"Christophe Chazot" wrote in message
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"John Mullen" a écrit dans le message news:
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"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message
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(snip)


The French were involved rather heavily in WW1 you'll find

For sure, but not (with all respect) in the second. They were invaded,
defeated, surrendered, collaborated or resisted according to taste, and
then
liberated themselves with the help of a third of a million US and UK
troops.
For most of the war, most of the time, most of them weren't involved.

Figures dont't really agree, you know. France sent 8,410,000 soldiers to
the
front. Out of them, 1,357,800 were killed and 3,595,000 wounded. The only
country that suffered higher losses in this war was Russia.

For WW2? Seems awfully high and the figures I have certainly don't agree. On
Googling, I keep getting

France military 250,000 civilian 350,000 total 600,000

which sounds more reasonable, although still obviously a lot. After summer
1940 very few French were 'at the front', although I know about the Free
French movement and the heroism of the Resistance etc.

France only learned from WW1 that war was to be avoided (perfectly sensible)
and that a defensive strategy would deter Germany (turned out not to be true
as we know). Many in Britain made the same mistakes, but you were unlucky
enough to be before us in the firing line.

John