hammo1j
Donor
I have to say that the French do not seem very grateful for the Allied liberation. Certainly at a high level they pay lip service at the commemorations, but talk to the average Frenchman and there is a different story.
I think this resentment is due to the high level of French casualties before, during and after D-Day that were sustained by French civilians under allied bombing. The French railways were completely destroyed to prevent Panzer divisions being rushed to the breach, but the casualties were mainly the French that operated the railways. I assume the logic must have been that even the most patriotic French man would buckle when a gun was placed against his head and his family threatened.
Caen and other towns took a lethal load of bombs in the name of freedom.
Was there another way or was the huge French civilian loss of life a price to pay for the liberation?
(I am not of the opinion that the French Forces were 'Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys' to use a populist term. The French forces stayed on fighting to enable the evacuation at Dunkirk for which we British are eternally grateful).
I think this resentment is due to the high level of French casualties before, during and after D-Day that were sustained by French civilians under allied bombing. The French railways were completely destroyed to prevent Panzer divisions being rushed to the breach, but the casualties were mainly the French that operated the railways. I assume the logic must have been that even the most patriotic French man would buckle when a gun was placed against his head and his family threatened.
Caen and other towns took a lethal load of bombs in the name of freedom.
Was there another way or was the huge French civilian loss of life a price to pay for the liberation?
(I am not of the opinion that the French Forces were 'Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys' to use a populist term. The French forces stayed on fighting to enable the evacuation at Dunkirk for which we British are eternally grateful).