Why France?

[Njaco]

I don't believe that a majority of the Allies and their citizens had a Napoleon complex...

 

[pattle]

I have been away so have just seen the thread and read it through from the beginning.

If I can p*ss on the p*ssing contests here: and not to point any fingers but to look at the numbers.

From a population of just over 40 million a similar number of French soldiers died in Europe (about 180,000) as did US soldiers. from a population of about 130 million. Let us remember their joint sacrifice (and not argue over the numbers). Too many whatever the numbers.

My father fought in the BEF in the BofF while my uncle fought the Italians in the south with the Chasseurs Alpine. My father fought the French in Syria as well as Italians in Africa and Germans in Italy and my uncle fought from Normandy to Germany. My mother was both in the french resistance and a temporary US army master sergeant so I have no agenda.

By 1945 the French army was a significant part of the allied push from the west. Not the biggest by far but it saved the US from calling up more young men to fill divisions in europe and at a time when Britain was running out of troops. Thanks to the US arming the French army as they called up conscripts from the liberated population. As a Briton I might have a whinge that the US had the UK pay for their weapons but not the French (ever wondered why all the UK Sherman tanks and US lend lease aeroplanes vanished from UK service by 1946?) It was a major player in western europe and saved the US and UK from part of the cost of garrisoning Germany. By 1946 it was arguably the largest western continental army in Europe and the higher profile as a top table western ally gave the west an extra UN Security Council seat.

All in all France merited a place in Germany as a major power and the west benefitted from it.

I agree that Britain and the USA benefited from France being a fourth power both as an occupying power in Germany and as a UN Security Council seat holder. This is why France was allowed to attain these positions, because it was good for Britain, the USA and the Western cause in general but not as a reward or sign of respect to France. Had France been communist then I feel quite certain that the West would not have welcomed it as a fourth power. This says lots more about my opinion of politicians than it does about my opinion of the French of whom I am open minded about. Personally I think it was very astute of Churchill to get away with installing France as a fourth power, it has paid dividends for years and gives Europe more punch in the world that it deserves