France has withdrawn its ambassador to Italy due to being bantered off with shít...

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Originally Posted by Ash

Right. We should remember the good days. Arnhem. Gallipoli. Hastings. Chatham.

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Yes, perhaps Arnhem, where the troops of the 10th SS Panzer division subsequently declared that the Rote Teufelen of 1 Para were the hardest troops they had encountered and the fighting more fierce than anything they had seen on the Eastern Front?

Gallipoli was fought by foreigners, so doesn't count.

At Hastings, Alfred's army had just fought a battle and then marched all the way from Stamford Bridge. Probably West Ham fans? Who can say. But anyway, we need not concern ourselves with such ancient history.

Chatham was a sneaky surprise attack by cheating Dutchmen.

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Originally Posted by Sir C

Yes, perhaps Arnhem, where the troops of the 10th SS Panzer division subsequently declared that the Rote Teufelen of 1 Para were the hardest troops they had encountered and the fighting more fierce than anything they had seen on the Eastern Front?

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Anything they'd seen in the entire three months they'd spent in the east? Gosh.

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Originally Posted by Ash

Anything they'd seen in the entire three months they'd spent in the east? Gosh.

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Yes. 3 months in the Ukraine. How long do you think you'd need?

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Originally Posted by Sir C

Yes. 3 months in the Ukraine. How long do you think you'd need?

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Pfft. I'm sure it was jolly tough going but I bet it was no Stalingrad imo. It probably wasn't even snowing. :shrug:

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Originally Posted by Sir C

Imagine if they had a war. Who would surrender first? :yikes:

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ffs, Joan of Arc - a teenage peasant bint in the middle ages - made our army surrender (effectively) in 2 years after we'd been at war for 90+ years.

If it weren't for Joffre at the Marne, you and I would be speaking French.

Did they surrender at Verdun? Did they ****. Il ne passerent pas. They did that all one their own, while simultaenously giving us some divisions for the Somme and bailing the wops out on the Italian Front.

And if the French hadn't suicidally sacfriced themselves on the approaches to Dunkirk, and then still taken over when our rear-guard left for the beach, we'd have lost the entire BEF and the 90k French soldiers we escaped with (who fought heroically for us thereafter.)

I've been in France for a month so am not really up for this drivel.

And don't ever slag off the Indian army or I'll have to remind you about every single time a Gurkha, Sikh, Pathan, Baluchi or Gurwhali saved your sorry gora arses.

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Originally Posted by Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult

ffs, Joan of Arc - a teenage peasant bint in the middle ages - made our army surrender (effectively) in 2 years after we'd been at war for 90+ years.

If it weren't for Joffre at the Marne, you and I would be speaking French.

Did they surrender at Verdun? Did they ****. Il ne passerent pas. They did that all one their own, while simultaenously giving us some divisions for the Somme and bailing the wops out on the Italian Front.

And if the French hadn't suicidally sacfriced themselves on the approaches to Dunkirk, and then still taken over when our rear-guard left for the beach, we'd have lost the entire BEF and the 90k French soldiers we escaped with (who fought heroically for us thereafter.)

I've been in France for a month so am not really up for this drivel.

And don't ever slag off the Indian army or I'll have to remind you about every single time a Gurkha, Sikh, Pathan, Baluchi or Gurwhali saved your sorry gora arses.

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No mention of the Legion Freies Indien?

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Originally Posted by Arsenal Alcoholic Review

No mention of the Legion Freies Indien?

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If you mean Chandra Bose's INA, they were so fücking insignificant that GB HQ didn't even bother setting up a unit to deal with them at mil or intel level.

They were nothing, it's only the BJP fasicts in power now - you know, like the ones who shot Gandhi for having succeeded without their violence - that make them seem more than what they were.

Read the Flahman author - GMF's - autobiog of the war in Burma, Quartered Safe Out Here. He says when he captured 3 INA and took them back, on the way he passed another brigade patrol, the Baluchis. He says the look they gave the INA traitors made it clear they were lucky it was the whiteys not the Baluchis who found them.

2.5m volunteered.

A handful of PoWs defected for better rations.

About as miliarily significant as the 10 GB PoWs who tried to start an SS unit.

Now, wanna talk about them saving the empire at Neuve Chapelle on their first action in France in WW1?

Or the Sikhs and Gurkhas saving British India during the Mutiny?

I did say don't get me started on this :)

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Originally Posted by Burney

It could be the shortest war in history (a record we currently hold for when we smashed up Zanzibar, of course).

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Of course it would. The Frogs would turn Rome into radioactive dust before the first Wop had even got to Ventimiglia.

And they have a perm seat on the UNSC so no-one can tell them off.

Proper country.* That's why I'm staying here for a bit.

*India, London and Cornwall (for my glw's sake) also count as proper countries. Though the sooner India gets back the recalcitrant muzzies o'er the E and W frontiers, the better. They need to be re-civilised.

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Originally Posted by Burney

Yeah, but that’s where they shot their bolt, y’see? Falkenhayn succeeded in his intention to ‘bleed France white’. What he didn’t grasp was that in doing so, he’d do the same to Germany.

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That's rubbish, B.

That's why Falk resigned before the battle was even over. Once the Somme pressure made sure that Verdun would be lost with the Fr eventually recapturing Ft Duoaumont.

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Originally Posted by Sir C

One might suggest that it was the experience of Verdun which prompted the French military to choose early surrender over the mincing machine that is holding one's ground in a steadfast, British fashion.

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You mean the way we almost legged it after Gough's 5th army was smashed at the start of the Spring Offensive and it was only the Fr re-inforcements and Foch being put in over-all command that saved the Amiens rail-head and prevented a breech between the armies?

Some of us have studied this post-grad, mate. I can send you an essay if you want. Got a goodish A, obv.