdrew, four years later, without defending it. Dugard opens with the German invasion on May 10, 1940, which ended in the French surrender. Then he delivers a vivid yet scattershot history of the war in Europe (the Russian front receives a rare mention), with a heavy emphasis on France and ending with 20 pages recounting the liberation of Paris on Aug. 25, 1944. Appropriately, the author gives Charles de Gaulle a major role and devotes several chapters to the little-known Battle of Bir Hakeim, the valiant defense of a North African desert outpost by Free French troops in 1942. Writing for a broad audience, Dugard inevitably devotes far too much space to the French Resistance, the heroics of suffering of which were not matched by their contributions to victory. As a more “in-depth” work, Dugard recommends the modestly deep 1965 bestseller Is Paris Burning? by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre. Far better are Lloyd Clark’s Blitzkrieg (2016), which focuses on the 1940 French defeat, and Jean Edward Smith’s The Liberation of Paris (2019), an instructive look at the political calculations of the Allies.

Popular World War II history, perhaps more popular than necessary.