Memorial to Great Britain | 24 comments (24 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Memorial to Great Britain (4.00 / 2)

Helen:

However, WW2 burns brightly in English minds. The first war on film, the first mass reported war. The last justified war. The last justifiable victory, Battle of Britain, el Alamein but not Market Garden, not Norway, not Singapore, not Crete. Just the ones we make films about.

I want a Dunkirk movie about the French soldiers holding the Germans off just long enough for the British to evacuate.
— Thomas Lecaque (@tlecaque) June 4, 2021

Not gonna happen anytime soon.

by Bernard (bernard) on Sun Jun 6th, 2021 at 05:47:35 PM EST

Re: Memorial to Great Britain (4.00 / 3)

Ha fucking ha !!

68,000 British troops didn't make it back to the UK, 3,500 died, whilst over 100,000 French troops were evacuated.

Most of those 100,000 were packed onto French ships, sailed back to Brest just in time to surrender.

I know the French have concocted a mythology that the British abandoned them. However, when the Germans reached the coast after they crossed the Meuse at Sedan, the British expeditionary force was left isolated in Belgium and N France. By that point the shambolic French defences were already collapsing and the French govt had cut and run from Paris. There was no plan, no French co-ordination, no French airforce cover.

God alone knows there's enough blame to hang on the British army for fuckups elsewhere in the war, but the collapse of France isn't one of them.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Sun Jun 6th, 2021 at 07:23:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Singapore (none / 1)

A study in British colonial arrogance.
They KNEW a heavy Japanese squadron was coming, but "Hey there are only Japanese, couldn't REALLY threaten the British Navy. Of course, Singapore can never fall, only an idiot would make evacuation plans ..."

by StillInTheWilderness on Sun Jun 13th, 2021 at 12:45:26 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Singapore (none / 1)

Yes, I did mention singapore as having been a disaster.

However, being fair, it really was down to the Army Commander, Arthur Percival, who had been refusing the pleas of his staff to build defences against a land invasion since the end of 1938. His response had been that it would "demoralize the civilians".

A comprehensive plan had been created by the Royal Engineers, invovling a range of defences and airfields for defence in depth. By the time Percival could be persuaded it was needed, it was al ready far too late.

It wasn't helped by the sinking of the Royal Navy capital ships based in Singapore, HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse, in a foolhardy adventure of no strategic use whatsoever.

But this loss was Percival's and Percival's alone. One man. One bloody fool. Even Churchill was astonished that there were no land defences.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Tue Jun 22nd, 2021 at 12:33:58 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Memorial to Great Britain (4.00 / 4)

To be fair, the amount of movie footage should be proportional to the number of people who died. That means there would be a LOT of movies about Russia and China, some about Germany and Japan, a few about the UK, and hardly any about the US of A.

by asdf on Mon Jun 7th, 2021 at 02:03:24 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Memorial to Great Britain | 24 comments (24 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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