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Old 25th March 2005, 22:47
Christer Bergström Christer Bergström is offline
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Re: Fighter pilots chicken?

Quote:
What is though, is the FACT that the ONLY French Air Unit to evacuate to the UK from Europe was one of the Polish manned Units within the French AF.
Those maned by Frenchmen, What became of those Units ?
They joined the enemy and turned on their one time allies .
Who were Traitors ?


I suggest that everyone calms down a bit.

Please remember that France actually surrendered and made peace with Germany. It actually was a violation of both international laws and French laws for a Frenchman to take up arms against Germany following the French surrender. While I think that those Frenchmen who defied the formal laws and took up arms against Nazi Germany did something good, I can understand why not everyone did so. In any case, we should be careful before we call a whole nation "traitors". France didn't "turn on their one time allies". France was defeated and had to surrender - although it definitely was against her will. (Just like it is against any country's will to surrender to the enemy; but in wars one country often is left with no other choice.) But France bravely stood up against all efforts to pull it into the Axis camp. Actually, the country among the two in question which turned against its one time allied was the UK when it attacked the French fleet at Mers el Kébir. Again, I refrain from any moral judgement in that case; all I can do is note the fact that the British turned on their one time allies.

It was different with the Poles. Poland never surrendered to Germany, so it would have been treason if the Poles had followed the example of the French airmen in 1940.
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Christer Bergström

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