School= Here's some stuff that will be used two times in your life! Nothing interesting really, just stuff you already know. We are just adding facts! ( My school at least )
BLANKSCANNER yep. in my history classes we learned about the Australian gold rush, Ned Kelly and Galipoli (nvm the rest of WW1) thats it. i dont think my school ever touched on WW2 or the boar war or the punic wars or the crusades or any of the extremely important conflicts that defined the course of history. because a dime-a-dozen thied and murderer is sooo much more important apparently
slendy9600 You think Ned Kelly is just a murderer. You school must suck like my school we got teached the theory of why string was made and the guy who made sneakers over WW1 WW2 anything America-history(I live In Maine)local Maine history Europe British Roman Also in math half of the month was doing the same with "different strategies"
I've always viewed the Free French sabotage actions as a sacrifice by the French people. These were French roads, French railways, French industry complexes that had been claimed by the Nazis, and they destroyed those things anyway, because in the end, better to have to rebuild than let the fascists use it unopposed.
And the killed French people who had the AUDACITY to work with an invading force who would kill them if they didn't work for them. So they were milling their own countrymen for rubbish reasons
+ Jon Baxter It bears mentioning that some French were indeed collaborators, working with the Nazis because they approved of their system and end goals. I wouldn't be surprised if the Free French and other resistance targeted them first. While I also don't doubt that some French citizens who had no other choice but to work with the Nazis were also killed, I also sincerely doubt that was the Free French SOP.
You woouldn't be surprised ? Well let me tell you than hours after the liberation of French regions the resistants had taken the use to go out in armed groups, takeover the important places inside of their cities and kill or "punish" the ones supposed to have colaborated i nextreme ways.
Most French people just tried to keep low and make the best of a bad situation. It's true the resistance was not as widespread as the myth claims, but it's difficult to get hard solid data on the matter due to the clandestine nature of resistance work. Post-war, French people would naturally try to deny any collaboration they might have done and embellish or fabricate any resistance work. That being said the resistance effort was critical to the war success.
I will give the Vichy French credit to one thing, though: They promised the British the Germans would never get their navy. At the start of WWII, the French Navy was the 4th largest in the world. Aside from the handful of ships De Gaulle managed to sway, most of the fleet remained locked in Toulon. But on 27 November 1942, as German troops marched into the port, the order was given, and the French Navy at large ceased to exist. 3 battleships, 7 cruisers, 15 destroyers, 12 submarines, 6 sloops, 9 patrol boat, 19 auxilary ships, a school ship, 28 tugboats and 4 cranes, all burned and sank to the bottom of the harbor. German forces managed to take 3 destroyers and 4 submarines, as well as a handful of smaller boats, but the damage was done. A few French submarines managed to make it out of the port and align with the Free French as well. What makes this even more potent is that the British didn't believe the French when they said this. On 3 July 1940, in response to the armistance, a British task force including HMS Hood attacked the French port of Mers-el-Kebir in Algeria, killing nearly 1300 French sailors and disabling their fleet. This left a sour note in French-British relations, and two years later, Admiral Darlan sent a letter to Winston Churchill, in which he said this: "Prime Minister you said to me 'I hope you will never surrender the fleet'. I replied, 'There is no question of doing so'. It seems to me you did not believe my word. The destruction of the fleet at Toulon has just proved that I was right."
BishopCorp the forces at Mers El Kabir had refused negotiation with the British and had been given more than they were due in an attempt to get them to go into impounds in a neutral state. Mers El Kabir was the result of them not doing so and the British following through on their threats.
The agent sent by gaulles was called Jean Moulin, he is a hero who allowed the coordination of the French resistance movements and who died tortured in Lyon by the Nazi Klaus Barbi, who was nicknamed "the butcher of Lyon". He was tortured to death without revealing any information to the Nazis, and he is buried in the Pantheon in Paris
By the way, Klaus Barbi was arrested only in the late 1980s because he was hidden for 40 years by the CIA, especially in Bolivia where he advised the dictatorship of the time on methods of torture. We knew it was hidden there but the United States refused to give it to us because "they could not trust a country invaded by communists".
hagamapama Yeah the polish resistance that got way more done than the overblown french guys, ecspecially since the polish couldn't sit around on their arses waiting for someone to save them
When you talk about the French battle cry ("We surrender") consider this. Those British and American solders captured by the Germans had the protection of the Geneva Conventions. Though they suffered as POW's they did not face summery execution, unlike the French, who did face execution if captured. These were incredibly brave people who I think diverse respect.
We like to make jokes about the French, but they are, truthfully, a strong spirited people. Even when their government failed them, they continued the fight against the Axis, and proved that, even at its weakest, France was still a formidable adversary.
I really liked this episode. From all I remembered from my WW2 lessons, France just "turned tail and acquiesced", so getting the view of their resistance is uplifting.
It's crazy that you learn the history like that in America. That explains all the surrender monkey jokes lol. In France most people identify very strongly with the Resistance and the revolution, and we regard Vichy as a regime of traitors.
The french perspective of WWII is one that i find the most interesting, all of those covert operations to try to save their country are a great story to hear.
the problem boss is that, they didn't just collaborate, Vichy was overzealous in its collaboration, A lot of the jewish population that was deported from the south were not deported because the german asked for them. Vichy offered them by itself. People as individual generally have no choice but to comply and try to survive, but the Governement was shit. Also to note, both the resistance and the collabo were actually a very small fraction of the population, most people were what we call Attentiste, wich is to say ; they waited for it to end and tried to survive. (Also trust a frenchie , in our border and classroom, the shame of colaboration is not hidden at all, we all learn about it. heck i mean we have so much class on the two WW that it would be surprising if we didnt)
ce que tu dois retenir aussi c'est l'aspect politique de tout cela, pétain loin d'être un ange est pourtant ridiculement vilifié, la collaboration lourdement exagéré parfois pour des raisons idéologiques, ATTENTION je ne defends pas pétain ici je dis tout simplement que ceux qui écrivent l'histoire sur lui la plupart sont peu crédibles. ont lui accuse de racisme mais l'un de ses meilleurs amis était noir il défendait souvent des juifs(individus) et contrairement au mythe il n'a rien participé dans le plan de défense ou même au gouvernement d'avant guerre. oui il fait de lui même le statut des juifs mais a refusé jusqu'au bout de livrer des juifs français aux allemands. encore une fois je ne lui defends pas.
as well as the french resistance's contribution we should also recognise how much the free french army did right up until the end of the war, especially in north africa, the battle of bir hakeim for example where a tiny number of free french held off rommel's advance and delayed him enough for the british to regroup before El Alamein. Free french soldiers fought in most theatres of ww2, North africa, Italy, France, right up into the push into germany. Im not saying they single handedly turned the course of the war or anything but you have to acknowledge the contribution so many men who fought and died
Most Forgotten about allies: -Free France -Poland -Greece -Inda -New Zealand -Denmark -Chech I think it is a shame we don't recognise them more (i know there are many others too), and that we only seem to look at the US and USSR. Thanks EH for shedding so light onto this underated subject :)
Les sanglots longs des violons de l'automne blessent mon cœur d'une langueur monotone. Tout suffocant et blême, quand sonne l'heure, je me souviens des jours anciens et je pleure.
Among the 7000 soldiers who stayed with de Gaulle, there was my great rear grandfather from Dunkirk, he was mortally wounded and therefore had to stay in England... When the message passed he continued the fight.
Steven Choza And the German Army actually experimented with (I couldn't make this up, even if I tried) so-called "Baguettewerfern" or Baguette Launchers/Throwers, basec on the *Nebelwerfer 40* design. These were supposed to be basically grenade launchers either used as field guns or mounted on top of vehicles, such as halftracks, and launch freshly-baked baguette at french troops. The scent was intended to distract french soldiers and make advancement easier. The experiment, and the launchers, proved to be effective, but the german engineers behind the concept had no idea how to get their hands on fresh baguette, a problem soldiers would face on the battlefield where freshly baked products of any kind would be pretty hard to come by. It never found actual use, though.
Have you heard of Virginia Hall? She was a legendary agent sent by England and then America to organize, equip, and train Resistance groups. She stayed in France longer than almost any other agent, organized mass breakouts, and got information to the Allies while being a woman and an amputee.
You see the distant flames, they bellow in the night You fight in all our names, for what we know is right And when you all get shot, and cannot carry on Though you die, La Resistance lives on
You guys have made me cry, I'm french and this is a great gift, There have been so many humiliation whith the surrender, and so many sacrifice done by the Free French Forces.
In my opinion, the members of the French Resistance were the most incredible people im the entire war.... The story of the sheer might of the people’s will, mixed with outside aid and a whole lot of hope, taking on one of the most horrible armies the world has ever seen is... Frankly insane. These people risked capture, execution, and everything they had just to fight... It’s truly an inspiration to look at...
Thank you so much for talking about the French war effort! i've always wondered why they got to have so much say after the war when they got taken over like so many other countries. I had no idea what they really did to help out, and it's really cool of you guys to talk about something most schools skip talking about all together
You're looking at the issue from the wrong end. Regardless of what France/French did during the war, after it what mattered was the future, not the past. As a powerful industrialized nation, it couldn't be ignored, especially in the new context of the struggle against communism. And specifically for the UK, it was a natural ally. Despite all the British closeness with the USA, France had much more common interests with the UK, being an European country and a colonial power. So, even lacking any redeeming quality wrt WWII, it would probably have been treated the same after it.
its funny that when we think of WW2 its just Russia, the UK, and the USA vs germany and japan but we never recognize the countries who were taken over norway denmark poland and even greece all taken quickly but not without a fight
+Francisco Hernandez really 80percent soviets stalingrad case blue kursk bagration budapest massacre vienna fall berlin conquer and facist finland take down 5percent american d day op torch sicily invasion 10 percent british d day battle of britain op torch and invasion of berlin 2 percent greece made germany lose time for barbarrosa and cause the soviet to defeat them 1 percet brazil logistic help in africa bombing 85 percent of germany fortification in italy and causing 60k casualties on the german and allowing americans to atack rhineland rest poland and yugoslavia resistance
But in it's few days of combat the Dutch airforce did manage to take down a substantial part of the Luftwaffe, severely decreasing it's effectiveness during the Battle for Britain. 'They fought valiantly, but the Fokker D.XXIs and G.Is of the defenders were quickly wiped out by the sheer numbers of the attackers. While ultimately successful, the invasion proved disastrous for German transport aircraft, as over 200 Ju 52s were destroyed during the operation. The loss of almost half their transport fleet would hinder the German war effort for years.' We don't have many moments of importance during WW2, but that's quite a valid accomplishment i.m.o.
de Gaulle fascinates me more the more I learn about him. I'm not sure i agree when you call him arrogant though. Passionate, sometimes to a fault, is more the impression I have. With the possible exception of Helmut Kohl, who pushed through German unification almost by sheer force of will alone, I would say de Gaulle is possibly the most influencial politician in post-WW II Europe.
Sacha Cottinet Might be true, considering he was out of power and writing his memoirs. However to be fair he established the fifth republic in '58, so it wouldn't exactly be accurate to claim his influence was limited to the war.
You might be verry well true, but as much as his charisma might be likable, there's no question of his arrogance really. I mean, y'need to only look at his Liberation speech to see that he had the balls to snub the allies even as they had pushed trough france and liberated paris. Here's an excerpt from his liberation speech: "Paris broken! Paris martyred! But Paris liberated! Liberated by itself, liberated by its people with the help of the French armies, with the support and the help of all France, of the France that fights, of the only France, of the real France, of the eternal France!" He goes on to mention the allies only once troughout this entire speech, as "supporting" france, instead of throwing them a bone and calling them the liberators that they where. That line of "with the help of the French armies" gets me every time, and there's many quotable parts of him blustering and playing up france's involvement in the war and its liberation
This has been one of my favorite Extra History series, and I think it's because of the unusual structure. If you guys can pick out more stories to address- not in the linear progression from beginning of the story to its end (roughly speaking, as very few things ever truly begin or end), but from a variety of perspectives on the same event- like you've done with D-Day, that would be really, really cool.
I’m sure everyone would love for more ww2 videos like this, like on the Battle of Britain, Evacuation, and more resistance movements (like in the Netherlands).
thats seriously impressive. theres a lot of things I feel I could do with enough experience but reorganize a broken country in an era with poor communication is something I could never do.
I hope one day they will do the Norwegian Resistance. They did just about the same as the French, but rarely gets the recognition that they deserve. Alt for Norge!
As well as Operation Georgette (scaled down from operation George), operation Blücher-York, operation Gneisau, and finally Friedensturm. It was also known as the Ludendorff offensive, named after the military high commander and de facto military ruler of Germany.
Yesterday an old resistant named Jacques Ollier passed away. He fought on the plateau du Vercors where 4000 maquisard held a whole german infantry division for several days (eventually they used paragliders to take the place). He was a good man, always with a smile and a good word, also, a force of nature. He's back with the one he always loved now. Requiescat in pace.
awesome video. Visited London last week and got to learn about Churchill from inside his bunker. Visiting France this week and making many transfers on the Charles de Gaulle underground.
You forgot to mention the scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon, where the Vichy soldiers destroyed the French navy to stop the Germans from being able to use their ships.
Okay. I'm seriously impressed. You got the _exact_ Canadian flag of the era, with three green maple leaves _and_ both the French MAS 36 rifle and MAS 38 sub-machine gun. That's pretty good detail for still-action cartoon. (And, thanks for the Garbo plug. That was great.)
As a person who normally founds stories about the war efforts of the United States, England, Soviet Union and similars, finding stories about the French Resistance is refreshing for myself.
2:44 I am very happy you included a MAS-38 Submachine Gun in the "Requesting Supplies" graphic. One of my favorite guns ♥ Underpowered and Outdated even BEFORE Germany took over, it still saw good use in resistance hands! Vive la Résistance!
2:29 and I bet the french workers tasked with repairing it again were *really* enthusiastic and efficient at fixing it. No tools going missing or breaking or strange but very plausible accidents that keep delayed work or anything like that ;D
I love how nobody even talks about the danish resistance that most likely fought the fiercest (besides maybe Poland and the USSR). A small tiny country like them nearly rose in open revolt. After just 1 year because of how Germany stood as the exact polar opposite of the kind and welcoming ideas that Denmark stood for. Then when the Germans came after the Jews they managed to rescue around 9000 Jews out of there 9,500-10,000 Jewish population. What makes it special is that it is such a small thing compared to Germany and yet it basically threw them out even after hundreds where executed or sent to camps every week for mass demonstrations and worker strikes.
The grandfather of my mother was part of the Résistance in France. Him and his comrades blew up railroads and trains. He was also involved with saving Jews, including several children, from the Facists pigs (let's face it, all those that bought anti-judaism crap were pigs and weak for blindly following orders). He also put his family in danger by doing this, because he was a public figure in their home town. My great-grandmother would also take one of my great aunts to softened up German soldiers to move past the roadblocks and rationing. These guys missed their families and liked to see a cute little girl speak their language. All of this was extremely brave. After the war, he was awarded the Légion d'Honneur. Still didn't make his PTSD any better. He would hardly ever speak of these days. That's why I find it admirable to be willing to good when the people in charge make threats to you and your loved ones. It only reinforced my belief that evil, cruelty and bullies will never win as long as one person is willing to stand up and act.
My great grandfather was not a member of the resistance, but of the free French in North Africa. He fought for France, only for Americans eighty years later to make fun of his country and its fightz
has anyone here ever seen the show from the 80s named "Allo Allo"? no I did not misspelled that. It is a show about the French resistance in a smal frensh town. everything they brought up here is what happend in that show. the sabotage, the radio code words, the english agents comming in to helpe. all of it is in the show. Maby I should mantion that it was a comedy. I know it is sopose to be a parody of a drama also about the French Resistance but I have never seen that show.
eventyraren i saw someone else make a reference to it in the comments. on australian tv theres an ad that plays from time to time advertising a box set of the series. it seemed to center around a guy who was forced to play both sides for his own safety since nazis and resistance members would both frequent his café
My great grandfather was a member of the resistance and a WW1 veteran. He never actually attacked nazi soldiers but he did feed information on their whereabouts to the british intelligence and also heped in the destruction of some railways.
Here you spoke only about the FFI ( FORCE FRANÇAISE DE L'INTÉRIEUR) but there is also the FFL ( force française libre) which kept fighting on the battle front
The notion that the French resistance was one, single, well organized is very misleading. The French resistance was not one great guerrilla force but rather many, many small organizations. Practically every town had its own resistance (to which the British coined the term "Alphabet war" from all of the acronyms). With so many groups the French resistance looked less like the Polish Underground and more like the Mujaheddin; where it was one unifying idea but was fought by many different groups. Another connection to the Mujaheddin was the fact that the FR fought each other as much, if not more that the German occupiers. Like stated in the video, if the Germans ever had their stuff trashed there would be consequences. The Germans massacred towns of people far more often than expressed in this video. Often a group of fighters would find themselves with a choice: sabotage up German equipment/steal guns/disrupt German mobility and they may succeed in their goals, but have half the town massacred, have everyone hate you, and see everything repaired in a short time, OR, just steal some other groups equipment in the hopes to fight the Germans one on one some day. This combined with the many ideologies that each group had (also stated in the video) lead to so much fighting that there was a serious risk of a French civil war after the War, leading to the British to stop sending supplies. One thing I will give the FR is that they did seriously fuck up German transportation on D-Day, leading to less for the Allies to deal with.
Urban So who is to blame for the lack of equipement ? Aint that the british ? Their distrust caused infighting and the largely useless light weapons they supplied prevented any confrontation against armoured or entrenched position .
And how exactly would you have armed a population under the occupation of the most savage army in modern history effectively and without getting the whole population killed? How would you have ensured that those weapons are not just getting into German hands? How would you ensure that the communists or different factions that you armed wouldn't just kill your men after they saw themselves liberated? There are logistical considerations far beyond trust. And besides all that, the French just weren't trustworthy.
For those curious about the liberation of Paris, and just how close it came to ending in tragedy, I must recommend the book "Is Paris Burning?" It's spectacular, written with information gathered, more often than not, directly from those involved. Good pictures as well.
People claim the French to be cowardly and weak after losing one battle yet fail to notice the failures of other nations, both at the same time and not. Denmark hardly fired a shot in it's defense yet no one calls them cowards.
Denmark had nothing, it is only natural, but France had one of if no not the best land Army at the time, it was strong and powerful. Not a fair comparison
I'm not blaming the Danes, if anything they should be exceptionally proud that they got pretty much all of their Jewish citizens to safety in time. But to suggest that the French are cowards or naturally weak does not hold up to scrutiny.
I would not compare with Denmark too. I would rather say that, if the French are cowards for the defeat in 1940, so the British are too. People always forget that 1940 is a Franco-British defeat...
I had the amazing pleasure to speak to a woman who was 15 years old in the french resistance. She would send coded messages from random sources to General Patton's HQ to keep the US forces informed. She stated that she started learning English listening to Patton ranting over the radio when she had some free time.
Can you make a video about Czechoslovaks rise and assasination of Heinrich Himmler.Please I really found this topic intresting, beacouse everyone talks only about US,UK and USSR and other big countries but not about the small ones. Thanks keep up the goodwork. Greetings from Czech Republic.
At 6:13 that leader is Jean Moulin, leader and organiser of the Resistance, dead in 1943 under torture by the nazis. A Great Man, clever, cunning and courageous. A Great Man the like of which you dont see anymore. May his soul rest in peace.
Getting a sucker punch on France while they were still in shambles from WWI was pretty crafty but they underestimated the French will to fight. It's not like these are a people who made one of the largest empires in history.
Germany was in debt, not shambles. Germany was not where the western front took place in WWI, France was. The devastation and horror of WWI? That almost exclusively in the west took place in France. This is why the French were so keen on punishing Germany for the war and piling on a massive debt that was impossible to pay off.
I think that French tactics is the key here. I'ts not that much about French being week after WW I, and not that they did not prepare to the war... they did. But they did prepare to fight the previous war again... instead for the next one. French strategy was revolving around Maginot Line, all work and resources pumped into building it has left core of the army much weaker and unprepared. And the Maginot line turned to be just a minor obstacle for Germans.
I am intrested in the Dutch groups. Im Dutch myself and have heard so many stories about dutch groups. Fun fact, Even KIDS would help. They would bring letters, write anti german words, posters etc. They got away most of the time too. Nobody expected a kid to help.
Fun fact about the BBC in the Second World War: When it transmitted messages to resistance movements as part of its Overseas Service, the callsign it used at the beginning of its broadcasts was a drum playing Beethovens 'Fate' motif. (Dun dun dun DAH! Dun dun dun DAH!) This was a double-layered reference to the slogan 'V for Victory', V being the roman numeral for five, the Fate motif being from the Fifth Symphony, and the Morse for V being 'dot dot dot dash'. It was also a symbol of Fate 'knocking on the door' of the Third Reich, which is a beautiful reclamation of music co-opted by a regime of brutal tyrants despite being written by a man who believed in the ideals of the Enlightenment and likely wouldn't have had much nice to say about Hitler if he ever had to meet him.
Guys but what if we just say that the British and the French did nothing while the Americans fought most of the army just on the first day? That'd be absolutely great!
For anyone who is interested in more detail on this part of the story, I recommend reading "Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War 1941-1945" by Leo Marks. He is an English code break/maker who worked for SOE which coordinated the supply and recruitment of agents in occupied Europe. I've also heard good things about Biography on F. F. E. Yeo-Thomas who was an SOE Agent in Occupied France known as the White Rabbit. The biography is "The White Rabbit" by Bruce Marshall.
Wish there was a lies episode for sponsored videos. I know that you do it for narrative, but you give the French resistance FAR more credit than they deserved. There was so much infighting between resistance groups that the British just stopped giving them weapons fairly early on.
Where can I find it? I would expect it to be right near the top, but for some reason I never noticed it. Or did you mean the comments from the audience? Also, I just thought I somehow missed a series about chancellor Bismarck :P
Listen to this Extra History series as a podcast! becausegamesmatter.com/podcast
At 8:55 you drew the Normandy landing in Britney....oof
@@benjiemanlapaz9192 That would be nice
D-Day is such a common topic, but there always seems to be even more to talk about
Romulus Numa exactly
Why can't we see the German perspective? What were they doing during D-Day? Their stories are grossly ignored.
Have memes gone too far? That's actually a really good idea. Though, they have shown what the Germans we're seeing in the British Intelligence Episode
Have memes gone too far? That's what episode 4 is supposed to be about.
Looks like you don't talk about common topics.
You guys actually teach lessons that I NEVER got in school. It's fascinating to know about the French resistance.
School= Here's some stuff that will be used two times in your life! Nothing interesting really, just stuff you already know. We are just adding facts! ( My school at least )
BLANKSCANNER yep. in my history classes we learned about the Australian gold rush, Ned Kelly and Galipoli (nvm the rest of WW1) thats it. i dont think my school ever touched on WW2 or the boar war or the punic wars or the crusades or any of the extremely important conflicts that defined the course of history. because a dime-a-dozen thied and murderer is sooo much more important apparently
William John Goodwater except they are spreadin lies
citation needed diego.
slendy9600 You think Ned Kelly is just a murderer. You school must suck like my school we got teached the theory of why string was made and the guy who made sneakers over WW1 WW2 anything America-history(I live In Maine)local Maine history Europe British Roman Also in math half of the month was doing the same with "different strategies"
I've always viewed the Free French sabotage actions as a sacrifice by the French people. These were French roads, French railways, French industry complexes that had been claimed by the Nazis, and they destroyed those things anyway, because in the end, better to have to rebuild than let the fascists use it unopposed.
And the killed French people who had the AUDACITY to work with an invading force who would kill them if they didn't work for them. So they were milling their own countrymen for rubbish reasons
+ Jon Baxter
It bears mentioning that some French were indeed collaborators, working with the Nazis because they approved of their system and end goals. I wouldn't be surprised if the Free French and other resistance targeted them first. While I also don't doubt that some French citizens who had no other choice but to work with the Nazis were also killed, I also sincerely doubt that was the Free French SOP.
You woouldn't be surprised ? Well let me tell you than hours after the liberation of French regions the resistants had taken the use to go out in armed groups, takeover the important places inside of their cities and kill or "punish" the ones supposed to have colaborated i nextreme ways.
Despite receiving the most publicity their resistance was not as widespread and large as many believe.
Most French people just tried to keep low and make the best of a bad situation. It's true the resistance was not as widespread as the myth claims, but it's difficult to get hard solid data on the matter due to the clandestine nature of resistance work. Post-war, French people would naturally try to deny any collaboration they might have done and embellish or fabricate any resistance work. That being said the resistance effort was critical to the war success.
I will give the Vichy French credit to one thing, though: They promised the British the Germans would never get their navy. At the start of WWII, the French Navy was the 4th largest in the world. Aside from the handful of ships De Gaulle managed to sway, most of the fleet remained locked in Toulon. But on 27 November 1942, as German troops marched into the port, the order was given, and the French Navy at large ceased to exist. 3 battleships, 7 cruisers, 15 destroyers, 12 submarines, 6 sloops, 9 patrol boat, 19 auxilary ships, a school ship, 28 tugboats and 4 cranes, all burned and sank to the bottom of the harbor. German forces managed to take 3 destroyers and 4 submarines, as well as a handful of smaller boats, but the damage was done. A few French submarines managed to make it out of the port and align with the Free French as well.
What makes this even more potent is that the British didn't believe the French when they said this. On 3 July 1940, in response to the armistance, a British task force including HMS Hood attacked the French port of Mers-el-Kebir in Algeria, killing nearly 1300 French sailors and disabling their fleet. This left a sour note in French-British relations, and two years later, Admiral Darlan sent a letter to Winston Churchill, in which he said this:
"Prime Minister you said to me 'I hope you will never surrender the fleet'. I replied, 'There is no question of doing so'. It seems to me you did not believe my word. The destruction of the fleet at Toulon has just proved that I was right."
If Darlan had half a brain he could have avoided Toulon. Very heroic sacrifice, yet very unnecessary.
agusti92 that many ship could help the allies but now its in the bottom of the sea
So rather than set sail and fight, they rolled over and surrendered. I don't think that the British chose badly even with hindsight.
@@davidshea6272 It takes 3 days to get a WW2 era ship to get ready to leave and half an hour to destroy it. Do the maths.
BishopCorp the forces at Mers El Kabir had refused negotiation with the British and had been given more than they were due in an attempt to get them to go into impounds in a neutral state. Mers El Kabir was the result of them not doing so and the British following through on their threats.
The agent sent by gaulles was called Jean Moulin, he is a hero who allowed the coordination of the French resistance movements and who died tortured in Lyon by the Nazi Klaus Barbi, who was nicknamed "the butcher of Lyon". He was tortured to death without revealing any information to the Nazis, and he is buried in the Pantheon in Paris
By the way, Klaus Barbi was arrested only in the late 1980s because he was hidden for 40 years by the CIA, especially in Bolivia where he advised the dictatorship of the time on methods of torture. We knew it was hidden there but the United States refused to give it to us because "they could not trust a country invaded by communists".
Im french and im happy to see this episode, now it would be cool to see one on the polish, czech and others countries resistances groups.
That would be interesting indeed
You mean the famous Polish resistence and the role it played in the D-Day landings?
meh
I sorta know someone who had to flee to southern France during the Nazi occupation.
hagamapama
Yeah the polish resistance that got way more done than the overblown french guys, ecspecially since the polish couldn't sit around on their arses waiting for someone to save them
When you talk about the French battle cry ("We surrender") consider this. Those British and American solders captured by the Germans had the protection of the Geneva Conventions. Though they suffered as POW's they did not face summery execution, unlike the French, who did face execution if captured.
These were incredibly brave people who I think diverse respect.
Yoshi Does Stuff exactly
@hi there had you any clue of National Socialism.
Americans werem't viewed the same as Jews
The geneva conventions weren't signed till 1949.
@@daemosblack that’s kinda misleading. There were 2 in 1929 beforehand, so the one in 1949 were amendments to the previous ones.
@@Etzelsschizo The American Jews would disagree with you
We're live! Vive la Résistance!
1st reply
2nd reply
3rd Reply
VIVA LA RÉSISTANCE!
Pierre said hello.
Go fix your game!
8:53 Ho boy someone forgot where Normandy is
Charles Walsh yeah I was like is that the right place
that's Brittany
Charles Walsh yeah he confused it with Brittagne
Charles Walsh hope will see that on the lies video
Oh I do too
We like to make jokes about the French, but they are, truthfully, a strong spirited people. Even when their government failed them, they continued the fight against the Axis, and proved that, even at its weakest, France was still a formidable adversary.
Abi Sain they were weak tho
@@mjb8714 Not really what is actually happening xD
@@mjb8714 Simply someone informed :-)
Multi Type ok xD
@@mjb8714 >Says something political
>Is told he's wrong
>Tells them it's a joke
>Also tells them they're not good a socializing
France has lost a battle... BUT France has not lost the war! - Charles De Gaulle
He said as he was fleeing the country
PunkerWithABoner He was already in britain when he said that
@@mokka1115 Still kinda of an ironic statement
PunkerWithABoner no it isn't
France lost the war bad they only came back after they were liberated
I really liked this episode.
From all I remembered from my WW2 lessons, France just "turned tail and acquiesced", so getting the view of their resistance is uplifting.
It's crazy that you learn the history like that in America.
That explains all the surrender monkey jokes lol.
In France most people identify very strongly with the Resistance and the revolution, and we regard Vichy as a regime of traitors.
The french perspective of WWII is one that i find the most interesting, all of those covert operations to try to save their country are a great story to hear.
any country or territory under occupation is forced to collaborate.
the problem boss is that, they didn't just collaborate, Vichy was overzealous in its collaboration, A lot of the jewish population that was deported from the south were not deported because the german asked for them. Vichy offered them by itself. People as individual generally have no choice but to comply and try to survive, but the Governement was shit.
Also to note, both the resistance and the collabo were actually a very small fraction of the population, most people were what we call Attentiste, wich is to say ; they waited for it to end and tried to survive.
(Also trust a frenchie , in our border and classroom, the shame of colaboration is not hidden at all, we all learn about it. heck i mean we have so much class on the two WW that it would be surprising if we didnt)
ce que tu dois retenir aussi c'est l'aspect politique de tout cela, pétain loin d'être un ange est pourtant ridiculement vilifié, la collaboration lourdement exagéré parfois pour des raisons idéologiques, ATTENTION je ne defends pas pétain ici je dis tout simplement que ceux qui écrivent l'histoire sur lui la plupart sont peu crédibles.
ont lui accuse de racisme mais l'un de ses meilleurs amis était noir il défendait souvent des juifs(individus) et contrairement au mythe il n'a rien participé dans le plan de défense ou même au gouvernement d'avant guerre. oui il fait de lui même le statut des juifs mais a refusé jusqu'au bout de livrer des juifs français aux allemands. encore une fois je ne lui defends pas.
boss180888
Yeah but not everyone did it so willingly
The deportation of jews was basicly pushed by Vichy France
Aipe97 lol
as well as the french resistance's contribution we should also recognise how much the free french army did right up until the end of the war, especially in north africa, the battle of bir hakeim for example where a tiny number of free french held off rommel's advance and delayed him enough for the british to regroup before El Alamein. Free french soldiers fought in most theatres of ww2, North africa, Italy, France, right up into the push into germany. Im not saying they single handedly turned the course of the war or anything but you have to acknowledge the contribution so many men who fought and died
Most Forgotten about allies:
-Free France
-Poland
-Greece
-Inda
-New Zealand
-Denmark
-Chech
I think it is a shame we don't recognise them more (i know there are many others too), and that we only seem to look at the US and USSR. Thanks EH for shedding so light onto this underated subject :)
Les sanglots longs des violons de l'automne blessent mon cœur d'une langueur monotone. Tout suffocant et blême, quand sonne l'heure, je me souviens des jours anciens et je pleure.
In France, some schools ask you to learn it.
Yeah and, Vive la république, et vive la France !
Can you decode it like the enigma thing
Beg pardon but what does it mean? My French is a bit dull
Camden 4545 it means and I am paraphrasing
"DO YOU KNOW DA WAE?"
Among the 7000 soldiers who stayed with de Gaulle, there was my great rear grandfather from Dunkirk, he was mortally wounded and therefore had to stay in England... When the message passed he continued the fight.
Mortally wounded meant he died, your thinking Critically injured
@@vittoriolepporio122 yes, seriously injured. I misspoke my thoughts
Huh. I thought there would be a lot more throwing of baking ingredients.
American Ronin maby weponized baguettes
Sam George perhaps
Sam George
Actually, they weaponized pancake batter so that Chinese resistance fighters could have explosives.
And by they, I meant the US.
American Ronin There was a french resistance that killed a german with a hard baguett during the ww2 period
Steven Choza
And the German Army actually experimented with (I couldn't make this up, even if I tried) so-called "Baguettewerfern" or Baguette Launchers/Throwers, basec on the *Nebelwerfer 40* design.
These were supposed to be basically grenade launchers either used as field guns or mounted on top of vehicles, such as halftracks, and launch freshly-baked baguette at french troops. The scent was intended to distract french soldiers and make advancement easier.
The experiment, and the launchers, proved to be effective, but the german engineers behind the concept had no idea how to get their hands on fresh baguette, a problem soldiers would face on the battlefield where freshly baked products of any kind would be pretty hard to come by.
It never found actual use, though.
Vive la France! Love from America! 🇫🇷 🇺🇸
I LOVE that game companies are paying for, what is basically, a history lesson.
Have you heard of Virginia Hall? She was a legendary agent sent by England and then America to organize, equip, and train Resistance groups. She stayed in France longer than almost any other agent, organized mass breakouts, and got information to the Allies while being a woman and an amputee.
thank you for doing the french resistance and free french army their due justice
It's amazing what disparate groups can do together with a little coordination
They didn't really...
Great video! Keep it up
2nd reply in 1 month.
You see the distant flames, they bellow in the night
You fight in all our names, for what we know is right
And when you all get shot, and cannot carry on
Though you die, La Resistance lives on
You guys have made me cry, I'm french and this is a great gift, There have been so many humiliation whith the surrender, and so many sacrifice done by the Free French Forces.
I watched this on June the 5th 2017
Let us never forget their sacrifice.
Animation Penguin lol no you didn't this was made 20th July 2017
@@eatass1332 Lol you got him.
In my opinion, the members of the French Resistance were the most incredible people im the entire war.... The story of the sheer might of the people’s will, mixed with outside aid and a whole lot of hope, taking on one of the most horrible armies the world has ever seen is... Frankly insane. These people risked capture, execution, and everything they had just to fight... It’s truly an inspiration to look at...
The French are laughed at so much by people who don't know the full story.
Yep
As someone who mysteriously was never taught in depth about WW2, I love your WW2 episodes and hope to see more in the future
I really like that you guys took the time to draw french weapons of the day. MAS 36 rifles are quite unknown. Same with those early SMGs.
Currently bingeing these history videos! Love that these are topics we either didn’t touch on or didn’t delve into back in school.
I am french and i can only say : this is incredibly well explayned
fun fact I am dutch and my grand parents where in the Dutch underground and had Jews in there houses
zerobanana2 your grandparents basically saved lives? That’s really cool. They were probably amazing people.
Can we get him to 69 likes
Their*
France said: RAWR! I will not go quietly into the night.
today, we fight for our independance day!!!! wait, wrong story...
France said: Rawr! *Nuzzles you* *notices bulge* What's this? 0w0
Fiaura The Tank Girl ur forgot when they said we I shall not vanish without a fight
Still the resistance was highly exagerated post war by de gaulle cabinet to instill a strong national sentiment to counter the french communist....
they already did lol
I truly start teardropping whenever i watch this videos... my joy for the victory of the liberation forces is incredible
I deeply respect the French.
Charles De Gaulle is my hero of WW2
And the cross of Lorraine is my symbol I have on my jacket
we have the same hero!
As a descendant of Frenchmen, I pray that Charles de Gaulle rots in hell.
Patton and De Gaulle
if de gaulle is your hero out of all the actors in ww2 then i dont know how not to think of you as a moron
@@Loots1 Still Mad because De Gaulle refused to be an American puppet? Poor baby.
I'd never heard of these resistance fighters. So cool! De Gaulle was hard-core.
Thank you so much for talking about the French war effort! i've always wondered why they got to have so much say after the war when they got taken over like so many other countries. I had no idea what they really did to help out, and it's really cool of you guys to talk about something most schools skip talking about all together
You're looking at the issue from the wrong end. Regardless of what France/French did during the war, after it what mattered was the future, not the past. As a powerful industrialized nation, it couldn't be ignored, especially in the new context of the struggle against communism. And specifically for the UK, it was a natural ally. Despite all the British closeness with the USA, France had much more common interests with the UK, being an European country and a colonial power. So, even lacking any redeeming quality wrt WWII, it would probably have been treated the same after it.
The Free French really deserve their own series (:
I thank every country that has participated in my country’s liberation. La Résistance was waiting for you all. Vive la France.
Thank you for teaching us something we do not see in schools that detail in books sometimes
VIVE LA RESISTANCE !
ok
ok
ok
Ok(4)
ok
its funny that when we think of WW2 its just Russia, the UK, and the USA vs germany and japan but we never recognize the countries who were taken over norway denmark poland and even greece all taken quickly but not without a fight
In reality 95% of the work was done by Russians and Americans
And British
Its like 30% russian 30% american and 30% british and 5% Chinese republic
+Francisco Hernandez really 80percent soviets stalingrad case blue kursk bagration budapest massacre vienna fall berlin conquer and facist finland take down
5percent american d day op torch sicily invasion
10 percent british d day battle of britain op torch and invasion of berlin
2 percent greece made germany lose time for barbarrosa and cause the soviet to defeat them
1 percet brazil logistic help in africa bombing 85 percent of germany fortification in italy and causing 60k casualties on the german and allowing americans to atack rhineland
rest poland and yugoslavia resistance
But in it's few days of combat the Dutch airforce did manage to take down a substantial part of the Luftwaffe, severely decreasing it's effectiveness during the Battle for Britain.
'They fought valiantly, but the Fokker D.XXIs and G.Is of the defenders were quickly wiped out by the sheer numbers of the attackers. While ultimately successful, the invasion proved disastrous for German transport aircraft, as over 200 Ju 52s were destroyed during the operation. The loss of almost half their transport fleet would hinder the German war effort for years.'
We don't have many moments of importance during WW2, but that's quite a valid accomplishment i.m.o.
de Gaulle fascinates me more the more I learn about him. I'm not sure i agree when you call him arrogant though. Passionate, sometimes to a fault, is more the impression I have. With the possible exception of Helmut Kohl, who pushed through German unification almost by sheer force of will alone, I would say de Gaulle is possibly the most influencial politician in post-WW II Europe.
Sacha Cottinet Might be true, considering he was out of power and writing his memoirs. However to be fair he established the fifth republic in '58, so it wouldn't exactly be accurate to claim his influence was limited to the war.
Danny Nielsen what happened to him actually?
Albrect Garcia after what ?
You might be verry well true, but as much as his charisma might be likable, there's no question of his arrogance really. I mean, y'need to only look at his Liberation speech to see that he had the balls to snub the allies even as they had pushed trough france and liberated paris. Here's an excerpt from his liberation speech: "Paris broken! Paris martyred! But Paris liberated! Liberated by itself, liberated by its people with the help of the French armies, with the support and the help of all France, of the France that fights, of the only France, of the real France, of the eternal France!" He goes on to mention the allies only once troughout this entire speech, as "supporting" france, instead of throwing them a bone and calling them the liberators that they where. That line of "with the help of the French armies" gets me every time, and there's many quotable parts of him blustering and playing up france's involvement in the war and its liberation
This has been one of my favorite Extra History series, and I think it's because of the unusual structure. If you guys can pick out more stories to address- not in the linear progression from beginning of the story to its end (roughly speaking, as very few things ever truly begin or end), but from a variety of perspectives on the same event- like you've done with D-Day, that would be really, really cool.
the french resistance is actually really badass
What about the Poles?
polish resistance is pretty cool too
K
@@extendocats8533 yea
I’m sure everyone would love for more ww2 videos like this, like on the Battle of Britain, Evacuation, and more resistance movements (like in the Netherlands).
Wow, I'm impressed with you, you drew the Mas-36 as the French rifle!
thats seriously impressive. theres a lot of things I feel I could do with enough experience but reorganize a broken country in an era with poor communication is something I could never do.
Vive La France!
You from penguin server
@@Me96241 hmm
ok
FCG_Rocket you mean club penguin?
Vive la Russia
Incredible bravery and resilience by those people when their leaders had failed, betrayed and deserted them
I hope one day they will do the Norwegian Resistance.
They did just about the same as the French, but rarely gets the recognition that they deserve. Alt for Norge!
Alex Ruddies type in youtube Sabaton SABOTUERS
It will be very interesting !
The Dutch resistance would be good to see too!
that made me cry, it’s just so sad yet so heroic and brave.
Can you do an extra history on the German spring offensive (Kaiserschlat)
Adam Lee for me it's says kaiserschlat
jeez, that one flew over your head didnt it?
Do you mean the "Kaiserschlacht"?
Moris Kurth Operation Michael
As well as Operation Georgette (scaled down from operation George), operation Blücher-York, operation Gneisau, and finally Friedensturm.
It was also known as the Ludendorff offensive, named after the military high commander and de facto military ruler of Germany.
Yesterday an old resistant named Jacques Ollier passed away. He fought on the plateau du Vercors where 4000 maquisard held a whole german infantry division for several days (eventually they used paragliders to take the place). He was a good man, always with a smile and a good word, also, a force of nature. He's back with the one he always loved now. Requiescat in pace.
How can you govern a country with 246 types of cheese?
Lots of Lactaid
Cheese mass is enough to stop tank round. That why.
Obviously not with one party system.
Actually more than 1000
awesome video. Visited London last week and got to learn about Churchill from inside his bunker. Visiting France this week and making many transfers on the Charles de Gaulle underground.
You forgot to mention the scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon, where the Vichy soldiers destroyed the French navy to stop the Germans from being able to use their ships.
Okay. I'm seriously impressed.
You got the _exact_ Canadian flag of the era, with three green maple leaves _and_ both the French MAS 36 rifle and MAS 38 sub-machine gun.
That's pretty good detail for still-action cartoon.
(And, thanks for the Garbo plug. That was great.)
Is it sad that Extra Credits, Simple History, and Oversimplified teach more and faster in history than an actual school?
i love how this channel has taught me more about history and in a way thats easy to understand then all 12 years of school combined.
Listen very carefully I shall say this only once.
I am Lieutenant Gruber, and this is my little tank.
It is I, Le Clerc!
Simon Juul You stupid woman, I was teaching her self defence!
It's that Englishman who thinks he can speak our language.
Unhacker, The Laziest Bastard on the Internet is that a English talking baguette trying to speak English?
I love listening to your show! I love war stories and all of the fascinating things you teach!
Vive la Résistance ✊🏻
Vive De Gaulle 🪖
Vive la France 🇲🇫
Vive la république
Vive la France
You should do a series on De Gaulle because that guy had one hell of a life
To he Extra Credit staff, thank you for making these history series.
As a person who normally founds stories about the war efforts of the United States, England, Soviet Union and similars, finding stories about the French Resistance is refreshing for myself.
Allo allo, this is Nighthawk! Come in London. Over!
Have you found the painting of Fallen madonna with big boobies?
I loved _Allo, allo_
I got the chills at : The liberation starts tonight
I love it
France: * Doesn’t lose hope*
Me: This is beyond science!
2:44 I am very happy you included a MAS-38 Submachine Gun in the "Requesting Supplies" graphic. One of my favorite guns ♥
Underpowered and Outdated even BEFORE Germany took over, it still saw good use in resistance hands! Vive la Résistance!
As a frenchie, I have to admit, our résistance is nothing compared to the yugoslav one led by Tito.
The polish resistance was nice but not as great as the yugoslav resistance tbh, the greek resistance was pretty effective too if i recall correctly.
Tito is ma boi. He stuck it to Stalin and outlasted him for many years
Yup, Tito or gtfo.
Le Rapace whay this guy monty python ftw
@Jomes: /watch?v=FWBUl7oT9sA
2:29 and I bet the french workers tasked with repairing it again were *really* enthusiastic and efficient at fixing it. No tools going missing or breaking or strange but very plausible accidents that keep delayed work or anything like that ;D
I love how nobody even talks about the danish resistance that most likely fought the fiercest (besides maybe Poland and the USSR). A small tiny country like them nearly rose in open revolt. After just 1 year because of how Germany stood as the exact polar opposite of the kind and welcoming ideas that Denmark stood for. Then when the Germans came after the Jews they managed to rescue around 9000 Jews out of there 9,500-10,000 Jewish population. What makes it special is that it is such a small thing compared to Germany and yet it basically threw them out even after hundreds where executed or sent to camps every week for mass demonstrations and worker strikes.
Prince Goodlooking , and nobody remembers belgium and the belgians resistance too 😢 .
The grandfather of my mother was part of the Résistance in France. Him and his comrades blew up railroads and trains. He was also involved with saving Jews, including several children, from the Facists pigs (let's face it, all those that bought anti-judaism crap were pigs and weak for blindly following orders).
He also put his family in danger by doing this, because he was a public figure in their home town. My great-grandmother would also take one of my great aunts to softened up German soldiers to move past the roadblocks and rationing. These guys missed their families and liked to see a cute little girl speak their language.
All of this was extremely brave. After the war, he was awarded the Légion d'Honneur. Still didn't make his PTSD any better. He would hardly ever speak of these days.
That's why I find it admirable to be willing to good when the people in charge make threats to you and your loved ones. It only reinforced my belief that evil, cruelty and bullies will never win as long as one person is willing to stand up and act.
Showed the Allied landings in Northern Brittany, not Normandy. Another for the Lies video.
MrBoJangles I believe they did that by accident
My great grandfather was not a member of the resistance, but of the free French in North Africa. He fought for France, only for Americans eighty years later to make fun of his country and its fightz
has anyone here ever seen the show from the 80s named "Allo Allo"? no I did not misspelled that. It is a show about the French resistance in a smal frensh town. everything they brought up here is what happend in that show. the sabotage, the radio code words, the english agents comming in to helpe. all of it is in the show. Maby I should mantion that it was a comedy. I know it is sopose to be a parody of a drama also about the French Resistance but I have never seen that show.
I was Pissing buy and though I heard a nose
eventyraren i saw someone else make a reference to it in the comments. on australian tv theres an ad that plays from time to time advertising a box set of the series. it seemed to center around a guy who was forced to play both sides for his own safety since nazis and resistance members would both frequent his café
I loved this show. The British agent disguised in French policeman whereas he doesn't speak French at all. So funny.
My great grandfather was a member of the resistance and a WW1 veteran. He never actually attacked nazi soldiers but he did feed information on their whereabouts to the british intelligence and also heped in the destruction of some railways.
I really like your WWII videos. Please keep up the good work and carry on with these WWII documentaries. Thank you!
“Wounds my heart with a monotonous languor.” 😎
0:08
When my mom caches me watching TH-cam instead do my homework
Here you spoke only about the FFI ( FORCE FRANÇAISE DE L'INTÉRIEUR) but there is also the FFL ( force française libre) which kept fighting on the battle front
The notion that the French resistance was one, single, well organized is very misleading. The French resistance was not one great guerrilla force but rather many, many small organizations. Practically every town had its own resistance (to which the British coined the term "Alphabet war" from all of the acronyms). With so many groups the French resistance looked less like the Polish Underground and more like the Mujaheddin; where it was one unifying idea but was fought by many different groups. Another connection to the Mujaheddin was the fact that the FR fought each other as much, if not more that the German occupiers. Like stated in the video, if the Germans ever had their stuff trashed there would be consequences. The Germans massacred towns of people far more often than expressed in this video. Often a group of fighters would find themselves with a choice: sabotage up German equipment/steal guns/disrupt German mobility and they may succeed in their goals, but have half the town massacred, have everyone hate you, and see everything repaired in a short time, OR, just steal some other groups equipment in the hopes to fight the Germans one on one some day. This combined with the many ideologies that each group had (also stated in the video) lead to so much fighting that there was a serious risk of a French civil war after the War, leading to the British to stop sending supplies.
One thing I will give the FR is that they did seriously fuck up German transportation on D-Day, leading to less for the Allies to deal with.
Urban So who is to blame for the lack of equipement ? Aint that the british ? Their distrust caused infighting and the largely useless light weapons they supplied prevented any confrontation against armoured or entrenched position .
And how exactly would you have armed a population under the occupation of the most savage army in modern history effectively and without getting the whole population killed?
How would you have ensured that those weapons are not just getting into German hands?
How would you ensure that the communists or different factions that you armed wouldn't just kill your men after they saw themselves liberated?
There are logistical considerations far beyond trust. And besides all that, the French just weren't trustworthy.
Urban H(
FR? Free Rance?
Milka Bogovac french resistance..
For those curious about the liberation of Paris, and just how close it came to ending in tragedy, I must recommend the book "Is Paris Burning?" It's spectacular, written with information gathered, more often than not, directly from those involved. Good pictures as well.
People claim the French to be cowardly and weak after losing one battle yet fail to notice the failures of other nations, both at the same time and not.
Denmark hardly fired a shot in it's defense yet no one calls them cowards.
Denmark had nothing, it is only natural, but France had one of if no not the best land Army at the time, it was strong and powerful. Not a fair comparison
I'm not blaming the Danes, if anything they should be exceptionally proud that they got pretty much all of their Jewish citizens to safety in time.
But to suggest that the French are cowards or naturally weak does not hold up to scrutiny.
I would not compare with Denmark too. I would rather say that, if the French are cowards for the defeat in 1940, so the British are too. People always forget that 1940 is a Franco-British defeat...
I had the amazing pleasure to speak to a woman who was 15 years old in the french resistance. She would send coded messages from random sources to General Patton's HQ to keep the US forces informed. She stated that she started learning English listening to Patton ranting over the radio when she had some free time.
Can you make a video about Czechoslovaks rise and assasination of Heinrich Himmler.Please I really found this topic intresting, beacouse everyone talks only about US,UK and USSR and other big countries but not about the small ones. Thanks keep up the goodwork. Greetings from Czech Republic.
At 6:13 that leader is Jean Moulin, leader and organiser of the Resistance, dead in 1943 under torture by the nazis. A Great Man, clever, cunning and courageous. A Great Man the like of which you dont see anymore. May his soul rest in peace.
Getting a sucker punch on France while they were still in shambles from WWI was pretty crafty but they underestimated the French will to fight. It's not like these are a people who made one of the largest empires in history.
FallenEpic lol that's funny cause France has had several empires.
twice if we consider frank as french...
FallenEpic, Germany was in shambles after World War 1 too. That excuse doesn't work.
Germany was in debt, not shambles. Germany was not where the western front took place in WWI, France was. The devastation and horror of WWI? That almost exclusively in the west took place in France. This is why the French were so keen on punishing Germany for the war and piling on a massive debt that was impossible to pay off.
I think that French tactics is the key here. I'ts not that much about French being week after WW I, and not that they did not prepare to the war... they did. But they did prepare to fight the previous war again... instead for the next one. French strategy was revolving around Maginot Line, all work and resources pumped into building it has left core of the army much weaker and unprepared. And the Maginot line turned to be just a minor obstacle for Germans.
I'm LOVING your WWII vignettes ! Well done, informative, exciting ! Please keep up the excellent work !
I am intrested in the Dutch groups. Im Dutch myself and have heard so many stories about dutch groups. Fun fact, Even KIDS would help. They would bring letters, write anti german words, posters etc. They got away most of the time too. Nobody expected a kid to help.
the opening scene of this video reminds me of the old French man waving the French flag wildly on D-Day.
There 100% needs to be a Farcry game where you play a French Resistance fighter in Nazi Occupied France.
There is, its called Sabouteur
Fun fact about the BBC in the Second World War: When it transmitted messages to resistance movements as part of its Overseas Service, the callsign it used at the beginning of its broadcasts was a drum playing Beethovens 'Fate' motif. (Dun dun dun DAH! Dun dun dun DAH!) This was a double-layered reference to the slogan 'V for Victory', V being the roman numeral for five, the Fate motif being from the Fifth Symphony, and the Morse for V being 'dot dot dot dash'. It was also a symbol of Fate 'knocking on the door' of the Third Reich, which is a beautiful reclamation of music co-opted by a regime of brutal tyrants despite being written by a man who believed in the ideals of the Enlightenment and likely wouldn't have had much nice to say about Hitler if he ever had to meet him.
Interesting.
Guys but what if we just say that the British and the French did nothing while the Americans fought most of the army just on the first day? That'd be absolutely great!
For anyone who is interested in more detail on this part of the story, I recommend reading "Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War 1941-1945" by Leo Marks. He is an English code break/maker who worked for SOE which coordinated the supply and recruitment of agents in occupied Europe.
I've also heard good things about Biography on F. F. E. Yeo-Thomas who was an SOE Agent in Occupied France known as the White Rabbit. The biography is "The White Rabbit" by Bruce Marshall.
Wish there was a lies episode for sponsored videos. I know that you do it for narrative, but you give the French resistance FAR more credit than they deserved. There was so much infighting between resistance groups that the British just stopped giving them weapons fairly early on.
Don't they just do it in the comments of the last video?
BluePlankton Wait they do?
XiViX Spectre yep just scroll through the comments and you'll find it with everything just in wall of text form
Yea they decided to do a lies thing in the comments section of the last Bismarck video, so we might get one for this.
Where can I find it? I would expect it to be right near the top, but for some reason I never noticed it. Or did you mean the comments from the audience?
Also, I just thought I somehow missed a series about chancellor Bismarck :P