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Around 30,000 French troops held back Nazi divisions near the city of Lille to protect their allies during the evacuation code-named Operation Dynamo. Renowned French film critic Jacques Mandelbaum called Nolan "witheringly impolite" and slammed the director's "deplorable indifference" towards his country's contribution to the epic evacuation. "Where in the film are the 120,000 French soldiers who were also evacuated from Dunkirk? Where are the 40,000 who sacrificed themselves to defend the city against a superior enemy in weaponry and numbers?" he asked in his review in French newspaper Le Monde.

In a statement, 60 year-old Pierre de Villiers said he had tried to keep the armed forces fit for an ever more difficult task within the financial constraints imposed on it, but was no longer able to sustain that. "In the current circumstances I see myself as no longer able to guarantee the robust defense force I believe is necessary to guarantee the protection of France and the French people, today and tomorrow, and to sustain the aims of our country," he said. ... As well as being an early test for Macron, the departure of France's most senior soldier...

Full Title: What it’s now like to holiday in France: Armed soldiers patrol the beaches after terror attacks leave country on high alertArmed police have been seen patrolling the beaches in St Tropez as security is ramped up in the light of the latest terror attacks to hit France. Patrols of officers carrying rifles were seeing walking between sun-worshippers at the popular southern French resort just days after Cannes had banned all bags big enough to conceal a weapon. French authorities are taking the extreme measures amid fears that the nation could be hit with further terror attacks.

French president announces plan to send artillery, but no ground troops, to combat ISIL in Iraq in August. ___ French President Francois Hollande has said that France will send heavy artillery to Iraq to support the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). An aide to the president told the AFP news agency that France would also send military advisors to train Iraqi forces in using the artillery. Elsewhere, protests erupted in Libya's capital, Tripoli, on Thursday following confirmation by Hollande that French special forces are operating in the country and that three French officers had...

France is to step up police and military patrols in areas frequented by the public following recent attacks, Prime Minister Manuel Valls has said. He said up to 300 soliders would be deployed around the country to boost security over the Christmas period. The attacks, seemingly unrelated, in Nantes, Dijon and Tours have left more than 20 people injured. In the latest incident, 10 people were hurt when a van was driven into a Christmas market in Nantes on Monday. In Dijon on Sunday, driver shouting "God is great" in Arabic ploughed into pedestrians into pedestrians, injuring 13 people. On...

France had Rafale jets armed with Scalp missiles ready for strike on Syria By Richard Clements According to to French weekly le Nouvel Observateur (LNO) France came within hours of striking Syrian Chemical weapons sites after thinking that the U.S had planned a huge attack on Sept. 1, 2013. The report states that French President Francois Hollande had convened a meeting early in the morning of August 31; the plan on how France was going to attack the chemical weapons sites was formed during this meeting. According to LNO the French planned to fly Rafale jets supported by French tankers...

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday welcomed French support for possible military action against the Syrian regime, describing the country as America’s “oldest ally”. After the US’ traditional ally Great Britain ruled itself out of any military strikes against the Assad regime in a parliamentary vote Thursday, Washington has looked in danger of becoming internationally isolated in its efforts to push for a military intervention. However, French President François Hollande reaffirmed his country’s support for military action on Friday, telling French daily Le Monde that he supported taking “firm” punitive action in response to the Assad regime’s alleged...

A fifth French soldier was killed in the nine-week-old military campaign against Islamist rebels in Mali, the French government said on Sunday. The corporal from the 1st Marine infantry regiment of Angouleme was killed in action, President Francois Hollande's office said in a statement, without giving details. Dozens of Islamist fighters linked to al-Qaida have been killed as French and African forces have fought to drive them out of the northern region of Mali they have controlled since last April. France launched a ground and air operation in January to break the Islamist rebels' hold on the region, saying militants...

(Reuters) - French warplanes pounded Islamist rebel camps in the far north of Mali on Sunday, military sources said, a day after French President Francois Hollande was hailed as a savior during a visit to the West African country. Thierry Burkhard, spokesman for the French army in Paris, said the overnight raids targeted logistics bases and training camps used by the al Qaeda-linked rebels near the town of Tessalit, close to the Algerian border. ... France says the rebels are also holding hostage in these mountains seven of its citizens, seized in recent years in the Sahara region. Malian military...

The image was taken innocently enough: A landing helicopter kicked up a dust storm as French soldiers moved toward Niono, in northern Mali, an area held by al-Qaida-linked militant groups. The soldiers pulled on their goggles to protect their eyes from the dust. One soldier pulled up a black bandana -- with a white skeleton face printed on it -- over his nose. Behind him, light beamed through tree branches, creating an otherworldly image -- the soldier looked like a skeleton in French military fatigues. Photographer Issouf Sanogo of the Agence France-Presse news agency and Yann Foreix of Le Parisien...

DIABALY, Mali — When France entered the world’s newest war against terrorism, French officials boldly declared that the ragtag radical Islamists they planned to oust from northern Mali would scatter in the face of a modern fighting force. But two weeks later, reality has sunk in. Even as they bombard Islamist targets, the French troops are facing a military landscape that is far more complicated than it appeared at the outset, raising questions about France’s long-term goals. With no clear exit strategy, the French are encountering a host of problems: Mali’s interim government is weak, its military is disorganized, and...

Photographs of a French soldier apparently mimicking a character from the popular and violent video game Call of Duty are causing a stir around the world. In the photos, the unidentified soldier can be seen wearing a skeleton mask and a bandana, making him look eerily similar to the popular character Ghost from Call of Duty.

Al Qaeda-linked Islamist rebels launched a counter-offensive on Monday in central Mali after four days of air strikes by French warplanes on their strongholds in the desert north, promising to drag France into a long and brutal Afghanistan-style ground war.

A French commando raid in Somalia to free a captive intelligence agent ended in the deaths of 17 Islamists and a French soldier. France said the hostage also died in the failed rescue, but the man's captors denied he had been killed and claimed Saturday to have seized a second soldier. Confusion surrounded early reports of the botched rescue of the French agent, known by his code-name Denis Allex. He was captured in the east African country on July 14, 2009, and last seen in a video released in October pleading for the French president to help him. But it...

French ground troops have entered the centre of the main Ivory Coast city of Abidjan for the fist time as incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo refuses to quit. Helicopter gunships are firing in the area around Mr Gbagbo's residence. On Sunday, UN and French helicopter gunships began a new operation they said was aimed at destroying heavy weapons near Mr Gbagbo's residence. Mr Gbagbo has been refusing to cede power to internationally-recognised President Alassane Ouattara. Loud explosions can be heard echoing around the lagoons which surround the centre of the city, says the BBC's Mark Doyle in Abidjan. On Monday morning,...

"France goes to war," announces the front page of Libération, in the wake of intervention by the 1,500-strong French Licorne (Unicorn) force in Ivory Coast. In response "to a request from the UN," on 4 April, helicopters from the French air force and and the UNOCI mission in the country bombarded several positions manned by forces loyal to outgoing president Laurent Gbagbo, who has refused to hand over power to his rival, Alassane Ouattara, the internationally acknowledged winner of the 2010 election in the country. "This intervention jointly conducted by the UN and the former colonial [Ivory Coast became independent...

UPI) -- President Nicolas Sarkozy of France says he wants to see victory in Afghanistan but has no plans to send more French troops to that country. Speaking to the Le Figaro newspaper, the French leader said he believes there should be a build-up of more Afghan troops, CNN reported. As for staying on in Afghanistan, Sarkozy told the newspaper: "I answer yes -- and stay to win. "But France will not send one more soldier," he added. "My belief is that more Afghan soldiers are needed. It is them who will be the most efficient to win this war...

When ten French soldiers were killed last year in an ambush by Afghan insurgents in what had seemed a relatively peaceful area, the French public were horrified. Their revulsion increased with the news that many of the dead soldiers had been mutilated — and with the publication of photographs showing the militants triumphantly sporting their victims’ flak jackets and weapons. The French had been in charge of the Sarobi area, east of Kabul, for only a month, taking over from the Italians; it was one of the biggest single losses of life by Nato forces in Afghanistan. What the grieving...

French marines aboard trawlers in the Indian Ocean Saturday fired on pirates to repel a dawn attack, as two vessels used in the attack were subsequently captured by Seychelles coastguards, sources said. "Three small launches... (which were) nearly invisible and that we had on the radar at the last moment, chased us," a member of the crew of the Drennac, one of two fishing vessels approached by the pirates, told AFP by telephone. The French military said the marines had first fired flares then "warning shots in the air and across the bows of the pirates' boats", before finally, when...

The head of the French military says military intervention is not a viable option to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear capability.