The French definitely have some ‘attitude’; but the people out in the country are very different from the more so-called ‘sophisticated’ ones. We’ve seen posts here on FR about French people still honoring, today, the American servicemen who aided them in WWII.
We went to Normandy to see the sights, went on a tour. Basically, what happened was that Hitler - in his megalomaniac way - threw the dice and hurled everything he could into the months-long (as it turned out) Battle of Normandy. That meant that the Allies (and the British and Canadians supplied a big percentage of the troops in the landing) had a rough go of it for a while. But, what with thee allies' logistical base and their personnel advantage (over the troops Hitler had the ability to send to Normandy) and what with Ultra reading Hitler's mail, the upshot was that the battle ended up with the Germans’ armor and equipment almost all lost, and 100K remaining German troops running the gauntlet of the Falaise Gap - a 1 km wide passage past Allied troops and tanks holding the high ground on both sides, over a distance to 10 km. Although half of them made it out, 40% surrendered - because 10% did neither.That meant that, suddenly, German resistance to Allied movement from Falaise to Paris evaporated. Not enough other German forces could get there soon enough to contest the Allied advance on Paris. So the modest remaining German garrison pretty soon pulled up stakes and vamoosed. So the people of Normandy lived through a struggle from June into August, with lots of sacrifice. And even though the Allies used carpet bombing, and thereby inflicted serious civilian casualties and infrastructure destruction, the people of Normandy appreciated - albeit with understandable conflict of emotions - the sacrifice entailed in the Allied effort which drove the Germans out of Normandy. The experience of Parisians was quite different - Allied soldiers, without having had to fight for Paris itself, were themselves sort of occupiers. Quite different occupiers, of course, but still an influx of unelected foreigners with guns and authority.
So now Normandy is a patriotic tourist destination for Americans, British, and Canadians especially. And the locals honor the people that the tourists are there to honor.
Thanks for that detailed explanation of something I’ve perceived but all the reasons for which I didn’t fully understand.
No matter how often I see the film footage of the men coming out of the boats and wading toward the beach, I remain in awe of the courage, tenacity, and faith of the young men of that generation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Abk0mhu4a-g
I appreciate that information - thank you. We usually are treated to a rehash of the history of the battle(s) at Normandy but this was new to me.