What If?......

[cheddar cheese]

yeah but to say their useless is a little OTT

 

[plan_D]

Why is it? What did they achieve? Maybe you should stop abusing the French then since they did more than Belgium.

 

[cheddar cheese]

hey hey, our french abuse is only a joke (i hope anyway) we mean it with no disrespect, no country is unworthy of our respect

 

[plan_D]

Ok, it seems a little more than a joke to me. In any case in 1940 France and Belgium were useless, the individuals that fought bravely deserve respect this does not mean I do not respect them when I say the armies are useless because they were.
The reason the BEF had to fall back was due to the Belgian and French collapse, had they been of some use they might have held on giving the BEF a little more time for resupply and reorganising the defence.
Even in Dunkirk it was left up to the BEF tired, battered and running out of supply to defend their own back and the French and Belgian evacuating with our Royal Navy. Those 26,000 men stood up to a much larger force even though some people believe the whole Wehrmacht was halted, it was not and they did still attack.
If the French or Belgians were of use they would have helped the BEF defend Dunkirk, they were better supplied and in larger numbers than the BEF, where was the use in them? To take up room on the ships.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

the french DID help us at dunkirk.................

 

[cheddar cheese]

yup, somebody hasnt been watching their BBC2 docudramas recently have they.....

(sorry lanc )

 

[MP-Willow]

This was all very good reading! Plan_D I would agree that the National armies were not as a group that affective. The French build that great Fortress Magiono Line (Poor spelling) and thought the next war would be like the last. But the line stopped short of the low countries or the Forest. But in all that the part of the German Paratroops play is overlooked. They had the best combat asualt paratroops in the world. They created the type and mission. As for the Duch not holding out, did not the Germans drop paratroops and combat engineers onto a Duch Fortress and take it with only a handfull of troops? A fortress that was said to hold two major rivers?

The armies might have not been that good, but the men and wemen who fought in the resistance were. How meny RAF and USAAF airman would have been killed or captured if the resistance was not supporting them?

France desurved to be invaded and over run, but then the Viche government still was horable. Germany should have just anexed it and put them all to work. That still might not have helped. Do we have any French menbers who are willing to support France? I would even take a French-Canadian, though the Quebecers are a little off as well.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

that was one of the things franch did do well, resistance................

 

[MP-Willow]

8)

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

you're getting like C.C..................

 

[MP-Willow]

what? How would that be?

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

the sunglasses smiley.....................

 

[MP-Willow]

I see, thanks. My smiles are not working. Well they seem to go out a lot, say I am trying to hack the system, I AM NOt, but so I have to rember the differnt codes.

But I am interested in where your hate for the French comes from? For me they just seemed to give up fast, and then not help out in Dunkurk.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

actually they did help at dunkirk.........................

 

[cheddar cheese]

yes, as weve said several times 8)

 

[Maestro]

France desurved to be invaded and over run, but then the Viche government still was horable. Germany should have just anexed it and put them all to work. That still might not have helped. Do we have any French menbers who are willing to support France? I would even take a French-Canadian, though the Quebecers are a little off as well.

I'm a French-Canadian and I don't really like French (I mean the French from France). But I must admit that without the Résistance (it may be French Résistance or Dutch, Danish, Norwegian...), our attempt to throw the Germans out of those European countries would have been stoped. I would even say that our attempt would have been useless.

 

[cheddar cheese]

true, every country has its uses, doesnt necessarily have to be o the frontline 8)

 

[GermansRGeniuses]

we can thank the wonderous sten gun for aiding the resistance in the countries that had a resistance, they were so easy to make that the resistance themselves could make them! they helped my fellow dutchmen in the quest against our German invaaders

 

[Gemhorse]

Thanks for the feedback to my early post on this subject - points taken.- I feel that Europe at the time was undergoing a huge miasma of political changes, Fascism, Communism, Imperialism etc., hence alot of the people of these countries were pulled this way that - Whereas the Allies were politically fairly stable, post WWI left huge power vacuums in European countries, old ideas [Maginot Line], against new [Blitzkreig]; alotta folk fought for what they felt was right. French politics were very divided, their Resistance Movement, like the Greeks too, were full of internal strife conflict, which certainly didn't help the Allied Cause any.- After reading the posts to this point, I see how the Swiss sitting in the middle of it all developed their own autonomy and defensive network, which seemed to work for them, even thru till today.- And today, the Allies are still sorting-out despotic leaders, genocides and extremists around the globe!- The United Nations were born outa WWII, to help sort-out conflicts, and Patrotism to one's country is a fine thing, but Man has Historically fought over Land, Race Religion - Today, you could probably add 'Haves Have-nots and Corporate Greed' to that ...So, WHAT IF all that conflict of WWII didn't teach us anything - WHAT IF we've gotta have yet another scrap to sort it all out....C'est la vie??!!!

 

[cheddar cheese]

we can thank the wonderous sten gun for aiding the resistance in the countries that had a resistance, they were so easy to make that the resistance themselves could make them! they helped my fellow dutchmen in the quest against our German invaaders

Yep, the sten is a great gun, it can be dismantled into only a few parts and it was highly versatile 8)