I’ve been rethinking WWII in Europe. I recently read Shirer’s “Berlin Diary” and he describes his astonishment at the complete lack of response from the French army to the German invasion. That makes me question the wisdom of sacrificing American lives to liberate people who wouldn’t fight for themselves. Then, since the invasion of Poland seems to have launched the whole mess, what good did it do to fight the Germans to rescue Poland and Eastern Europe from the totalitarian Nazis only to hand it all over to the totalitarin Communists at the end of the war?
The French invested all of their defense energy into the Maginot Line. The Germans went around it and took Paris in days. After that there was not much they could do.
My grandfather landed on Omaha beach on d day. He was a combat engineer. He couldn’t believe the number of collaborators and how few resistance fighters there were in France.
That’s complete bull crap to say France didn’t fight. They lost a total of 360000 dead and wounded in that 6 week fight. They were completely outclassed by the modern German method of warfare, and let down by the British who abandon their flank and fled the battlefield at Dunkirk.
But they did Kill nearly 30,000 Germans, and wounded 111000. That’s hardly a refusal to fight.