Quote:
Originally Posted by ChalkLine
Huh?
This wasn't aimed at anyone in particular, especially you.
It's a common assumption that France rolled over when the Germans attacked, and nasty slurs such as 'cheese-eating surrender monkeys' - happily, not by people around here - have been flung against French people because of the capitulation in 1940*. As a historian, it's one of the things I can't stand. The actions around Stonne show just how bravely the French fighting man fought for his country, and how idiots like Gamelin, Georges, Gort, Barret, Dowding, the Dutch government (who could be said to have betrayed their own troops) and others let the opportunity to stop the Germans in 1940 pass. If those men had shown half as much courage as the men in fighting in France from four nations, then World War Two may well have been over in 1941.
(*Don't get me started on Agincourt.)
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This time I was the one to take you wrong.
As an Historian myself I entirely share your point on France. However, France (its governments) is largely responsible for this common belief. When France was freed, the provisional government under de Gaulle (who perfectly knew it was false) and all following governments up to about 1990 accepted the idea that the defeat in 1940 was due to the French not wanting to fight (archives open today prove that wrong). This was done because they were seeing it as a good excuse as France is always fast to blame its soldiers when it hardly recognizes the responsibility of its leaders (simply cultural)
Something else. I would say that you report the critic made on the French on the others and on that you are wrong. The Dutch couldn't stand and they had been warned that the allies would not come to help them. They fought more than bravely in the West Indies between 1941-1942 and after. The Dutch resistance was one of the most active in western europe (with Norway).
My Grand Father was a staff sergeant in the Belgian Army. He was wounded as he and his platoon refused to withdraw, covering the retreat of French and British elements until they were overrun. When Belgium capitulated after 3 weeks (France will fight 5 weeks), the British and the French were already retreating from Belgium. They asked Leopold III to continue the fight from France and he refused (something the French will do two weeks later when they were asked to continue the fight from their own soil). Despite this, Leopold III ordered the Belgian army to fight two more days, giving all available trucks to the French to help in their retreat.
Where you are absolutly right is about the lack of proper command (political and military alike). British and French alike failed to come up with a common plan much like the Austrians and Russians at Austerlitz.