La France

[terrier]

All irrelevant. The Russians did the heavy lifting and took the bulk of the casualties.

[faughanballagh]

The concept of the French as cowards dates largely to 2003 and their refusal to assist in the inasion of Iraq, when they were considered cowards in some quarters for thinking that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction and that that the inasion would create a mess( rememer freedom fries).

What ever you think of them, they were right not to get involved in that cluster f^%K.

I assure you that it dates all the way back to WWII on this side of the Atlantic, even more so from the attitude of de Gaulle toward the US during his presidency in the 1950s/60s.

[RoyalGreenJacket]

The concept of the French as cowards dates largely to 2003 and their refusal to assist in the inasion of Iraq.

I assure you that it dates all the way back to WWII on this side of the Atlantic, even more so from the attitude of de Gaulle toward the US during his presidency in the 1950s/60s.

exactly faughanballagh, particularly in the British Army, for whatever reason - perhaps through many battles with them over the ages in which we won the wars and this perception of the French has filtered down to us, we always feel the French threw in the towel quite easily (instead of Poland for example) in WW2 and even when i joined the British Army in 1989 and we exercised in France and Belgium in 1990 they had that reputation among us. what happened in 2003 was to be expected from them.

[terrier]

exactly faughanballagh, particularly in the British Army, for whatever reason - perhaps through many battles with them over the ages in which we won the wars and this perception of the French has filtered down to us, we always feel the French threw in the towel quite easily (instead of Poland for example) in WW2 and even when i joined the British Army in 1989 and we exercised in France and Belgium in 1990 they had that reputation among us. what happened in 2003 was to be expected from them.

You won SOME of the wars... usually in coalition with allies. Some of the earliest wars were actually Anglo-Norman against Franco - Norman .

A list for your edification:-

http://www.militaryfactory.com/battles/french_military_victories.asp

[terrier]

I assure you that it dates all the way back to WWII on this side of the Atlantic, even more so from the attitude of de Gaulle toward the US during his presidency in the 1950s/60s.

Attitudes against the French in America date back to the period between the two World Wars when thousands of American tourists arrived in France. There was a lot of friction over "cultural"
differences such as Americans demanding that African people be put out of restaurants and the French refusing. The French were especially indignant about this as the first American troops in WW1 to actually fight were the "Negro" regiments who were refused training by the American C-in-C and were handed over to the French to be trained. Subsequently they made a name for themselves as having been unbeaten.

[RoyalGreenJacket]

lads i really don't care, the attitude i have towards the French suits me just fine in the Army i serve in.

i didn't start this thread - my comments were dragged off by a MOD.

now excuse me while i tuck into my Freedom Fries

[Jungle]

... and this perception of the French has filtered down to us, we always feel the French threw in the towel quite easily (instead of Poland for example) in WW2...

You think the French threw in the towel easily ? Research how Denmark dealt with the German invasion in WW2...

[hedgehog]

The French are arrogant and kind of smelly

but I would never class their Military as anything but courageous and honourable-

to try and pigeon hole them in that way is like saying the Irish Army is always drunk

the British Army is an army of hooligans etc etc.

We all know that none of the above is the case

[knocker]

Youre all making this into something its not..look this is a military forum and soldiers by their very nature take the pi** out of themselves , their muckers , officers other units and even other armies ..

[SwiftandSure]

Weren't the French the last nation to successfully invade and conquer the British mainland in 1066? We owe a lot to their heritage.

Can't blame RGJ's thinking though. I remember in basic training in ATR Bassingbourn being addressed by our new Sergeant Major, he gave a speech similar to the following:

"Everything you do here is designed for you to closewith and kill the enemy,
you uniform is camoflage so you can get closer to you enemy to kill him,
your rifles are designed to kill him,
the landrovers you'll drive will have no bumpers or crumple zones, because it is an instrument designed for you to drive into the enemy and kill him.
Do not be fooled, you're here to learn to kill!
So when the flag goes, and we launch you lean mean green killing machines into our natural enemies the French....."

It takes a long time to get over that mentality. It took me 6 months living in Paris to stop referring to the French as Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys.

[RoyalGreenJacket]

lol - i've had pretty much the same thing on a few occasions Swift and Sure, and for reasons like that - that is what we are, and as Knocker said - any other army as well as each other is all fair game.

[faughanballagh]

Attitudes against the French in America date back to the period between the two World Wars when thousands of American tourists arrived in France. There was a lot of friction over "cultural"
differences such as Americans demanding that African people be put out of restaurants and the French refusing. The French were especially indignant about this as the first American troops in WW1 to actually fight were the "Negro" regiments who were refused training by the American C-in-C and were handed over to the French to be trained. Subsequently they made a name for themselves as having been unbeaten.

Fair point as well.

[hptmurphy]

I was watching something on tv the other night that pointed out the majority of the french that were evacuated from Dunkirk with the British Army were repatriated back to fight in France until the fall of France.

I think Anglo French relations since befre napoleon have to be considered as the British Empire had been as much as a thorn in the isde of the french as had the germans and there was a natural distrust of the british to a certain degree.

Even though there was an element of amity between the BriTish and the free Freanch there wasa huge proportion of France that cmae under the rule of Vichy and did not run away and didn't put down its arms and had to be destroyed by the Royal Navy at Mers El Kebir.