World War II Flags

[Redwing]

It just struck me that the French could really get uptight over this...........................

Globally speaking, I don't think France qualifies in the Top 4 of anything----certainly not as a military or economic power!

Then again, the peace-loving, anti-war French were one of the top weapons suppliers to the Iraqis!

[Oso]

Roflmfao!!!

[Professor Brensec]

P.S "when everyone was a catholic" bloody hell thats a long way back cause of those damn tudors and I resent the term whining pom.

My apologies Crumbso. No real offense intended. I have used the term occasionally amongst my other English friends here and they understand that I mean no disrespect or animosity.
However, you are right, I should be mindful of the fact that there are more than the 5 or 6 English people that I know well enough to joke like this with, and not all of them know me as the inoffensive person I try to be.

I am sorry for the use of the offensive expression.  :-[

[Smoke2much]

[quote]Umm the Welsh flag is not at all

[Professor Brensec]

Thanks Will,

Both for the info on Wales and also the words of support regarding my transgression.

I do hope that Crumbso was not so insulted as to completely ignore a sincere apology.

[Deputy]

[quote]

My apologies Crumbso. No real offense intended. I have used the term occasionally amongst my other English friends here and they understand that I mean no disrespect or animosity.
However, you are right, I should be mindful of the fact that there are more than the 5 or 6 English people that I know well enough to joke like this with, and not all of them know me as the inoffensive person I try to be.

I am sorry for the use of the offensive expression.

[Crumbso]

Hey sorry mate I haven't ignored you just not checked the forum. I'm sorry it came across wrong I was trying to be sarcastic ( us poms do it well). No apology needed I'm sorry for seeming such an arse.

Anyway the french really weren't very helpful in ww2 were they.

[Professor Brensec]

Thanks Crumbso,

I didn't for a moment think you were being "snotty" or anything like that.
I was concerned that I had actually overstepped the mark and upset you, and you hadn't "cooled" enough to address the incident.
I'm glad to hear that wasn't the case, and that we're fine.
Thanks.

At the risk of upsetting a Frenchman or two. It does seem they weren't much of a help (compared to the efforts of the US, Briatain, USSR and yes, even Australia).
They did crumble pretty quickly.
However, let's not forget that out of all the occupied countries, France was at the forefront in Underground, Guerilla and Partisan fighting. In fact, the Normandy invasion would have been far more difficult and costly had it not been for their activities.  ;D

[Smoke2much]

I'm not sure that that is a totally fair statement Brensec.  In 1940 the only country that really understood the use of armour in modern warfare was Germany.  Britain and France still felt that the best use of the Tank was to split them into "penny packets" and disperse them amongst the Infantry.  Thus when the Germans forgot to attack the Maginot line and conviniently (for them at least) invaded through the Low Countries there was little in the way to stop them except for Infantry organised on WW1 lines.

If Britain had been attached to France by land this forum would (probably) have been discussing the fall of London three weeks after the fall of Paris.

Will

[Professor Brensec]

You may well be right, Smokes. And probably are.

I don't mean to say that they didn't fight, or that they were by any means lacking in courage. After all, as you say, the British would have gone down in the same way, and did, to a degree if you consider the Expeditionary Force.

I think my bewilderment (admittedly with total hindsight) and frustration at the way in which the French allowed the Nazis to march into the Rhineland without so much as a protest, tends to get me thinking of WWII France as just "not having the stomach for it".
The Nazis were under very strict orders from Hitler himself to turn back if they met the slightest resistance.
They didn't come up against so much as one shot.
I often think what would have been had the French not been so desperate to avoid another war.
This was at a time when it is widely agreed that the French Army could have beaten off a German invasion. The German war machine at this time was still very much in its' infancy.

All this considered, I concede your point. They don't deserve what may have been misconstrued as scorn in my post.  ;D

[Smoke2much]

The evils of appeasment.  Hitler spelled his aims very clearly in his book Mein Kampf.  It was all there for whoever wanted to read it but easier and politically safer for the leading politicians of the day to hope that the little Austrian Corporal would stop after each abuse of trust and power that he displayed.

30,000,000 lives were ruined because we sat on our 1930's butts and did precisely.........nowt.

Will

[Professor Brensec]

I've seen the 30,000,000 figurealot. I don't think it takes into account the "sketchy" Russian figures of civilians.
Most of the authorative books and indeed the acclaimed "World at War" BBC series (the one narated by Lawence Olivier, put it at an even 50 million.
For the purpose of these discussions, though, 30 or 50 is academic.

I know, once again, my comments are made with "20/20 hindsight" but sometimes I get so very..................disappointed with those who were, not the "architects", but at least the "building permits department" of that terrible 5 years, 8 months and 1 week (Sept 1 - beginning of hostilities - to May 8 ) in Europe. I mean, those that allowed events to take place, that in any other place and time would not have been allowed to continue, at least not completely unchallenged.

I suppose Hitler or "fate (if you beleive in that philosophy) chose exactly the right time, place, people and climate.
In discussions, I often say to people, with occasional quizzical looks, that WWII was ordained to be, the day WWI finished. So much unfinished business. So much malice in the Armistice to be avenged. So many dead for nothing.