Hervé Cras

Last updated April 07, 2019

Hervé Cras (7 August 1910 – 2 November 1980) was a French military and naval historian, who wrote under the pseudonym Jacques Mordal.^[1]

Born to a sailing family in Evreux,^[1] Hervé Cras fought in World War II, surviving the Dunkirk evacuation.^[2] He became Director for Historical Studies at the Musée de la Marine, Paris.

World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.

Dunkirk evacuation evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, France, between 27 May and 4 June 1940

The Dunkirk evacuation, code-named Operation Dynamo, also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, was the evacuation of Allied soldiers during World War II from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, in the north of France, between 26 May and 4 June 1940. The operation commenced after large numbers of Belgian, British, and French troops were cut off and surrounded by German troops during the six-week long Battle of France. In a speech to the House of Commons, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called this "a colossal military disaster", saying "the whole root and core and brain of the British Army" had been stranded at Dunkirk and seemed about to perish or be captured. In his "we shall fight on the beaches" speech on 4 June, he hailed their rescue as a "miracle of deliverance".

Paris is the capital and most populous city of France, with an area of 105 square kilometres and an official estimated population of 2,140,526 residents as of 1 January 2019. Since the 17th century, Paris is one of Europe's major centres of finance, diplomacy, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts.

Works

La bataille de Dunkerque, 1948
A la poursuite du Bismarck (18-27 Mai 1941), 1948
La campagne de Norvège, 1949
Cassino, c.1952
(with Albert Vulliez) La tragique destinée du Scharnhorst, c.1952. Translated by George Malcolm as Battleship Scharnhorst, 1958.
La bataille de Casablanca : 8-9-10 novembre 1942, 1952
Bir Hacheim: une épopée française, 1952
La bataille de Dakar, 1956
(with Gabriel Auphan) La marine française pendant la seconde guerre mondiale, 1958. Translated by A. C. J. Sabalot as The French Navy in World War II, 1959.
Vingt-cinq siècles de guerre sur mer, 1959. Translated by Len Ortzen as Twenty-five centuries of sea warfare, 1959.
Narvik, 1960
Dunkerque, 1960
Les Canadiens à Dieppe, 1962. Translated by Mervyn Savill as Dieppe: the dawn of decision, 1963.
Hold-up naval à Granville, 1964.
La bataille de France, 1944-1945, 1964.
Les poches de l'Atlantique, 1965.
Héligoland : Gibraltar allemand de la Mer du Nord, 1967.
La guerre a commencé en Pologne, 1968.
Versailles, 1970.
Rommel, 2 vols., 1973.

Counter-admiral Gabriel Paul Auphan was a French naval officer who became the State Secretary of the Navy(secrétaire d'État à la Marine) of the Vichy government from April to November 1942.

Len Ortzen was an English writer and translator from French.

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References

1 2 Giorgio Tourn, 'Jacques Mordal (1910-1980)', Culture française, Vols 28-29, p.59
↑ Walter Lord (1983). The miracle of Dunkirk. Allen Lane. p. 292. ISBN 978-0-7139-1211-1 . Retrieved 25 November 2012.

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[Tourn-1] 1 2 Giorgio Tourn, 'Jacques Mordal (1910-1980)', Culture française, Vols 28-29, p.59

[Lord1983-2] Walter Lord (1983). The miracle of Dunkirk. Allen Lane. p. 292. ISBN 978-0-7139-1211-1 . Retrieved 25 November 2012.