[quote]dastang23 wrote:
I think most people have hit the reasons why the French and us don;t seem to get along very well. I have worked with the regular French Army (make me chuckle saying it) and the F.F.L. You can tell the tension between un and the regular army. The fear of us becoming a “superpower” really seemed to come out during the beginning of the war in Iraq! Well here are some pics you might enjoy. [/quote]
Dastang,
How often do the French practice surrendering?
[quote]
How often do the French practice surrendering?[/quote]
It is actually funny that you bring that up. We were doing some trip wire missions with the French. Tripwire operations consist of several vehicle check points, a few looking and observing posts, and several other components. When we were setting up the headquaters we sat it up in a covered area on top of a very good sized hill where we had pretty good concealment. The French on the other hand decided to kick local kids out of their school (on the bottom of a hill) and took over the school for 2 days and sat that up as their H.Q.!!! I couldn’t belive it!
Then when we were setting up a multiple v.c.p. on a 3 way road the French Commander asked our Commander what was our plan of evacuation in case we were overran!!! Now this I couldn’t belive, my C.O. just looked at him and said “our route of retreat will be straight towards where we are getting overran”. Classic.
I will admit that I didn’t have any problmes with the individual French soldiers that I have worked with. Our Army, also the Brittish, is unique in the fact N.C.O.'s have alot of power and troop leading skills where in most the other armies I have worked with it is COMPLETELY the officer’s show.
I also have some funny stories about that, I will just say it is great when a commander from a different country asks where your commander is when you are doing a joint mission, and you get the honor of saying, “well sir, he won’t be coming, looks like you are just stuck with me for the day.”
Dastang
[quote]dastang23 wrote:
How often do the French practice surrendering?
It is actually funny that you bring that up. We were doing some trip wire missions with the French. Tripwire operations consist of several vehicle check points, a few looking and observing posts, and several other components. When we were setting up the headquaters we sat it up in a covered area on top of a very good sized hill where we had pretty good concealment. The French on the other hand decided to kick local kids out of their school (on the bottom of a hill) and took over the school for 2 days and sat that up as their H.Q.!!! I couldn’t belive it!
Then when we were setting up a multiple v.c.p. on a 3 way road the French Commander asked our Commander what was our plan of evacuation in case we were overran!!! Now this I couldn’t belive, my C.O. just looked at him and said “our route of retreat will be straight towards where we are getting overran”. Classic.
Dastang[/quote]
Hahahaha. The French have a knack for being unintentionally hilarious.
I noticed they didn’t invite the French along to Royal Dragon (aka as Purple Star) in 1996. This was basically a big fuck off exercise made up of US 18th Airborne Corps, 82nd Airborne Our army?s 5 Airborne Brigade,USAF, RAF, USMC and Royal navy 3 Commando Royal Marines. Total 38,000 US and nearly 16000 UK troops.
Nobody said anything like…who invited the British ?!
[quote]rainjack wrote:
They’re fucking French. What’s to like about the cowardly SOB’s in the first place?
I have never liked the French. And I probably never will. I’m sure that just cuts them to the quick to know that some idiot in the middle of no where doesn’t like them.
I don’t think we should ever spill another drop of American blood to liberate, defend, or in any other way bail their sorry asses out of a jam again. [/quote]
That blanket must be quite cozy.
[quote]victor lustig wrote:
I was under the impression rather than taking words from English to French and vice versa the common names and sounding words come from Latin.
I don’t actually believe the USA’s entry into WW2 was the deciding factor of us winning the war. You got to remember that Britain entered the war on the same premise as America, we declared war on Germany.
They (Hitler) wanted to leave us the hell alone and in turn let them get on with their stuff in Europe. Why ? because he knew the British Army was double hard. Check the history books it was the Russians that were the key players, the US and UK should think of their action as the decisive turn.
Even today everyone knows the British Army is probably the best Army in the world, I speak from personal experience.
I mean hell the US army even bases its special forces on our very own SAS, who are without a shadow of a doubt the worlds elite fighting force.
[/quote]
what?! I am speaking of personal experience when i say this (used to be in the United States Marines) the sas yes i give you that the regulars? don’t think so
[quote]victor lustig wrote:
These posts always turn into UK bashing posts, I’m going off to sulk.[/quote]
to make this succinct france I don’t like the U.K. I like
[quote]victor lustig wrote:
Jesus tonight. Forgetting all the stuff between WW2 and say 1980, Falklands, I think defeating a much larger Army, Argentina, funnily enough equipped with lots of FRENCH gear like Exocet and Mirage.
[/quote]
Argentina? Are you kidding?
Actually I must apologise to everyone in this thread for steering it off the original topic and making some particularly patriotic comments. The thing I feel out Army has been fucked up by Blair and his government and many of the regiments disbandedand mixed up by the defence minister. It get me fuelled up to think our forces have been weakened by this foolery. Hell we did not even have decent functioning small arms (SA80, L1A1)when I was in.
Admitely the US forces are vast, and ours are smaller and we need some re-arrangement. I would not like to see us go to war without forces from other countries (at the moment).
[quote]EmperialChina wrote:
That blanket must be quite cozy.[/quote]
If you consider the facts of WWII a blanket, then you are beyond delusional.
The french saved us in colonial times, we saved them in WWII. Why do they still have to owe us? someone? How long show they owe thanks to us for?
[quote]demonthrall wrote:
The french saved us in colonial times, we saved them in WWII. Why do they still have to owe us? someone? How long show they owe thanks to us for?[/quote]
The French loaned us money. They sent some troops over here. But - the U.S. didn’t sit huddled in the corner broken down and beaten, and let the French fight the war for us.
WWII saw the French an conquered people, unable to function as a true military forece. We had to do their fighting for them. Had we not entered the European theater - the would be no France.
I think that’s a pretty big difference.
I read these threads regularly and am astonished by some of the ignorant and ridiculously arrogant comments that emanate from the more propaganda soaked arseholes who spout here.
The U.S. helped a little in WWI,they did not hand France back to the French,what utter shit.This is incredibly disrespectful to the nearly 1.5 million French who died in that war(btw when did the first world war start?If you answered 1917 then sign yourself up for the above arrogance.This certainly wouldn’t suprise me when you consider that most of the population of America thinks the 2nd war started in Dec '41).Can you imagine what would happen in The U.S. if you suffered that many casualties?Can you imagine what the number would be if it was proportional to your population?Disrespectful?I think so.Inaccurate?Definately.Arrogant?You bet your bollocks!
The U.S. was 95% of the story in beating the Japanese in WWII,if not more.The USSR was 60-70% of the beating of Germany however,if anybody bled for the French it was Ivan and not anybody who had ever eaten ‘Mom’s apple pie’.Ask any serious historian who isn’t attached to some right wing American thinktank and the above will undoubtedly be your answer.Don’t get me completely wrong here,The U.S. played a big role,but the role of the Russians was played down over the whole cold war period because they were the enemy and it’s still not been rectified.The greatest and most devastating war in the history of humanity was the Russo-German war of 1941-45.What happened on the western front was important and vital,but it didn’t stop the French from speaking German,it stopped them speaking Russian(and maybe the British as well)!
The guy who wrote that the American were the best army on the western front
is reading non-existant history,it’s what’s called ridiculous revisionism.Every bit of reading I’ve ever done has stated that the Germans were by far the best troops of the 2nd war:-Quote(but I dont know who)“Any time that Allied and German troops met in anything approaching equal numbers the Germans always won”.We won relatively easily on the Western Front because the Wehrmacht had been bled dry by the Eastern.
I have to say that I have never heard a British Squaddie have anything but contempt for their American counterparts,‘they’re too soft,like their comforts too much and it’s all hidden by the fact that they have more money,more gear and better technology than anyone else’.And,I have never heard an American Squaddie have anything but respect for the British.Maybe it’s just a manners thing?
Lastly,there was a guy who said that America had the better innovation in WWII,which is yet again bollocks.The Germans were by far and away the greatest innovators,missile technology,jet aircraft,nerve gases,military tactics etc,etc,etc…
Do you think that either America or The USSR would have had a Space program were it not for the Germans?
I await your flaming with a slice of Anglo-Saxon white bread on a long fork…
Well, in France’s defense, the French Foreign Legion has a reputation for badassery… Oh, wait a minute, that’s cause most of the fighters aren’t French. Nevermind. As you were.
further to my post,the taiping rebellion in Imperial China round about 1860 could possibly rival the Russio-German war of 1941-45.Read about it,you’ll be amazed.