Cowardly French?

[123everton]

Why did the French abandon Marash on 10/02/20 even going to the trouble of covering their boots with rags so as not to wake the inhabitants as they did so?
Many of those that stayed were murdered the next day, the French had camped nearby and could see the smoke from the fires but still stayed away.
A russian I spoke to said it was because they just did'nt want to fight, is he right?
It is plausible.

[heathfield]

According to Wikipedia, ''On 1 November 1919, two days after the French take-over of Maraş, S�t�� İmam Incident, termed after the defender of three Turkish women who were being harassed and molested in the street by French Armenian Legion auxiliaries, sowed the seeds of tension in the city. S�t�� İmam shot one of the molesters in the skirmish and had to go into hiding. The incident triggered a series of events that led the Turkish majority of Maraş to rise against the occupation forces and culminated in the wholescale urban warfare two months after the incident.''

Elsewhere it is related that, with the whole Turkish population against them, the French were seriously outnumbered, and were running short of ammunition.

[123everton]

Thanks, I'll look it up

[123everton]

I know that's what I thought, completely out of character for them.

[jake-the-peg]

Not like the Glory that was Dunkirk eh?

[Octavius]

Going to war without France is like going duck hunting without your accordion

[123everton]

Dunkirk was a French failure they had the lagest standing army in Europe, their tanks were a match for the Germans, the trouble was General Gammelin was too busy swanning around doing nothing.
The French every war they've won they've won with us and every war they've lost they've lost against us.

[Octavius]

They did win the French Revolutionary War ... but then again they were fighting the French.

[123everton]

lol

[Octavius]

People think I have something against the frenchies but that is not true. I am currently on Ebay trying to buy a French Army rifle. Apparently it has never been shot, but has been dropped once.

[jake-the-peg]

If Dunkirk was a French failure why were nearly 200,000 British troops evacuated?

Isn't the trusth of the matter that the British expeditionary force was too small, ill prepared and ill equipped for what they went over to do and predictably got their backsides kicked?

I also recall a spectacular anglo-french venture known as Suez.

Waterloo was won by a combination of British and Prussian forces

The American revolutionary war was won with French assistance.

The lesson of all three above is that wars are won and lost more by politicical alliances than soldiers.

I think you should rethink your "boys own" view of history

[Octavius]

�The lesson of all three above is that wars are won and lost more by political alliances than soldiers�

You mean like the French in the Rwandan genocide?

[123everton]

The B.E.F was as big as Parliament would allow, we did not have conscription (I think) at the time, we were traditionally a maritime nation with a huge empire to police and maintain, we conducted the only successful counter attack in the French campaign that made Guederian (of all people) consider halting for a few days, Dunkirk was in reality an excellent tactical withdrawal yes we lost equipment and many men but the bulk of our forces survived intact and were able to fight on.
How many more French troops were there to British? Their constant withdrawals left our flanks exposed thus forcing our retreat.
Look at Gammelin's schedule during the attack and at least ponder the thought.
The other examples are pertinent but you missed out French complicity in the Boer war, which we won, well sort of.

[jake-the-peg]

We're not exactly whiter than white you know Octavius

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/afri caandindianocean/ethiopia/2116357/UK-'complici t-in-Ethiopian-war-crimes'.html

Dunkirk might have been an "Excellent tactical withdrawal"

But it was a stupid insertion.

I'll see your Boer war and raise you the Crimea where Britain and France fought together and won - sort of.

Again, political alliances

And we won't even start on Austerlitz!

[Octavius]

Well now jacques-la-cheville !

I never said we were whiter than white. Some of us are quite distinctly not white, but to use that against us would be improper. I might have to tell AOG!