The last shots fired between England and France weren't during the Napoleonic Age, but rather during World War II, when Vichy, France was left unoccupied by the Nazi regime in return for their collaboration. For more than two years, from the summer of 1940 through November of 1942, British forces engaged the Vichy French on land, sea and air. Thousands of lives were lost, and the history of this conflict was buried—until now. Through painstaking historical research, historian Colin Smith throws back the veil of secrecy to detail this last bloody conflict between modern Europe's great powers.