Simviation Forums

The elderly American gentleman arrived in Paris by plane. At French Customs, he fumbled for his passport.

- "You

Zen? If it were WW2, it would explain the German enunciation in France -- or is the customs officer into Bhuddism? Other than that...

haha, thats funny! =D

Clever, but not really funny:

By D-Day, France had been occupied by German and
Italian troops for four years. Sure, they signed an armistice- but that's only because they knew they could not prevail after trying to hold back the onslaught with only Belgium and Holland to assist them directly, losing thousands of their finest troops (although on one occasion four French divisions lost only 8 men slaughtering 5,000 Italian troops from two dozen attacking divisions). America was still prevaricating, and England was rightfully shoring up their own defenses. Meanwhile, the French knew much better than England and America what had happened to Poland and Czechoslovakia... the German war machine was in its prime, many of its tactics were bold and innovative, and it was simply too much for a small, unprepared nation like France to fight.


When you think about it, France's "surrender" was a very sound strategic move for the Allied cause in general- it thinned out Hitler's power somewhat and gave him something to keep him quite busy.

I guess France would seem more courageous if they'd chosen and stand and fight to the last, but had they done so, the Allies probably would have lost Europe. It would have been much simpler and less costly to lay waste to France and kill or enslave almost everyone (as in Poland), but it was a problem having to try to control the Vichy nationals, the logistics of organizing and moving citizens for forced labor, dealing with the Resistance ... which leads to my next point.:French warriors did join the fight at D-Day, and in fact helped pave the way for the invasion.

(from Wikipedia)
"During the Allied invasion of Normandy, the Maquis and other groups played some role in delaying the German mobilization. The French Resistance (FFI Force Francaises de l'Interieur for "French Forces of the Interior") blew up railroad tracks and repeatedly attacked German Army equipment and garrison trains on their way to the Atlantic coast. Thanks to coded messages transmitted over the BBC radio, each Maquis group was alerted of the impending D-Day by listening for seemingly meaningless messages such as "the crow will sing three times in the morning" or any other pre-arranged messages read in a continuous flow over the British airwaves. As Allied troops advanced, the French Resistance rose against the Nazi occupation forces and their garrisons en masse. For example, Nancy Wake's group of 7,000 maquisards was involved in a pitched battle with 22,000 Germans on June 20, 1944. Some Maquis groups took no prisoners and some German soldiers preferred to surrender to Allied soldiers instead of facing maquisards. Captured Maquis faced torture and being shot or sent to concentration camps, where few survived.

The Allied offensive was slowed and the Germans were able to counterattack in southeast France. On the Vercors plateau, a Maquis group fought about 8000 soldiers under general Karl Pflaum and was defeated with 600 casualties."


Not exactly a bunch of cowards, if you ask me. Nor incompetent, nor weak. No prisoners.

America and France did great things in the past when they trusted each other; I think it's sad and possibly dangerous that the prevailing American view of France's WWII record is that "we had to go save their asses in WWII".  :(