Daily Archives: July 24, 2009
Were The French Right To Surrender?
The old Frenchies get a lot of stick in the history books for letting the Germans stroll across the Maginot line in the summer of 1940. But a recent thought that occurred in my head this morning points to a different interpretation of events.
You have to step back and remember what the French went through in the First World War. They lost two million young men – and even in that war the French army was prone to mutinies, such were the catastrophically silly military objectives of their commanders. More specifically, the aims were achievable – but only with a casualty rate of tens of thousands. No wonder the French thought better of it.
When the French threw the towel in during the first 5 minutes of World War Two – they were probably thinking about the prospect of another 2 million dead people; millions of families destroyed in another pointless war.
From a certain point of view, we can see that fighting the Nazis ultimately (in all likelihood) led to us to the position we’re in now – namely a relatively free world. But in 1940 no-one really knew just how terrible the Nazis were. For all the French and British knew, there could have just been 4 years of bloody, and completely reasonless death (in the event we got SIX years of completely reasonless death).
In terms of cold numbers, the French ultimately saved millions of their own. However, some might argue that they risked many more millions by giving so quickly.
Your-Life is looking forward to…
Your-Life is looking forward to closing down for the weekend and relaxing in…the rain by the looks of it! Bring back the sunshine!!
