While many books have been written about the Italian campaign, books about the Battle of Belvedere can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
General Chambe’s book, “Le Bataillon du Belvédère“, is still the reference work today. Chambe was once an adjutant to General Giraud and his important work is in a class of its own. Published in 1953, it provides the most complete account of the Battle of Belvedere. It is the only work to give dialogues and describe the geography of the battleground very precisely. Anyone who wishes to learn more about the Battle should be able to find it easily on any of the websites that organise second-hand book sales or sales by auction.
General Douceret’s biography of General Gandoet, which was published in 1987, devotes a whole chapter to the fighting at Belvedere. It is therefore a reference work for anyone interested in this subject. The chapter devoted to the events at Belvedere is based on the “Journal de Marche du 3e bataillon” which includes the comments of Gandoet himself.
Warrant Officer Huguenin used his campaign notebooks and his memories as the basis of his work entitled “Mitrailleur au Belvédère” (to our knowledge this has only been published privately in a limited edition). As far as we know, it is the only document written by a veteran of the Belvedere, in an authentic style with no literary pretensions. Huguenin’s testimony is, however, extremely rich and in a class of its own.
The following works were used in the preparation of this website:
- René Chambe – “Le Bataillon du Belvédère”
Flammarion (1953) – published by “J’ai Lu” (1965) - Serge Douceret – “Paul Gandoet, Général”
pub. by Lavauzelle (1987) - Maréchal Juin – “La Campagne d’Italie”
pub. by Guy Victor (1962) - Adjudant Huguenin– “Mitrailleur au Belvédère”
tirage privé (1972) - Ecole Supérieure de Guerre – “La Campagne d’Italie (1943-1945) “
Voyages d’études en Italie” (1965) - Jean-Christophe Notin –”La Campagne d’Italie – les victoires oubliées de la France”
pub. by “Perrin” (2002) - Dominique Lormier – “C’est nous les Africains”
Calmann-Lévy (2006) - Paul Nicolas – “Sidi Brahim des Neiges – Sur les traces du 4e régiment de tirailleurs tunisiens”
pub. by “MC-Editions” (2008) - “Le 3e régiment de tirailleurs algériens pendant la Campagne d’Italie”
pub. by “la Nouvelle France” (1945) - Rudolf Böhmler (traduit de l’allemand par Edouard Even) – “Monte Cassino”
Preface by René Chambe, pub. by “Plon” (1956) - “Du Faid à Stuttgart – La Marche glorieuse de la 3e D.I.A.”
Bulletin spécial – général N. Botella (1994) - Jérôme Leygat – “Ziddou l’Gouddham !”
Cheminements (2007) - Bernard Pujo – “Juin, maréchal de France”
pub. by “Albin Michel” (1988) - Hervé Coutau-Bégarie / Claude Huan – “Darlan”
pub. by “Fayard” (1989) - Martin Blumenson – “Mark Clark”
pub. by “Jonathan Cape Ltd” (1985) - Michelle Cointet – “De Gaulle et Giraud –l’affrontement”
pub. by “Perrin” (2005)
