City On Fire

Όταν τα Γεράκια και ο Τζώνυ Ρεντ πετούσαν πάνω από την Ηρωίδα Πολιτεία

In the largest sense, cities have become identified with the basis for national existence. As was the case in 1995, the Chechens will undoubtedly make another effort to retake Grozny, no matter how badly destroyed the city may have been from invading Russian armies. Paris, especially in the eyes of Parisians, is France, and on its fate rests the fate of the French nation.

In 1940, the fall of the capital signaled to French military leaders and most Frenchmen that the war against the Germans was over. Thus, British efforts to persuade the French government to abandon Metropolitan France and continue to wage the war from France's colonial empire fell on stony ground. Only an obscure French brigadier general by the name of Charles de Gaulle was willing to assume the mantle of continued resistance to the Germans outside of occupied France.

Thinking About Cities and War
by Williamson Murray, Marine Corps Gazette July 2000