A number of years ago on vacation in Paris with my then young daughter; we stopped into a pastry shop early in the early morning to get some provisions for the day's outing. The shop's owner, an elderly lady, in broken English asked if we were American. I said yes, that we were from the US and on vacation. She then proceeded to thank me and all Americans for our help in WWII, and told my daughter that she should be proud to come from such a wonderful country. We may differ in many things, but as stated by Faber, "At the end of the day, the French are our allies." Remember the Statue of Liberty, one of the most recognizable icons of the United States, was given to us by the French.

 

Look up Verdun, only two other countries had the nads to fight a battle that huge and horrible.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Verdun

 

You guys are mistaken, that isn't a cannon, it's a high speed reverse mechanism to only be used in case of emergency.



Probably worn out, lol.

 

I don't know. I read these surrender jokes all the time.
I work at the door in portsmouth/NH on the week ends. A lot of active service members there. Navy and some marines. Sometimes, they tend to drink a little and I have to take them out. Some of them don't like it at all. They notice my french accent, and my co workers call me by my first name (jean-Luc, won't get mopre french then that) so they know that I am french.
None of them tries to give me crap in person. And none of them really steps up to the plate and gives me a good fight. None. Not a single time in 7 month. I wonder why?
Some civilians atleast try... So far so good for over 1/2 a year, I'm still here, and unharmed. Back in the days in Germany and France, I used to finance my studies as a bouncer (club owned busines), and I had atleast 2-3 very entertaining fight per night. Makes you wonder, huh?
As for the FFL, there are NO french legionaires/NCO's, for the sole and only reason that you enlist "sous identite declaree", means you get a new name and history when you enlist. French citizens get nationalities from some french speaking country, like Canada or Switzerland, in their new military ID. But the amount of actual frenchmen in the legion is around 30%. The CO's on the other hand, are french with no exeption. When an NCO goes to the "ecole superieure" to become an officer, he has to take the french citizenship. From Lt up, they are not considered legionaires anymore, but members of the regular french forces, and they can be assigned to regiments outside of the FFL, wich is not the case for legionaires and NCO's.
And just for Krusty: I was in Lebanon in early 84, and I saw the marines withdraw with their tails between their legs, after the October 83 attacks. We ( the coward french) stood. Any comments, mon ami?

 

Dude,

I've lived in the US for 20 years so believe me, I've heard a ton of crap about the French not liking Americans and a ton of surrendering jokes, particularly right after France told GW Bush to get lost.
Anyway, what most people forget is that it took 6 years and pretty much the entire world to defeat the Germans in WWII, so how could the French alone beat them in 1939, when the ***** had their formidable war machine running at full steam? Unlike the Brits, the French don't live on an island, which is the only reason the Brits weren't defeated and occupied like us.
I remember an American of Italian descent busting my ***** in 2003, at the peak of the anti-French campaign, with his surrendering monkeys, white flag and french rifle never fired and dropped twice jokes. I just told him that, at least, my ancesters didn't switch sides in the middle of the war, like his. He never cracked a joke ever again.
90% of the time, the ribbing we take is done in good spirit and I laugh at it, but there will always be a few brainiacs who will take it too far.

 

The germans had the most brilliant generals of that era. Rommel was a military genius. Paulus was very strong, and many others of their leaders were just great strategists. Von Doenitz and his U-boot fleet wreaked havoc all over the world, and the german Luftwaffe was second to none until the british came up with the spitfire. The ME 109 just wasn't a match to that plane.

 

Mon ami...that's your stilted side of the story...though I doubt you'd care to repeat it at Camp Pendleton or Camp Lejuene.

The Marines in Beirut were ordered to guard the unsecured barracks with unloaded rifles, and the ROE forbid counter-attack without direct authorization from the Pentagon (which was witheld). Reagan, and especially his Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, ordered the Marines to stand offshore to avoid an escalation of hostilities (and I assure you that the Marines would have loved to exact some bloody payback). The Reagan administration desperately didn't want to antagonize anybody in the region...and any insinuation that Marines walk away from a fight is flat out ridiculous...and you well know that.

 

I like Frances First Lady.

 

Interesting discussion of the prevalence of WWI French Army unit desertions at a sub-link in your link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Army_Mutinies_(1917)

 

I just wanna know if they've built any more cool motorcycles like that...