Originally Posted by mnairb

Don't confuse poor leadership with lack of courage - many French units fought with incredible bravery in the Great War and the French Army suffered higher casualties than the British Army. Whilst many British senior officers could be described as poor, many French generals could only be described as appalling. In the Nivelle offensive of 1917, French troops heading to the front made baaing noises as sheep going to the slaughter. The French Army mutineed purely because of the poor leadership that they had to endure. There was no lack of courage, either, in Indochina or Algeria - it took 3 years for an officer class to pass out of St. Cyr, the Viet Minh killed that class in 2 years.

Was your failure to mention the Fall of France in 1940 and the Vichey Goverment a concious decision or did it just slip your mind? :D

Originally Posted by Gustinkovski

Originally Posted by BiscuitsAB

Originally Posted by Fallschirmjager

Originally Posted by FourZeroCharlie

Originally Posted by Fallschirmjager

Fuck me he looks young for his age. Joined at 20 in 1987 which makes him 43.

Think you'll find that the pic was done in Bos in 1995: I seem to remember that there was a big splash about those 2 then.

That makes sense. I was going to write to him and ask him his secret of eternal youth!

I know that one. the answer is not going out on the piss with your lot it fucking ages you by decades.

As does being married, they'll suck the life out of you.

The French need foreigners otherwise they wouldn't have anybody to give Medals to.

What's the most used French phrase ?

'Fellate mich'?

Originally Posted by Fallschirmjager

I wondered why I look like Victor Meldrew at 40!

Originally Posted by Fallschirmjager

. . . All in their red suits. They couldn't take their eyes off me!

C'mon gorgeous, you cant have it both ways.

'Was your failure to mention the Fall of France in 1940 and the Vichey Goverment a concious decision or did it just slip your mind?'

No, it was deliberate - much has been written (particularly on this website) about the abject collapse of the French Army in 1940. The French Army was larger than the Wehrmacht, had more (and arguably better) tanks yet failed dismally when called into battle. Worse, they have sought ever since to blame the BEF for the debacle. It has been argued that the Blitzkrieg could have been halted at the Battle of Arras had the French bothered to turn up to form the southern point of the pincer - the German attack had no flank guard and was dangerously exposed.

I have no axe to grind - I am British Army through and through and would be the first to denigrate the poor performance of the French in 1940. I am, however, married to a French lady whose father, an infantry captain fought in the later stages of World War 2 and was killed in Algeria, so I have a foot in both camps.

Originally Posted by Fat_Cav

Originally Posted by Fallschirmjager

I wondered why I look like Victor Meldrew at 40!

Originally Posted by Fallschirmjager

. . . All in their red suits. They couldn't take their eyes off me!

C'mon gorgeous, you cant have it both ways.

'Horrified fascination' on their part? :D (whispering) 'My God, Hortense, look at that growth!'

Originally Posted by fantassin

In that sense, OK, yes, it's exclusive. But compared to the VC or GC were figure run in the tens and then not many of them, it's very very easy to get. Any FRA officer who does not a major fcuk up in his career will end up with the LH around the 30 years of service mark.

Ditto OBE/MBE to be fair. The French don't have the variety of different medals and orders to represent "tiered" gallantry. So the emblem on the medal/riband is quite important in understanding exactly what you are looking at - as is the rank/medal combo too. As someone said above, an Adjutant Chef (crudely equivalent to a WO) with a Legion is like a WO with an MBE, i.e. quite distinguished.

Point of information - keep it close to your heart for those gorgeous moments when Aussies start gripping about Mel Gibson and his brave colleagues being betrayed by croquet playing tea-swilling Etonian generals -
British casualties at Jolly-polly were 21k killed, 52k wounded, French 10k killed and 17k wounded while the Aussiess lost 8.7 killed, 19k wounded. They lost more troops on the Somme than in Gallipolli. There are 6000 AIF names on the Menin Gate.

Nothing like knowledge to fcuk up a perfectly good politically structured and prejudice-laden debate is there?

Originally Posted by Cuddles

Point of information - keep it close to your heart for those gorgeous moments when Aussies start gripping about Mel Gibson and his brave colleagues being betrayed by croquet playing tea-swilling Etonian generals -
British casualties at Jolly-polly were 21k killed, 52k wounded, French 10k killed and 17k wounded while the Aussiess lost 8.7 killed, 19k wounded. They lost more troops on the Somme than in Gallipolli. There are 6000 AIF names on the Menin Gate.

Nothing like knowledge to fcuk up a perfectly good politically structured and prejudice-laden debate is there?

Now now, some of know BS when we see it; Gundulph's post on the previous page was illuminating (I didn't know that bit about Rupert Murdoch) I gather that the 'charge' depicted was based on the 10th Light Horse, annihilated in 15 minutes, so the story went.

Originally Posted by auscam

Originally Posted by Fat_Cav

Originally Posted by Fallschirmjager

I wondered why I look like Victor Meldrew at 40!

Originally Posted by Fallschirmjager

. . . All in their red suits. They couldn't take their eyes off me!

C'mon gorgeous, you cant have it both ways.

'Horrified fascination' on their part? :D (whispering) 'My God, Hortense, look at that growth!'

Yes. Chicks are usually fascinated when I lob my cock out. It wouldn't look out of place on a giant.

Originally Posted by Fallschirmjager

Originally Posted by auscam

Originally Posted by Fat_Cav

Originally Posted by Fallschirmjager

I wondered why I look like Victor Meldrew at 40!

Originally Posted by Fallschirmjager

. . . All in their red suits. They couldn't take their eyes off me!

C'mon gorgeous, you cant have it both ways.

'Horrified fascination' on their part? :D (whispering) 'My God, Hortense, look at that growth!'

Yes. Chicks are usually fascinated when I lob my cock out. It wouldn't look out of place on a giant.

a giant what?