My personal favourite ~ Nothing says remembrance like pinning a poppy on the cookie monster -
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It was six weeks, not three days. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_France#BattleQuote:
Originally Posted by mark12345
To put it simplistically, the French thought that the Maginot line was impregnable, and the Ardennes were impassable. The Germans passed through the Ardennes, cut off the Maginot line, and completely crippled the French ability to wage conventional war. After occupation, the near-insane heroism of the French resistance played a large part in the eventual German defeat.
The Dutch were not expecting to be invaded, and were completely outclassed in the air. The Germans bombed Rotterdam to the ground and threatened to do the same to the rest of the Netherlands unless they capitulated.Quote:
Holland, if I recall, put up no resistence. Italy went to the other side and Spain - did they even join the Allied forces? The Norwegian resistence deserves special mention for their obstruction of Germany's bid to bulild the atomic bomb but essentially it was left to the British and Americans to defend Europe.
Spain and Portugal were themselves fascist dictatorships. Perhaps the only reason Spain didn't join the Axis was the fact that it was still largely devastated from the Spanish Civil War, which only finished 5 months before Germany invaded Poland.
Yugoslavia collapsed after the German invasion, but the Partisans, with logistical and air support from the USSR and Western Allies kept fighting, and by the end of the war had largely driven the Axis forces out.
Greece resisted till the last, successfully repelling an Italian invasion before being overrun by the Germans.
There is no evidence of Ireland refuelling U-boats, and in fact we allowed Allied aircraft to overfly Ireland, using the Donegal corridor, in order to search for U-boats.
The whole "Britain stood alone, so you should be grateful" shtick, well, while their resistance was no doubt admirable, if it wasn't for an accident of geography in the form of the Channel, they would probably have been steamrollered by the Germans in just as short a time.
I could be wrong on this, but it wasn't it Churchill being stubborn the only reason they didn't surrender?
As far as I know that's just a popular misconception. Labour's official position was against appeasement from about 1937 onwards. There were certainly voices in favour of surrender, but Churchill was just a particularly strong voice among many in favour of fighting on.Quote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
Indeed, and that's the very reason why it's contentious for some/many. There's a marked difference between those two world changing events and the others; not least conscription.Quote:
Originally Posted by peadar1987
...and that great bunch of lads in Black & Tan uniform.Quote:
Originally Posted by peadar1987
I can't disagree with anything you have said here Peader. You are very well versed on the history of WWII. As a teenager I was told that story about the refuelling of the U Boats on the west coast of Ireland. I would imagine there was a modicum of truth to it as there was still very strong anti-British feeling throughout Ireland at the time. You are probably correct about the Channel providing a geographical buffer which saved Britain - in fact I think they were out of airplanes to defend the country at the very end, were they not? And the Germans decided to turn their attentions elsewhere. But none of the above changes the fact that the British saved our bacon in WWII by default.Quote:
Originally Posted by peadar1987
As did the Russians... But you won't catch me saying anything nice about that Stalin fella :cool:Quote:
Originally Posted by mark12345
Before the brits give themselves too much credit for being the good guys during ww2. They should have a good read of this firstQuote:
Originally Posted by peadar1987
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percentages_agreement
The Russians were the deciding factor in Germany’s ultimate defeat in WW2. You don’t hear that too much in western media funnily enoughQuote:
Originally Posted by peadar1987
Was it something like 20 million Russians that died ? They did the vast majority of fighting dying etc against the Germans .
I think it's a bit too simple to give any one nation the "deciding role". If it wasn't for the Russians bleeding them dry in the east, the Germans could well have conquered Britain. If it wasn't for the Greeks holding out for so long, the Germans might have captured Moscow before the Russian winter hit. If it wasn't for the Americans, the Western Allies probably would never have been able to invade France in '44. If it wasn't for the Brits, there would have been nowhere to launch the bombing raids which crippled Germany's industry. Take out any one of those (except possibly the Greeks) and the war could have gone very differently.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fixer82
I cant say this is our proudest moment !
https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soc...park-1.3678273
Meh. I don't think it's fair to judge it from today's perspective. Same thing happened quite regularly at the 1936 Olympics. I think the England football team did it too
The game was in Dublin, not berlin. We should have told them to go **** themselves even without hindsightQuote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
Yeah, the England team did it ahead of a game in Berlin
there is a picture floating around of Queen Lizzie (as a child) and her family giving the same salute. hardly anything to get worked up about.Quote:
Originally Posted by Diggs246
Presumably tell the all Blacks to go ****** themselves when they try that Haka thing on Saturday :oQuote:
Originally Posted by Diggs246
yep, they shouldnt be alowed do itQuote:
Originally Posted by marinobohs
he knows that Britain is surrounded by water and dependent on sea trade - apparently more than the UK Brexit Minister knew up until recently.Must be hard for you to accept citizens have a right to comment on something that will effect the rest of their lives, haven't they some cake to eat ?Quote:
Originally Posted by gastric
bet your parties are a real blast ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Diggs246