The French and the US Army

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An elderly gentleman of 83 arrived in Paris by plane. At the French customs desk, the man took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry-on bag. "You have been to France before, monsieur?" the customs officer asked, sarcastically. Whiting admitted he had been to France previously. "Then you should know enough to have your passport ready."

The American said, "The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it."

"Impossible. Americans always have to show your passports on arrival in France!"

The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained. "Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find any Frenchmen to show it to."
 
and right after France he went to Norway and Sweden and they were business as usual, having declared themselves neutral BEFORE the war ever started.....the French lost 212,000 people in WW2 BTW.
 
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Originally Posted By: philipp10
the French lost 212,000 people in WW2 BTW.


I thought your number was low, so I looked it up. It does appear that France lost 210,000 soldiers during the war and 390,000 civilians, or 1.4% of their population. Doesnt seem like they sacrificed much, especially compared to the 24 MILLION people killed in the Soviet Union (14%)
 
Originally Posted By: kmcavin
The joke needs to be updated. They guy would have been 12 on D-Day.


Should just add a year in there like
In 2005 a man....
 
Originally Posted By: philipp10
the French lost 212,000 people in WW2 BTW.



After having lost about 1.6 million in WWI

I visited the landing beaches in Northern France last year. after touring the landings I spent several days exploring further inland.
It took sometime to understand the damage the towns and villages sustained as the allies fought the German army.

I say this,having grown up in London, and being well aware of the damage there, sustained during the Blitz.
 
That must have been quite a sight.
Originally Posted By: expat
Originally Posted By: philipp10
the French lost 212,000 people in WW2 BTW.



After having lost about 1.6 million in WWI

I visited the landing beaches in Northern France last year. after touring the landings I spent several days exploring further inland.
It took sometime to understand the damage the towns and villages sustained as the allies fought the German army.

I say this,having grown up in London, and being well aware of the damage there, sustained during the Blitz.
 
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Meh...All this joke is missing is one more lame remark in the line of "...we saved your arses in WW2..."
 
Originally Posted By: bubbatime
Originally Posted By: philipp10
the French lost 212,000 people in WW2 BTW.


I thought your number was low, so I looked it up. It does appear that France lost 210,000 soldiers during the war and 390,000 civilians, or 1.4% of their population. Doesnt seem like they sacrificed much, especially compared to the 24 MILLION people killed in the Soviet Union (14%)


Wikipedia has a great site for percentages of population that had died. France is 1.4%, the US is at .32%. Some of the countries with the highest percentage are weird out of the way places in eastern europe such as Latvia.
 
Originally Posted By: Andy636
Meh...All this joke is missing is one more lame remark in the line of "...we saved your arses in WW2..."


About as lame as your remark? Much (most?) of Europe would be speaking Russian today had it not been for the bravery of North American soldiers (US and Canadian)
 
Originally Posted By: bubbatime
Originally Posted By: Andy636
Meh...All this joke is missing is one more lame remark in the line of "...we saved your arses in WW2..."


About as lame as your remark? Much (most?) of Europe would be speaking Russian today had it not been for the bravery of North American soldiers (US and Canadian)


We could debate on that until the cows come home, but you obviously are to busy flying the flag and never had to live on rationalized 250 grams of bread a day, 1 Liter of milk per week and 5 gallons of gas a month.
 
As I mentioned earlier, last year I visited Northern France (my wife wanted to attend the World Equestrian Games held in Caen)

Not being into horses myself,I spent a lot of time touring the countryside. It also happened to be the anniversary of the D Day landings, so there was a lot to see and do.

I happened to meet a Frenchman living in the same apartment block as our Airbnb rental, who was employed by the french tourist board.
One of his suggestions was I go to the town of Falaise.

The church in Falaise had a very interesting (and graphic!) exhibit showing the damage sustained during allied bombing of the town during liberation.

Basically the town was reduced to rubble, it was said you could not walk the streets without walking on human flesh. Many if not most families took shelter in the basements of their homes, and were buried alive with no rescue possible. Crys could be heard for days!
Allied troops reported survivors walking the streets like zombies seemingly not seeing or hearing.

Quote:
The battlefield at Falaise was unquestionably one of the greatest "killing fields" of any of the war areas. Forty-eight hours after the closing of the gap I was conducted through it on foot, to encounter scenes that could be described only by Dante. It was literally possible to walk for hundreds of yards at a time, stepping on nothing but dead and decaying flesh.[73]
— Eisenhower


Later when discussing the visit with my new French friend, he mentioned that, on some tour groups it had been necessary to explain to the 'group' that to many French people the arrival of the liberating armies was not always remembered in a possitive way. Some bitter memories exist, and not to expect universal undying gratitude.

Many men fought and died heroically in WWII, many that survived did not have a home to go home to
frown.gif
 
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I see no "humor" in the original post nor much of anything else.

As a Canadian who's father was in the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1939 because that's when the war started I see why most of the world is not impressed by a statement like that either.

I don't like to see posts disappear on BITOG but I wouldn't miss this one at all. I'm amazed it's still here
 
That's an arrogant 'ugly American' type joke, even if true. The French leadership was horrible, and to stop evil plenty of innocents were going to die.
 
My great grand father fought and died in Europe like many other brave souls !
can't imagine what our world would be like if it were not for the men and women who sacrificed everything for are freedom .
 
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