he's trying to say F*** YOU incorrectly. you can say 'elle baise bien' but you can't say 'baisez-vous' in french, as far as i know. he means "va te faire foutre".

true g.o.g......very true....but dude threw a bunch of spitballs at me, so he got hit with the full firehose.......... a little childish(and I apologize to the ones who use this seriously)but you know what, I think your the type that hates 'political correctness' so do I and this was a time to throw it back in their face (I dont know the guy and he could be one hella a guy personally and privately and professionally, but in this thread, he stepped on his crank) but I will cease fire.(hes french, one shot probably scared him away anyway...just kidding)

mex101-no....I dont speak french(german), so I had to use a piece of crude computer translator. Ref. VGs last line insult to me.... But as I am NOT mad at hime(just a childish retaliation), I cant fully remember what the insult was........(though the facts are true)

the french catch a lot of flak much of which is undeserved. as for the french and english losing ww1 without the americans arriving i don't believe that to be the case at all. the british in particular had deep pools of manpower they never used particularly in india. the germans were really in no shape to be launching large offensives even with the troops freed up by the russians collapsing. peace through mutual exhaustion seems the most likely outcome and that may well not have created the conditions that led to hitler's rise and all that followed. would still have left kindly uncle joe running things in russia and we may well have had a war in the 40's in europe but it would have looked a lot different than the historical version.

I am currently reading First In by Gary Schroen...I definitely need to do some studying on WW1 though. keep a box of hankies handy when you read about it. it's enough to make a strong man weep when you look at much of the decision making and the consequences.

"mutual exhaustion", or "deep pools of manpower"? Which one is it? Silly Germans, by the way. Too bad you weren't there to advise Ludendorff of the impracticality of their 1918 spring offensive. Glad that the Commonweath and France had matters in hand so well. Sounds as though there was no need for us. Perhaps you could have advised the French and British governments to that effect, as well. God knows, we really didn't want to be there in the first place. Seems that most history recalls the necessity, however. Like I said, go re-read your own history a bit closer and, again, check a map-unless your bent is to peddle this particular revisionist pap. As for the 1940s, who the hell knows with a Kaiser still at the helm in Germany-except, perhaps, you.

Hi Bunker, You should know that Germany had 20 milions more people than France at the beginning of WWI. You should also know that Germany was allied with Autriche-Hongrie(more millions of people). That explains why France was not able to resist alone to Germany. France should be gratefull to all the help given by her allies but allies shoud also be gratefull to France because that country have made the biggest effort to winn WWI. Finally, if you want to ignore France in your understanding of western history, it is your choice, but it is like ignoring US and USSR in the understanding of the cold war. Regards, P.S. Giving credit to France do not mean that I discredit USA. It seems that many US poster think the opposite. For myself, I think that France and USA are two great country.

In no way did I intend to impugn the French soldiers. Their leadership was abysmal (hell, the italians had better leadership), and I have no heartburn with the actions the soldiers took. I was just stating the fact that the mutiny was NOT limited to a few companies, as one poster claimed.

Georges Clemenceau, Vittorio Orlando and David Lloyd George's Appeal for Additional U.S. Forces, 1-2 June 1918 The Prime Ministers of France, Italy, and Great Britain, now meeting at Versailles, desire to send the following message to the President of the United States: We desire to express our warmest thanks to President Wilson for the remarkable promptness with which American aid, in excess of what at one time seemed practicable, has been rendered to the Allies during the past month to meet a great emergency. The crisis, however, still continues. General Foch has presented to us a statement of the utmost gravity, which points out that the numerical superiority of the enemy in France, where 162 Allied divisions now oppose 200 German divisions, is very heavy, and that, as there is no possibility of the British and French increasing the number of their divisions (on the contrary, they are put to extreme straits to keep them up) there is a great danger of the war being lost unless the numerical inferiority of the Allies can be remedied as rapidly as possible by the advent of American troops. He, therefore, urges with the utmost insistence that the maximum possible number of infantry and machine gunners, in which respect the shortage of men on the side of the Allies is most marked, should continue to be shipped from America in the months of June and July to avert the immediate danger of an Allied defeat in the present campaign owing to the Allied reserves being exhausted before those of the enemy. In addition to this, and looking to the future, he represents that it is impossible to foresee ultimate victory in the war unless America is able to provide such an Army as will enable the Allies ultimately to establish numerical superiority. He places the total American force required for this at no less than 100 divisions, and urges the continuous raising of fresh American levies, which, in his opinion, should not be less than 300,000 a month, with a view to establishing a total American force of 100 divisions at as early a date as this can possibly be done. We are satisfied that General Foch, who is conducting the present campaign with consummate ability, and on whose military judgment we continue to place the most absolute reliance, is not overestimating the needs of the case, and we feel confident that the Government of the United States will do everything that can be done, both to meet the needs of the immediate situation and to proceed with the continuous raising of fresh levies, calculated to provide, as soon as possible, the numerical superiority which the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Armies regards as essential to ultimate victory. A separate telegram contains the arrangements which General Foch, General Pershing, and Lord Milner have agreed to recommend to the United States Government with regard to the dispatch of American troops for the months of June and July. Source: Source Records of the Great War, Vol. VI, ed. Charles F. Horne, National Alumni 1923

Sweet. No sense of urgency there. 300,000 per month levy, probably just to sweep the battlefield after it was all said and done. Tidy things up a bit, eh wot?