The French railways, who are appealing against the June verdict, argue they had no choice during the war but to do as they were ordered by the Vichy government in collaboration with the German occupying army.

BBC: NEWS | Europe | French railways face WWII lawsuit

The coalition's leaders, at least, seem to have grasped that it must behave not as an occupying army but as a partner, whose aim is to build up the local forces that will ultimately ensure Afghanistan's security.

ECONOMIST: The war in Afghanistan

Meanwhile, last month's announcement that America is to withdraw nearly all its forces in the kingdom, including the 5, 000 who man a vast air-command centre near the capital, puts paid to notions that they are an occupying army.

ECONOMIST: Saudi Arabia wakes up to the reality of al-Qaeda

Lawrence (or, as he is better known, Lawrence of Arabia) led the revolt against the Ottoman Army occupying Arabia near the end of the First World War.

NEWYORKER: How David Beats Goliath

In 1941, mail was stolen from an army post office in St Helier by a group of teenagers as an act of defiance against the occupying Nazi forces.

BBC: WWII letters from German soldiers delivered 71 years late