French Strikes

[andy at handiwork]

For all its incisive wit, the Simpsons isn't the most reliable insight into national characteristics. Besides, the French didn't surrender in the first ww, as I recall.

[Bob Singleton]

David Johnson wrote:

> "None of my relatives are French so that particular
> circumstance is purely hypothetical,therefore I cannot answer
> your question. So I stand by my comment."
>
> So in the light of your comment on the Margaret Thatcher flu
> thread, can we assume one of your relatives is in fact
> Margaret Thatcher? Otherwise how could you possibly empathise?


Simple, because like Margaret Thatcher, he's an uncaring cunt!

[Dick Moby]

Tell me again Bob about your PHD in history or exactly where you've gleaned all your knowledge.

[Dick Moby]

Bob, you just might actually be reaching enlightenment.

[andy at handiwork]

The sacrifices of the French army in 1940 are well known to those who care to look. It doesn't take a PhD.

[Dick Moby]

Is your name Bob?
I believe he can answer for himself

[andy at handiwork]

He may well do. But if others pointing things out bothers you perhaps you could put something along the lines of 'This is a private fight, stay out of it' in your posts.

[Dick Moby]

Point taken.

[andy at handiwork]

Thanks

[Bob Singleton]

Dick Moby wrote:

> Tell me again Bob about your PHD in history or exactly where
> you've gleaned all your knowledge.


Dick, I'm half French (on my mother's side). I don't have a PhD in history, but I do have the French equivalent of a Masters in Politics from the "Institut d'?tudes politiques de Grenoble".

One of my mother's cousins was executed by the Germans in 1943 at the age of 14, along with many other young men from his town, as a reprisal for the Maquis helping British and other allied airmen escape the Nazis. My French grandfather was forced to work for Nazis and was moved from place to place throughout the war (mainly around eastern Germany and western Poland) with no means of contact with his family. They didn't know if he was still alive, and he didn't know if they were still alive, but he knew that if he didn't co-operate they would all be killed.

My English grandfather joined the BEF when war was declared and was evacuated from St Nazaire (a few weeks after Dunkirk). He was one of the survivors of the sinking of the Lancastria. He later switched to the Royal Navy (as a Chief Engine Room Artificer) and was at various times on HMS Ajax (not when she was involved in the battle of the River Plate, but later during the battle for Crete), a ship he had worked on when previously employed at Vickers shipyards in Barrow, and later in the Eastern Fleet on HMS Renown.

Because of this "family history" I have, since a young boy, taken a great interest in WWII.

I'd be interested to know where you get your prejudice about the French during the war.