Is France REALLY a Military Loser?

This video will determine statistically if France is really a loser at wars.

[nierenjoyer]

-French helps Americans gaining independence
-Americans make fun of French over 1 war

[urmumgeh]

Idk man. As an American I feel we as a country seriously undermine our friendship with France. They’ve been our oldest Ally. We wouldn’t be a country if it wasn’t for them. They may have had slip ups but so does every other country. Even the US. I love France and hope to visit their beautiful country some day.

[kristijanpoklecki]

Saying that France is a loser means you know absolutely nothing about France. France has some self-destructive tendencies and shows incredible stubbornness from time to time, but you don't become the largest country in the western Europe by being a coward. Especially not if your neighbors are Germany and England.

[randomuser]

Weird... Napoleon was faster than Hitler in taking a big part of europe... Hitler had vehicles and tanks, Napoleon had nothing but their feet and some horses for the cavalerie and commanders.

[marseillais]

That first photo is actually the German commanders in Paris surrendering to the F.F.I in 1944...

[earljohnson]

Most of the wars France lost in are solely because of bad political control. Their army is one of the best in Europe

[raph_clmb]

”What can a french soldier do in three seconds? Surrender three times”
-American media and politicians,
April 2003

”The french troops fought like lions!”
-General von Reichenau June 1940


When your enemies admire you and your alies spit at you.

[Dan-phnc]

The 400 000 British soldiers on Dunkirk would be all slaughtered if the french forces didn’t sacrificed themselves.

[iudex_wrp]

France : once conquer half Europe
Had one of the biggest colonial empire
Pretty much is the oldest contry in Europe
Everyone else : Lol wHy Is fReNcHe FlAg NoT wHiTe SiNcE tHeY sUrReNdErEd ?
France :Am I a joke to you ?

[zarlg]

Also I like how the best you could find to illustrate France's "humiliating defeat" is a photograph of German soldiers and officers surrendering to French Resistance during WW2.

[aurelienregat-barrel]

What English propaganda never said about WW2 is that British troops didn't perform better than the Polish, Scandinavian, Belgian, Dutch or French forces against the Blitzkrieg. The difference is God gave them 9 days to retreat with the help of Goering stupidity and the epic resistance of... the French 12th division who protected +300.000 soldiers before begin killed and captured. At the same time they were backing up their men, British were pretending the opposite to their allies to keep them fighting so they have more time to retreat... some people would call that betrayal...
Anyway, that was probably the best decision to take, but for some reason the British managed to turn this humiliating - and collective - defeat into an heroic act of their sole resistance although more than the third of the people who escaped were French. For sure it's easier to not surrender when the Panzers are not in your yard... But history is not written by the losers.

I suspect the defeat of Dien Bien Phu to contribute to the idea that French forces like to surrender, although it was actually an heroic act of resistance (soldiers volunteered to parachute jump knowing the issue was helpless) and, also, a dramatic consequence of French army arrogance. But that was probably better to solve it that way. On the opposite side, the Battle of Algier was a brilliant victory from a military perspective, but a very very shameful one that still haunts us today.

[krisstian]

In fact historically, France is the single most successful military power in Europe, and has been so for centuries. Even the stupid myth of the french giving up too easily in WW2 doesn't stand up to closer examination - remember that Austria, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, Holland, Norway, Denmark and the UK all gave up at the beginning of the war. What, , , the UK ??? Often forgotten the 13 divisions of UK expeditionary force sent to France to keep the Germans as far away from GB as possible, failed spectaculary . In fact they evacuated (somme say they fled) leaving French forces to cover their retreat.It's realy funny that this stupid myth persists, , ,

[likotaveliki]

if they where bad at war, there would be no france :) gretings from croatia

[TheFiresloth]

There's two important factor to count :
1) France is an old, active and conveniently placed country. With it's ambition and other's desire for territorial expansion, it fought all of his neighbours and most of the rest of the world, at some point or another. So, a lot of country can boast of having defeated France (and ignoring that time they themselves got their ass kicked). Accumulated, this gives an impression of a continuity of losses.
2) I don't know if percentages are really meaningful, but there's one thing I'm pretty sure of : France have thought alone or almost alone against more coalitions than any other country : the Northern alliance, the League of Cambrai, the Hasburg Empire, the Nine years war, the war of the spanish succession, the revolutionnary and Napoleonic wars...

[thegreatmoustachio]

Charlemagne and Napoleon were two of the greatest conquerors in history, and both were french. Also, William the conqueror was french, and he conquered England in 1066. Just saying.

[Nyx-kbze]

France and Italy are sure underrated nations. I mean, when they lost in WW2 it was because of bad chiefs, not because coward soldiers and bad weapons like everyone says after watching inaccurate memes.

[franckvermont]

According to BBC History magazine, "There were 53 major conflicts in Europe. France has been a belligerent in 49 of them, and the United Kingdom in 43. Among the 185 battles that France has delivered over the past 800 years, her armies will have won 132 of them, and will have lost 43, leaving only 10 undecided battles. Thus giving the French soldiers the record of victories in Europe."

[midom]

"There's no nation, no democracy which can write its own History without acknowledging a debt or a direct influence to France" - Theodore Zeldin

"There have been 53 major wars in Europe
France had been a belligerent in 49 of them.
In 185 battles that France had fought over the past 800 years, their armies had won 132 times, lost 43 times and drawn only 10.
Giving the French military the best record of any country in the world."
BBC History

[rien]

"BBC:


There have been 53 major wars in Europe

France had been a belligerent in 49 of them; UK 43.

In 185 battles that France had fought over the past 800
years, their armies had won 132 times, lost 43 times and drawn only 10.

Giving the French military the best record of any country in Europe."

[joeross]

French bashing is just exhausting. It's like we get it, you got a C- in your base level high school history class, no need to rub it in.