Wasn
[quote=“bob_honest”]Wasn
I was unaware that the French had actually fought in any wars, like WWII, for example.
I believe they mean the civil war victories. Understandably hard to lose but no effort should go unrewarded.
How about that Gaulish Chieftain Vercingetorix who was defeated by Caesar or somebody, brought back to Rome, to be shown in a victory parade… er. 
Um, that French general Lafayette who helped the Americans in their fight for independence. Does that count?
How about Marshal Petain? Didn’t he save a lot of lives by signing a surrender?
I guess there’s always the Bonaparte, but some would argue he’s only Corsican.
I guess French are lovers, not fighters (although from what I’ve seen not even very good lovers).
Here’s a quote for the Simpson’s Extravaganza thread:
“Bonjourrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, ya cheese eatin’ surrender monkeys.”
The stereotype of the surrendering Frenchman only dates back to the Second World War, when the French army collapsed rather quickly.
I am by no stretch of the imagination a fan of the French; but painting them as cheese eating surrender monkeys is unfair. Yes, they collapsed quickly in the opening months of WW2, but the British performance at that time was hardly stellar; the BEF managed to get home, but left all its equipment behind in its haste. And does anyone really believe Britain would have lasted any longer than France had it not been an island?
Prior to WW2 there were no doubts about the bravery of the French soldier. True, they lost to Prussia in 1871; but that was due to the poor performance of the emperor Louis Napoleon, who didn’t know his arse from his elbow, but took over command of the army anyway. The Prussian commanders were all professional military men.
Even so, my list of French war heroes comes up somewhat short. Perhaps I just don’t know enough French history, or perhaps I just don’t care.
Here’s my list:
Foche (WW1)
St. Arnaud (Crimean War)
Any of Boneparte’s marshals (Napoleonic Wars)
La Fayette (American War of Independence)
Joan of Arc (The Hundred Years War)
PS: Vercingetorix was a Gaul, he spoke a Celtic language similar to Welsh or Irish. The word France comes from the name of one of the German tribes that overran the Roman province when the empire collapsed - the Franks.
yeah, I knew Vercingetorix was of Celtic culture that once spread over much of Europe (and farther some speculate).
Sure, the Franks are reponsible for the namesakes, but this doesn’t mean those Roman-subjugated Celts in Gaul and their bloodlines did not persist to later become a Frenchman. Anyways, it was all tongue in cheek.
And I already cited LaFayette. What are you, some kind of cow-launching, funny-sounding Frenchie? 
The French folded like a cheap lawn chair during the Franco Prussian War. Trust me I know. My relatives were on the winning side at least of THAT one.
I thought I read somewhere that during WW1 large numbers of French soldiers essentially went on strike, went home and left the rest of the fighting on the Western Front to the Brit, Yanks and Canucks.
Wow. Googling “French War Heroes” turns up pretty slim pickin’s too. But to be fair to our French friends, they do deserve credit for manly quiche, manly poodles, and manly croissants. Oh, and de Gaulle was a candidate for manly French war hero, for being the first and only French commanding officer to force the Germans to retreat during the invasion of France, but he’s disqualified for having the fourth name of Marie. 
An interesting tidbit somewhat related to this thread…
[quote]FRANCE SHORT CHANGED ITS FOREIGN WAR HEROES BARRY JAMES
Initially posted Wednesday, 27 March 2002 12:00:00 GMT
P ARIS (International Herald Tribune) Doing some research in the National Archives, I came across a photograph taken near Marseilles in 1944 showing a column of German prisoners being herded to a POW camp and a column of French soldiers marching in the opposite direction.
What made the photograph unusual is that all the German prisoners were white and all the French soldiers were black.
As the picture showed, France depended on colonial African soldiers during the reconquest of its own territory in World War II. But it developed a singular view of history after the war that played down the contribution of foreign allies, minimized the degree of collaboration between the French and the Nazi occupiers and essentially said that the French carried out their own liberation without outside assistance.
adetocqueville.com/cgi-binlo … ayZop+9037[/quote]
Slim pickin’ indeed on "French War heroes. I think some members of the “Le Resistance” during WWII would qualify.
Right, so … Dr. Zoidsberg’s list and the Resistance. If people blame the French people for cooperation with the Nazis or Vichy/Petain, I get angry a bit. As Germans those days were the kind of murderous insane beasts which made people think how to simply stay alive. But that is another theme.
So, French are better off than Germans with their war heros. Goebells, great WWI war pilot I think, became a fat ugly Nazy idiot. German WWII pilots often had a great record of killed enemies, but … I am not happy about it. Other German WWI heroes like Hindenburg, later the over-aged German president giving way to Hitler. Other WWI generals doing the same.
So… Barbarossa. King around 1200, doing a great job, then he wanted to slay Arabs, falls off his horse and drowns in a river.
This all the trouble about Germany falling aport and all resulting chaos later…
Arminus, slaying the Roman invaders, guess it is the last one we have. And a princess of Burgundy, killing the chief of the Hunns in their wedding night and thus freeing Europe from their invasion. Or was she rather French? Who cares. I will google some names, the American Revolution and LaFayette, that is worth googling a bit…
Not quite. The French soldiers did indeed go on a kind of strike (technically, in the military of any country it is considered a mutiny), but they didn’t go home and they didn’t refuse to fight. They simply refused to attack. This was due in part to war exhaustion, but mostly because French commanders viewed the lives of the common soldier as something they could throw away with impunity (Hello, General Nivelle).
[quote=“doraemon”]lol is there a problem with French or France on this forum? :loco:
Can
How about Richard le coeur de lion?
True, he was King of England, but he couldn’t speak a word of English, and spent less than six months of his ten-year reign there.
[quote=“doraemon”]I’m very surprise, as 90% of peoples on this forum hate French (or anybody else except American or British of course) so much If you don’t like them so much, why do you need to talk about them
all the time? What a pathetic xenophobic forum… 
[/quote]
I rarely make fun of people unless they are my ancestors or Republicans. 
Don’t take us too seriously, doraemon. In our next breath, we’ll be making fun of our other ancestors, in my case, in addition to the French, the British, Spanish, Americans, Mexicans, Goths, Visgoths, Anglii, Saxons, Normans, and proto-Indo-Europeans. None of whom I hate. I have good friends in most of these groups, although my proto-Indo-European brethren have not proven to be very lively conversationalists of late.
Sometimes humor is just humor, not xenophobia. I happen to actually like to French. So Chill, dude!
But if you really want to shut us up, show us some manly French war heroes.
So it did not work again. I want to do something pro-French, and then Doremon gets almost a heart attack 
I will think of another attempt.
Maybe a “This not not about France” threat. Ummm… :s
EDIT: thread or threat, no difference on Forumosa
A Moslem army, in a crusading search for land and the end of Christianity, after the conquest of Syria, Egypt, and North Africa, began to invade Western Europe under the leadership of Abd-er Rahman, governor of Spain . . . but they were met just outside the city of Tours by [b]Charles Martel, known as the Hammer[/b], and the Frankish Army.
Martel gathered his forces directly in the path of the oncoming Moslem army and prepared to defend themselves by using a phalanx style of combat. The invading Moslems rushed forward, relying on the slashing tactics and overwhelming number of horsemen that had brought them victories in the past. However, the French Army, composed of foot soldiers armed only with swords, shields, axes, javelins, and daggers, was well trained. Despite the effectiveness of the Moslem army in previous battles, the terrain caused them a disadvantage. Their strength lied within their cavalry, armed with large swords and lances, which along with their baggage mules, limited their mobility. The French army displayed great ardency in withstanding the ferocious attack. It was one of the rare times in the Middle Ages when infantry held its ground against a mounted attack. . .
Not only did this prove to be an extremely decisive battle for the Christians, but the Battle of Tours is considered the high water mark of the Moslem invasion of Western Europe."
[color=blue]Granted, it’s largely been downhill for French valor since then, so finding a bonafide French war hero in the 20th century is about as difficult as finding a member of the Bush Administration who actually donned a uniform and put themselves in harm’s way for their country, even when they had the chance.[/color]
I cannot believe none of you have mentioned perhaps the greatest French war hero of all time:
Tigerman! Dude! I was looking for that pic this morning and ran out of time!
We think far too much alike sometimes. Scary. 