Jump to content

18 juin


NormanH
 Share

Recommended Posts

There will be a lot of references to the 80th anniversary of De Gaulle's appeal to the French to resist the German occupation.

I am willing to bet  there will be far fewer (if any) mentions of the other event  of the 18th June, The battle of Waterloo [:D].

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quite so - and all with social distancing, of course.

Prince Charles and his wife visited Gloucestershire Royal Hospital to meet staff a couple of days ago, with social distancing. Interesting that he said that his senses of smell and taste hadn’t yet returned to normal following having a ‘mild case’ of C-19, as he put it.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

And what difference would it have made if I had been in France or living in France?

None, it is still the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo and DeGaulle did not like the UK.

Having seen the news since I posted, the visit was because Macron was honouring DeGaulle's broadcast.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Correct me if I’m wrong somebody, but I have a feeling that most Frenchmen and Frenchwomen at the time wouldn’t have had a clue who De Gaulle was, much less have listened to his broadcast.

His achievements, for better or worse, came largely after the end of WWII. The allied leaders did their best during the War to keep him ‘out of the loop’ in terms of information and intelligence. Not so much him, but his staff group was considered, rightly or wrongly, to be ‘unreliable’.

There was an occasion when he was on board a British battleship. De Gaulle was a chain smoker and he stubbed out his cigarette on the gleaming white holystoned deck. The receiving British Admiral could barely contain his disgust.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, they were certainly listening in Guadeloupe, Martinique & Guyane (https://www.france.tv/france-o/antilles-la-guerre-oubliee/), not to mention the Île-de-Sein (not so beloved of Marine after her reception there day before yesterday), whence came 130 of the 400 men who joined CdG and which is the unique French commune with more deaths in WW2 than WW1.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...