Quote:
Originally Posted by Grozibou
German people insist on saying "bleck, beck, treck" etc. for "black, back, track", and many other horrible things ...
... infer that the ... UK was NOT beaten (that's what they're told at school in the UK, I assume - now I'm guessing too) ... "only the French were beaten". But what army was so thoroughly beaten that it fled over the sea in a hurry? Not the French army ...
I think I can understand the Brits pretty well ... since 1940 they have been told and taught, and this is going on still today, that they always were wonderful (at least from 1066 through 2008) and their armed forces never were beaten, which is optimistic to say the least.
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First point: the English upper classes of the 1930s and '40s also said "bleck, beck, treck" etc. for "black, back, track." This may readily be confirmed from old movies and newsreels and is widely regarded as absurd by the somewhat less deferential British of today. I trust that this adds something to your "understanding" of the British although I infer from the unremitting anger of your posts that you "understand" them (I'm English myself) through the distorting lens of some cherished personal resentment.
I know no one who doesn't believe British forces in France were beaten. But Britain continued as an active belligerent when the French Republic could not and I would suggest that this was to the long term benefit of both nations.
I don't need to assume: I actually went to school in England (from 1957–1969) and no one taught me anything about 1940. I was told a lot about the Romans in Britain (55 BC–410 AD) though. My generation picked up their first knowledge of the war from the adults around them, all of whom had lived through it, and from the bomb damage that was part of our everyday surroundings.
I have learned since that Britain in 1940 had an integrated air defence system that no other country in the world had then come close to matching and that this was a critical factor in frustrating German war aims. That system was designed for the air defence of an island, the inhabitants having noticed, several thousand years before you mentioned it, that they were surrounded by water.
Your wish to see proper recognition for the efforts of the Armée de l' Air is undestandable. Your posts do appear to confirm that France had not managed by May 1940 to equip itself with a really substantial force of its best fighter, nor the integrated command, radar and reporting networks that might have realised their full potential in air defence. An effective force for the tactical support of French armies in the field is of course another matter, albeit one of comparable importance for a nation sharing a land border with a potentially hostile power, I should imagine
P.S. You are more than a little out of touch with what is "going on still today" in the teaching of British history.