Combattre pour l'honneur, 13 batailles héroïques, par Michel Vial.

Alamo, Sidi-Brahim, Camerone, Bazeilles, Fort de Vaux, the Alcázar of Toledo, Westerplatte, Wizna, Saumur, Bir-Hakeim, Les Glières, Iwo Jima, Diên Biên Phu.

What do Alamo, Camerone, Iwo Jima or Bir-Hakeim have in common? The determination of the defenders who face without weakening an adversary numerically and materially very superior. Surrounded and assailed by it, they know that the outcome of the fight can only be unfavorable to them, and yet they oppose it with fierce resistance which testifies to a conception of honor which belongs only to the best. soldiers.

Through thirteen battles, the author demonstrates the emblematic value of sacrificial combat, of “heroic defeat”. The battles described in this book have in common that they have a very high exemplary value that immortalizes them by inscribing them, definitively, not only in military history, but also in History itself. The example of these fighters who, to surrender, preferred a heroic death, galvanized the following generations and participated in the writing of the national novel.