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RE: Do the French Really exist?

Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 12:37 pm
by Roman Jr.
ORIGINAL: SurrenderMonkey

Nice sig, Roman. [:)]
Thanks, your sig is pretty good too. If you're a Burma Road fanboy, you may be interested in the Burma Road footage present in Capra's 1944 documentary "Battle of China" which can be seen online:

http://www.archive.org/details/BattleOfChina

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RE: Do the French Really exist?

Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 12:47 pm
by Roman Jr.
ORIGINAL: Sarge
WWII was force upond a lot of pepole, that did not mean they had the choice to sit on their hands as the worlds Fate was being decided .
That same line of reasoning was used on my father by one of his friends in an effort to get him to join the Ukrainian SS in order to fight against Stalin. That argument did not fly with my father.

________________________

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
-----Theodore Roosevelt

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RE: Do the French Really exist?

Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 12:55 pm
by AmiralLaurent
In 1944, when France was liberated and, after De Gaulle manage to avoid an american administration of France, French government has much political power. But if French army was now fully involved in allied operations against germany in Europe, there were still some political conflicts between USA and France. Just remember that for US government the only official representative of France was Vichy and Free French troops/government only a bunch of adventurers until end of 43…
FDR had clearly mentioned his willing to free colonized countries, and like our british friends, at this time, such speech was not very easy to hear.
Thus, when victory seems obvious against axis forces, including Jaqpan, with allied troops closing to indo china borders, French government asked for an uprising of our troops still based in IndoChina to free the area with only French power., thus to avoid any potential pressure of US government about status of IndoChina after the war.
But information/beliefs about japan army status was wrong, and instead of a unorganized, starving, demoralized, they fight fierce fighting troops. In a couple of weeks, French troops have been overwhelmed and crushed, leaving a big empty space for implementation of viet minh guerrilla, which was by the way supported and supplied by US…

Jean Bart, you are wrong about the March 1945 attack. It was launched by the Japanese and took a good part of the French Army by surprise. Most French units were destroyed in the first two days, some escaped to China after a long jungle trekking but most were eventually destroyed in the jungle (the weird part being that US-supported Vietminh then cooperated with French units against Japan). What Kereguelen said about the gouverneur is true, he was arrested with most of the high commanders at a diner, either at his place or in a Japanese HQ, but almost all French units resisted and thousands of French, Indochinese and Japanese were killed between the 9 and 11 March.

RE: Do the French Really exist?

Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2006 1:00 pm
by Fishbed
Most French units were destroyed in the first two days, some escaped to China after a long jungle trekking but most were eventually destroyed in the jungle
Yes, feu my grand-father was part of the column
But feu my grand-uncle didn't make it... [:(] I am named after him...