Mucinex-D said:
maninahat said:
Mucinex-D said:
Portal Maniac said:
I am an American of the United States, and I would choose The Republic of France to aid us.
Fuck y'all with your stereotype of the French having a piss-poor military. They've got a damn effective one, and the only reason this stereotype happened is because of a certain headline.... oh.... what was it......
[HEADING=3]FRANCE DEFEATED BY GERMANY IN WWII[/HEADING]
Which was basically..... Oh, what was it...... That's right! A SUCKER PUNCH! And even THEN the citizens of France were so patriotic and courageous that they formed a resistance and fought back!
People with THAT much fight in them are exactly the people I want covering my back should my country be invaded.
How was it a sucker punch? For nearly a year after the war started France had time to build up a military and defenses before Germany attacked... and they lasted what, a few months? not even that much? Sure the french resistance was cool but in the end they fell far too quickly.
"Far too quickly"? The Nazi's had one of the largest and most professional armies in the World. France got the full, concentrated force of it. France had actually built up the "Maginot line", a mass of defensive fortifications (which had been there since WWI) facing Germany. The Nazi forces managed to maneuver around it (delivering one heck of a sucker punch) and the French took massive amounts of casualties within only the first couple of weeks. France and Britain got thoroughly battered by the Nazis and Italians, hence France's surrender after several months.
Excuses. It's their fault they failed to properly prepare for any type of invasion. They just let the nazis maneuver around it? And after a year of preparation they shouldn't have had too much smaller an army than Germany. I'm not saying 1 on 1 that France should have won, but as quickly and easily as they fell? And I knew about the Maginot line, but that isn't much help when you can just walk around it now is it? Yes I know it wasn't that simple but France really should have seen it coming. There's no excuse why after one year of building up defenses your country falls after 2 or 3 months. I wouldn't call the German tactics a sucker punch, I would call it common sense. Or stupidity on Frances part, you be the judge. Why pass through the enemy lines when it's easier to go around. France has been a joke since Napoleon in my opinion. They did okay in WW1 but were extremely close to falling early in the war even then.
Watch some history vids plz. The germans did a bold gamble that the french could never have predicted (blitzing through the ardennes) using innovative tactics that went against the conventional vision of warfare of the time that was based on ww1.
They hit with maximum force at a weak point in an attack that could very easily have gone wrong(the german leaders did fear their tanks would get bogged down) and shown the world how terrifying tanks on a blitz can be.
What seems "obvious" and "common sense" to you now wasn't the case back then, the germans pioneered a whole new way of making war and the french were pretty much screwed the moment they decided to advance into belgium (in effect this made them trapped when the blitz came from the ardennes) along with the brits.
It's easy to say "Why pass through the enemy lines when it's easier to go around" now that we are well in the age of mobile warfare, but back then such mobility and speed was unheard off.
That you say "And after a year of preparation they shouldn't have had too much smaller an army than Germany" so matter of factly shows the depth of your ignorace, no further comment is needed here.
Meh I really hate this anti french vibe on the escapist. There are SOME decent posters here who seem to know their history and think of french as more then mere stereotypes, but the overwhelming majority here.... Bleh.
I have some french blood, my grandfather and great granfather went above and beyond the call of duty in ww2(not that any of you would care, but their stories would have made Band of brothers pale in comparison), it really annoys me how many of you love to dump on them.
/rant over but meh, this is the main reason I dont wanna get more active on the escapist, a lot of you really strike me as bigots who act all intellectual but really just recycle common stereotypes and opinions that have been spoon fed to them.
It isn't the case for all of you, and I really should avoid any history/country thread cos theres always some france bashing going on in them but meh, I do like history ¬¬
On topic: I consider myself english first and foremost, country I'd like to see by our side would be germany, they know how to get things done.
Edit: <3 you portal maniac, its so rare to hear that from an american
