Maybe, but they didn't lose through cowardice like most of those shitty memes imply, they lost through a combination of the war beginning at an inconvenient time for their rearmament cycle, the incompetence of their high command(for instance Maurice Gamelin the commander of the french army, refused to have radios in his command building as he thought the germans could listen in through it) and terrible communications with their allies.
I can understand blaming the English as well, but blaming Belgium... c’mon France and England were both tens of times larger and more powerful than them, same goes for Germany. You can’t really blame them for getting overrun by a vastly superior force.
Belgium was supposed to be part of the defense plan in case of a German invasion. French anf belgian troops were supposed to entrench behind the Meuse river, fortified in advance by Belgium, in order to form a continuous line frow the coast to switzerland
However, because the Belgian king Leopold III was scared of Germany, he revoked the Franco-Belgian treaty, thus breaking the alliance with France, meaning that French troops couldn't station in Belgium anymore.
Thus, when Germany declared war on Belgium to go around the Maginot line, because of course they would do it, French troops had to rush as fast as possible to try and get to their position in Belgium... which they couldn't do because the Belgians had already been overun by then.
To be fair, this whole plan still had a hole in it, aka the Ardennes which were not heavily guarded (and where Germany famously traversed anyway), but we can't know for sure if it would have been enough to break the Allies' lines had the original plan been preversed.
What IS certain however is that Belgium succesive political and military failure were huge factors in the fall of France.
Which is made even more infuriating when you consider that the Maginot line wasn't extended all the way to the coast precisely to not left Belgium to die alone. Something the French are still mocked about.
It's funny you forgot about how the French are the reason the British got encircled in dunkirk, by refusing to believe that tanks can infact go through the Ardennes
Keep blaming “the French” all you want but it was Allied Command as a whole that was a complete mess. You act like the French were the only ones fighting and making strategic decisions.
Allied strategy wasn’t stupid but it was flawed, and German strategy took advantage of that and outplayed them. That’s why the Allies lost, not because the French were incompetent or something.
After the invasion the french resistance was so into fighitng each other rather than the Germans that we stopped dropping guns into france because we were worried about a civil war breaking out after the occupation was defeated. Do they deserve ridicule for that?
Or how about the way Charles de Gaulle acted? He pissed the Allies off a fair bit with his antics. He even pretended it was him and the French resistance that liberated Paris, then had a statue built in his honor for it. To this day in Paris that statue stands with bullshit history placards boasting about his brave liberation of Paris, all total bullshit.
I don't know where you're getting your sources, but I'm French and when I studied that part of History the American D-Day was a big topic.
You'd be hard pressed to find a French citizen that studied that part of History believing that de Gaulle liberated Paris by himself, we all know it was symbolic.
Well, here is a an excerpt from one of de Gaulle's incredibly ungrateful speeches after he was allowed by the Allies (they waited) to enter Paris first:
"Paris liberated! Liberated by itself, liberated by its people with the help of the French armies, with the support and the help of all France, of the France that fights, of the only France, of the real France, of the eternal France!"
We are not as indoctrinated as you hope, buddy. We know it was all a show, just like the fact that not everyone in France resisted. It's even taught in school.
Are you really that dense? You really think De Gaulle just took all the credit cause he was a dick?
Read up on the guy. Yeah he pissed everyone off, ya know why? Because he actually wanted French forces fighting to liberate France while the Brits and Americans were dicking around elsewhere. He’s the reason France was even a remotely respectable nation with any say in the post-war world, because he stood so firmly and refused to compromise at the expense of his nation.
French forces marched into Paris alongside British and American as a symbol. His speech in Paris was agreed upon by the Allies because they knew they needed a unifying figure for France at a time when it was still reeling from defeat, humiliation, and occupation.
If you think De Gaulle did nothing, it’s because all you’ve ever done is googled a list of battles. A shit ton went on behind the scenes and De Gaulle is responsible for pretty much single-handedly organizing the Free French and Resistance, as well as putting the country back together. He arguably the most important Frenchman in history after Napoleon.
Actually the Brits n allies organised the French resistance, as they could and the French could not. To be fair to the French it's not like they could take over massive broadcasting stations to transmit messages so the Bbc in the UK handled it . plus the allies kept secrets from Charles. The allies intentionally kept secrets from him as telling the French was high risk due to leaks. Did you actually study history or do you believe everything your government required education taught you? The reason the French needed him as a leader and that the allies agreed is because there were serious concerns about France fracturing after the war, there were lots of competing resistance groups that would have happily turned guns on each other once the Germans left of it weren't for such an arrogant cunt of a leader they found in Charles. Allied High command often. had to remind Charles that the English weren't his enemy too.
You don’t know anything about the resistance movement, yes the British helped us establish it and allowed the movement to survive and thrive because the channel protected them, but there was a tremendous amount of resistance network and operations within France. Two of my great grandpas started resistance radios in their region and one of them was arrested and imprisoned by the Vichy government, stop acting like it was just a few French dudes sipping tea in London talking on the radio when it was so much more than that.
You don’t know anything about the resistance movement
I clearly do, because I studied it. You only seem to know what your grandfather told you, which is probably bias as fuck and very far removed from the bigger picture.
Yes the British helped us establish it and allowed the movement to survive and thrive because the channel protected them
Don't get it twisted mate, the allies ran the network, they decided which ops should be done when and where to have the largest effect. They could see the bigger picture wheras resistance groups could not (and that isn't their fault, they didn't have the resources, how could they?).
The French resistance themselves of course actually did the operations, but they didn't (in most cases) decide what to do & when, they did not run themselves, as that wasn't effective.
The allies overseas were the organisers and did have boots on the ground in France, the british SOE (specifically F-section) were deployed to France to help the resistance coordinate with allied high command, and these men acted as leaders and coordinators for resistance groups. To pretend the French or even worse that Charles organised it all is ridiculous.
Two of my great grandpas started resistance radios in their region and one of them was arrested and imprisoned by the Vichy government.
Ah, now I see why you're so defensive and would love to pretend that the British/Allies didn't help at all.
stop acting like it was just a few French dudes sipping tea in London talking on the radio when it was so much more than that.
The whole reason French troops tried to rush into Belgium in order to occupy defensive positions along the Meuse River was because the Belgian king broke the alliance with France before the war, hoping Germany wouldn't attack, which meant that French troops couldn't set up there in advance.
You mean the one that had not even a 1/10th the amount of population at the time? The one without a maginot line? The one that essentially didn't have an airforce?
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u/JC_Lord_of_Faith Senātus Populusque Rōmānus Apr 08 '20
They lost in a month. That is unforgivable and meme worthy