French combat casualties for the Battle of Nomandy: Zero
Are you sure about that? Free French commandos did come ashore on D-Day. I’ve never seen any casualty figures, though.
The French military record is a strange one. After enduring the horrific slaughter of millions in World War I, their leaders planned poorly and their army folded under the blitzkrieg in World War II, and wouldn’t defend their own country. But in a few places that weren’t even French soil, like Bir Hakeim in 1942, the French fought magnificently. Of course, of the six Free French battalions at Bir Hakeim, two were from the Foreign Legion and two were non-French colonial troops from central Africa and the Pacific.
}:-)4
This is false. French naval commandos landed with the British at Sword Beach on D-Day and suffered substantial casualties taking the fortifications at Ouisreham. French SAS paratroopers also landed behind German lines on June 5, 1944, and undoubtedly suffered many casualties while sabotaging rail lines and German encampments.