These are the famous opening words of Uderzo and Goscinny's “A life in Retreat”, the authorised biography of General Charles André Joseph DeGaulle, thought to have been ghost-written by the General himself. His life has become so wrapped up within the national myths of France that it can be difficult to tell fact from fiction. What is clear, however, is that this extraordinary man saved first himself, then his nation and, along the way, revolutionised military tactics for all time.