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'We were at Dunkirk, too' say French furious at being written out of film epic
ibtimes.co.uk ^ | July 22, 2017 13:11 BST | Isabelle Gerretsen

Posted on 07/22/2017 9:06:51 AM PDT by BenLurkin

click here to read article


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To: KC_Lion

21 posted on 07/22/2017 9:27:08 AM PDT by GraceG ("It's better to have all the Right Enemies, than it is to have all the Wrong Friends.")
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To: DFG

Before they surrendered, a small part of France was occupied by the Italians. Interestingly, they refused to hand over Jews to the Nazis.


22 posted on 07/22/2017 9:28:11 AM PDT by rmichaelj (Ave Maria gratia plena, Dominus tecum.)
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To: guido911

23 posted on 07/22/2017 9:28:33 AM PDT by GraceG ("It's better to have all the Right Enemies, than it is to have all the Wrong Friends.")
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To: BenLurkin

I realize this movie is about the British retreat and how the Germans failed to press home the attack to capture them, but the French were a huge part of the battle of Dunkirk and to leave them out entirely is really horrible story telling.

It is a shame that is all left out. They really should have covered the French military’s part in the battle.


24 posted on 07/22/2017 9:28:37 AM PDT by Freedom_Is_Not_Free (Trump: What to do now I can't repeal Obamacare? I know, lets start a war with Russia!)
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To: guido911

And in true French fashion, Parisian women were on their backs using their legs to make the V for Victory sign.

I have a wonderful 94 year old neighbor from Lille. Her father, an electrician for a mining company and a World War I vet, tried to get them out at Dunkirk but could not. They walked down but we’re turned away and had to walk back. His wife and two daughters spent the next three years indoors so they would not be raped by Nazis.

Her husband was a prominent French economist, and when he died of wounds related to his war service, she came to America. Started out as a hairstylist in Palm Beach, went to college, became a French professor, retired at 75.

Get outside of Paris and the French are great. Dordogne is probably my favorite place outside the US. Boar hunting, eating what you kill (with someone’s grandfather’s gun handed down through generations b/c of the gun laws), fresh vegetables and mushrooms, and homemade red wine.

France ( like Germany) has already been ruined by its “elite” . The UK is in the on deck circle. America bats third.

Great movies aside.


25 posted on 07/22/2017 9:29:27 AM PDT by ameribbean expat
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To: BenLurkin

40,000 French stayed behind fighting as a rear guard knowing they wouldn’t be evacuated so the others could.

They have a point.


26 posted on 07/22/2017 9:30:09 AM PDT by Snickering Hound
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To: BushCountry

More please


27 posted on 07/22/2017 9:37:07 AM PDT by Keyhopper (Indians had bad immigration laws)
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To: BenLurkin

Dunkirk 1940 - How the French Army saved GB

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6C5P-AYGdY

Very good video and enlightening for those who think of the French military only as surrender monkeys. The French army acquitted itself extremely well coving the British retreat and evacuation at Dunkirk. A very proud event for the French army. They stood.


28 posted on 07/22/2017 9:37:25 AM PDT by Freedom_Is_Not_Free (Trump: What to do now I can't repeal Obamacare? I know, lets start a war with Russia!)
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To: Freedom_Is_Not_Free

I know the Brits can be irritating. I remember them saying that they almost had the war won before we ever got into it.


29 posted on 07/22/2017 9:41:42 AM PDT by Karl Spooner
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To: Snickering Hound

While I will not argue your point, if the French leadership had moved faster and proactively 4 weeks earlier, Dunkirk may not have ever happened or been necessary.


30 posted on 07/22/2017 9:42:37 AM PDT by GT Vander (Life's priorities; God, Family, Country. Everything else is just details...)
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To: KC_Lion
Poland was attacked from both sides massively superior forces and didn't surrender until their whole country was overrun.

Poland NEVER Surrendered! They fought the Nazis the rest of the war. The 303rd Kosciuszko Squadron had the highest kill rate of any RAF Squadron. There is a huge Polish cemetery at Monte Cassino.

31 posted on 07/22/2017 9:45:45 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Freedom_Is_Not_Free

+1

While in general the French Army failed badly in 1940, Dunkirk was the exception. There the French fought heroically and it is unlikely the British Army would have survived without the French covering their retreat. And of course we must also remember the sacrifices of the Free French forces under Charles de Gaulle who carried on the fight after the ignominious capitulation of their government.


32 posted on 07/22/2017 9:45:48 AM PDT by NRx (A man of integrity passes his father's civilization to his son, without selling it off to strangers.)
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To: Keyhopper

What’s the motto of the French Army? Stop, Drop, and Run

Why don’t Master Card and Visa work well in France? They do not know how to say “CHARGE!”

Why did the Statue of Liberty take karate? She wanted to be the first French person to be able to defend herself.

Raise your right hand if you like the French... raise both hands if you are French.


33 posted on 07/22/2017 9:46:22 AM PDT by BushCountry (thinks he needs a gal whose name doesn't end in ".jpg")
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To: BenLurkin

Freepers will recall a recent event aboard a French train..an unharmed American rushed and disarmed an armed mussie terrorst.....while armed French police hid in a closet..!..nuff said


34 posted on 07/22/2017 9:47:58 AM PDT by rrrod (just an old guy with a gun in his pocket.6l)
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To: DFG
The Nazis ordered France to hand over their Jews and Vichy France quickly obeyed. France collaborated with the Nazis more than any other occupied country. Screw the french surrender monkeys!

75% of French Jews survived the war, one of the highest rates for an occupied country. Most of the Jews that were handed over were not French citizens, but alien Jews who had fled Germany and other parts of Europe. The Nazis convinced the Vichy authorities, that they would take these alien Jews off of their hands and send them to "Family Camps" in the East. Now what's open for question is what did the Vichy Authorities really know about what their ultimate fate would be.

35 posted on 07/22/2017 9:50:23 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: NRx

Unfortunately, the French Resistance was heavily infiltrated with Communists.


36 posted on 07/22/2017 9:51:36 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: KC_Lion

You know why France has tree lined roads?

So the Germans can march in the shade.


37 posted on 07/22/2017 9:52:54 AM PDT by Duckdog (If your not on a government list, Whats wrong with you!)
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To: ameribbean expat

Normandy was fantastic. I saw more American flags flying in the region than you’ll see in many parts of the US.


38 posted on 07/22/2017 9:53:43 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: dfwgator
"Unfortunately, the French Resistance was heavily infiltrated with Communists."

I've heard it said that the number of self-professed members of the French Resistance exceeded the total population of France by a factor of two ...

39 posted on 07/22/2017 9:54:28 AM PDT by BlueLancer (Ex Scientia Tridens)
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To: DFG
There is a a very brief scene in Band of Brothers where German POWs are being murdered by the side of the road by French troops.

I hadn't thought much about the French in the latter years of WW2, so I did a bit of research. From what I've read, German POWs were horribly treated by the French, and as referenced in Band of Brothers, frequently murdered. Thousands more were sent to Vietnam to fight France's war. And considering the existence of Vichy France, and that the French African garrisons usually fought against the allies (this was often for different, frequently justifiable reasons, but the fact remains), and that an unknown, but certainly in the tens of thousands, number of French women married German soldiers, there is something ridiculous about the savage reprisals the surrendering French took on German soldiers AFTER the United States bailed France out (for the 2nd time). I recall an old fable about terriers biting and ripping a lion after it had been fatally wounded by wolfhounds.

The French fought bravely at the start of the war, and obviously the occupation of France was not a pleasant time for the French, but more than plenty of them were happy to cooperate for one reason or another once the Nazis were in charge.

40 posted on 07/22/2017 9:54:39 AM PDT by Wyrd bið ful aræd (Flag burners can go screw -- I'm mighty PROUD of that ragged old flag)
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