I have met French first hand over the last 35 years and that changed my whole idea and concept of WW2. True they were a divided nation but I really don't think many have any idea of the suffering that took place. Too many people see France even today as the lazy coward and judge France just by it's Northern areas
No we judge them by their foreign policy. Plus their hatred of all things English. Coupled with their inability to police a small boarder that should be ours anyways and you have a recipe for much fun and farmers throwing toys. Just ask a poor sods from operation stack how they feel about the French eh? The Wars is over DT is about so much more now.
In the context of the day, sadly the French high command just didn't grasp what was going on. As swords pointed out everyone was suprised. But they compounded the situation buy not adjusting. No battleplan suvives first contact with the enemy, it's how a commander adjusts and adapts that counts. As oddball says though. There was great suffering. I can't remember it's name but I've always wanted to go to the whole village that has been left from the time where the whole population was killed. A truly sad affair.
One things for certain Rules, when the British did get their act together they kicked some serious butt! "During the Blitz some of the men painted a sign on the roof of a warehouse so that the Luftwaffe pilots could see it. It said: Dear Adolf, you can break our windows but not our hearts"
Never heard of that on swords. Can you give me the link. Top find. Want to do some more digging. I'll let you know if I find out more.