Posted on 01/16/2013 7:45:28 AM PST by Freeport
Well put. The French Army held the Germans in largely static positions in a band about 60 miles wide in the east for most of WWI. The French lost about 1.3 million soldiers about 4% of their population, while the British lost about 800k, around 2% of theirs. The Russians lost around 2 million which was about 2% for them.
Yet, to hear of WWI you would think it was the British who nearly fought it alone. They all went home, wrote the Hobbit series, wrote Flanders Fields poems, etc ad nauseum. Propaganda is a wonderous thing.
It was bad for everyone there, but the French fought hard.
And as for WWII, they lost something like 350k dead and wounded and caused the Germans something like 150k in a battle lasting a matter of weeks. But the Luftwaffe and Nazi tanks had bested them. The French build amazing defenses along the German border, and the British were going to hold the northern flank.
But thats where the wily Germans attacked. And the British Tea Drinking surrender monkeys ran away, wishing the French good luck. Oop, i meant “conducted the brilliant and miraculous reverse amphibious assault at Dunkirk”.
Even in the war on Terror, the French fleet has been far more aggressive than us. I think for some reason they do not have our historic aversion to shooting at Africans. An American land attack in Africa would send us into catatonic shock and our guilt would overcome us.
France is weird. At home they are socialist nutballs, but overseas they could care less how they are seen. Like sinking the Rainbow warrior. Doing atmospheric nuke testing in the 90s. (and we even TOLD them they shouldnt!) They flipped us the bird and pushed the button.
Anyway, thats my rant of the day. BUt im thinking with our pussy generals giving Salami salami baloney greetings on Afghan TV, and forbidding our troops from insulting pedophiles or the Taliban, and our deathly fear of bombing pirate bases or doing ANYTHING that might anger moslems, we are the last people who should be insulting anyones will to fight decisively. Hell, we cant even shave major Hassans damned beard.
Both CBS and WSJ now reporting that FFL have arrived on the ground in Mali. I saw a live report in which the “burning hand grenade” patch was visible on packs and uniforms of several troops. Over 2500 French troops now on the ground. Many more to follow. Things will get nasty very quickly...
This war is basically the Tuareg tribesmen looking for an autonamous zone, just happens to be sitting on some mineral wealth at the time a French Socialist idiot president needs a distraction.
Well that was retarded. Not characteristic of your posts at all.
The French position became untenable after the massive German breakthrough at Sedan. I’m not blaming them - the Blitzkrieg was a new kind of war for which no-one was prepared. They recalled the unpopular but plausibly effective Weygand too late to make a difference.
But please explain to the thread why should England should NOT have leveraged its sea-power to get its army off the Continent?
Was Dunkirk a strategic point which had to be denied to Hitler at all costs? No.
Was Dunkirk a suitable theater for die-hard obstinacy like Stalingrad? Should the UK parliament have told it’s soldiers to die-in-place the same way Hitler commanded von Paulus? Again, obviously no.
Make your point. Why should Britain have fought an untenable position in France - which even the French government could see was lost?
I think the point is that it was French troops that defended the Dunkirk perimeter against the Germans. The British didn’t inform their French allies that they were pulling out, and pretty much abandoned most of the French forces.
I did some training with French Commandos and same opinion....they’re no pushover....
You miss the point. When the Germans made the deep breakthrough, the British forces and some French were all to the north of the penetration.
The south side was all French. The British fled the battlefield.
Of course the British were as unable to deal with the new concept of Blitzkrieg warfare, as were the French. So running away rather than repeat WWI (which was impossible anyway) was probably the best option. Yet Britain is always rational and intelligent, and are never called tea drinking surrender monkeys with no will to fight.
After the British fled, the remaining French who counted on them to fight too were totally screwed. The French forces were basically encircled and cut off. the French government surrendered.
So my point was that it’s actually retarded to hear so much popular BS jokes about the French surrender, while the British were pulling their “Brave Sir Robin” act and fleeing from the enemy. And losing 350k in a 6 week battle is not exactly being eager to surrender.
It’s just facts.
The French in WWII were victims of a poor strategic plan by their generals and leaders, and on counting on England to stay and fight alongside them.
But the French soldier has been slandered beyond belief in modern culture. Their leaders have deserved scorn on several occasions. But their soldiers are first rate, and pretty much always have been.
For every British Rourkes Drift, there was a French Battle of Cameron. Incidents of the French having no will to fight are about the same as in the British, American, German, and Russian armies.
WHen it happens anywhere, it is always clearly the fault of bad generals and political leaders. But it’s just highly ignorant to suggest that the French soldier doesn’t fight very professionally.
And the French learned their lesson. They are in NATO, but do not base NATO troops on their soil. Their nuclear forces are utterly independent of the NATO command structure. They have learned to count on no one but the French forces for military defense.
And yes, they are hard to understand. ALmost no country has more moslems than they do, but they outlaw hijabs in public and attack moslems in Mali. And it creates no unrest at home. They can be heavily anti-semetic ,,, but sold Mirages to Israel.
They are hard to understand sometimes, but not a bad people. And certainly not cowards.
The Islamic radicals have alienated the local people and the Tureg Tribesmen. Without popular support the Islamic groups will have a hard time holding off a modern European Army—Especially if the French are real bast*rds and don’t give a fig about civilian deaths. That being said—the French will need to send in more troops—maybe get some help from Germany and England as well. While they are at it they should put in a decent puppet in the nation to run it like a modern state.
There are few post-colonial nations in Africa that are models of anything but tribalism and savagery. If the Tuareg join with the French in expelling the Muslims, perhaps Mali will be partitioned. Who would want a big desert?
.....Who would want a big desert?
.......
There are mining operations there. I visited a company Monday shipping spare parts to a Mali mine. That means East Tennessee jobs
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