For decades, if not centuries, the French Army has been the butt of jokes about uninspired soldiers merely going through the motions, until such time as they may surrender.
They were a big disappointment to the Brits in 1940 to be sure but it was French units that covered the British evacuation at Dunkirk.
Now the Italian Army...
The Brits didn’t exactly make a last stand. They fled the battlefield at Dunkirk. Though they try to blame France, the Brits were utterly unprepared to resist Germany in 1940 and were outclassed. The French fought damned hard but under poor leaders at the higher levels. In the 6 week battle of France they suffered roughly the same casualties as did in Vietnam. 60,000 dead and 200,000 wounded. They inflicted 27,000 German dead and 111,000 wounded.
Then as you said, when ordered by their government, they surrendered.
A quick look at some other surrenders caused by poor leadership, We surrendered to a smaller Japanese force in the Philippines because of the poor leadership of General MacArthur who left his men behind to become prisoners. The Brits at Singapore surrendered to a Jap force a third their size.
The Afrika Corps surrendered and filled the Southwest with prison camps.
The French soldier doesn’t deserve anything but respect.
This is especially true today, with nobody else in Europe at the level of power of the French military., Nobody else is even close. And only France’s military seems to have moral courage today. Our flag level officers are pure cowards.