Amen!

He certainly thought very highly of himself. I read that FDR did not like him.

@@LBF522 No one who ever met him did. I don't even think DeGaulle liked DeGaulle.

To be fair, he did sail across the channel and refuse to surrender after losing his country. Many other great french generals betrayed their country.

DeGaulle was the consummate asshole.

@@rangergxi He flew actually.

DeGaulle was arrogant beyond belief to the point of being a cartoon character. What he did then was a classic piece of shit move.

@kyle381000 Glad you mentioned De Gaulle's infamous Montreal speech. As an English-speaking Montrealer, my generation and my children's faced humiliation and oppression from Quebec separatists. Not blaming De Gaulle directly, but his "Vive le Quebec Libre" speech was a separatist rallying point. We Anglo Quebecers always saw De Gaulle as an irresponsible foreign disruptor.

@@MrBimirud It is on my personal bucket list to desecrate de Gaulle's grave (in a minor temporary way) one day. Then, Jacques Parizeau.

Hilarious! Great one. Laughed out loud!

Patton had his chaplain praying for the weather.

Poor guy took a ton of shit. Ike called him "son" when he asked him Stagg to come back at 0200, which I think took the edge off the poor guy.

“I may be British but I was born in America!” Churchill

Yes I admire him too, and the King. Lots of hero’s to go around.

What an arrogant ass.

It wasn't LBJ.

Daniel Stetson No Frenchman on the beach at all lol.

@Daniel Stetson Is this a true account? My impression of French folks: arrogant!

@@robertgabuna355 funny we europeans think the same about the americans... arrogant

With my knowledge of british humour, that was a joke!

General de Gaulle embodied the worst aspects of every negative French stereotype. He was very much like that. However, de Gaulle was de Gaulle and not most of France, most of France was grateful,. General de Gaulle was just an ass.

@@404Dannyboy Well, France did elect him President so they must have shared some of his sentiments.

Unsurprising, of French Snobbishness.

@@davecrupel2817. When the Allies had another meeting this time with the Soviets and Stalin was like “WTF Are the French Doing Here?????”🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂😂

General Ike is the author of the concept to place allied forces under one supreme commander.

That sounds exactly like what the 101st said about them, that they knew everything and was trained as high as you could get and I might add proved it over and over again.

Ike told him France would be treated as a full Ally unlike Italy that had fought for the NAZIS

I never understood him except, I think he was so embarrassed by Frances getting ran through like shit through a goose, but he was against that ridiculous Maginot line and he just simply ignored the fact that Vichy France was Nazi allies, but his actions here when the whole war was at stake is unforgivable. Just more arrogance than five, five star generals combined.

Damn french......

De Gaulle must have been pretty close to one to put up with Roosevelt and Churchill, who barely hid their contempt for him - despite De Gaulle having been one of the few commanders who actually fought well against Germany back in 1940. And no, I'm not saying that Roosevelt and Churchill were bad, they were in general, great men, but they pretty much wanted De Gaulle to sit down, speak when they wanted him to speak, say what they wanted to say, and so on. De Gaulle refused to do that. Yes, he had a huge ego, but then again so did many of these men. He fought for French recognition for years and years. And for that, he had to pretty much shake things whenever and wherever he could. Most would have folded. And he didn't make such sweeping negative comments about the battle plan. Historically, he wasn't agains the plan, in fact he generally agreed with it. Since this was made in 2003, when relations with France were pretty bad, there was likely some bias involved. They made him even more of a jerk than he really was, while Ike was made almost saintly here.

Thanks for the response. Very interesting.

Then why don’t you explain this arrogant display for us? Please.

@@ronniebishop2496 De Gaulle considered himself the main representative of France in exile - effectively the Head of State of loyal France. Upon his shoulders rest the responsibility of a nation, the pride of a nation, and he saw it as his duty to speak up for France, and to represent France against the Great Powers, and to do whatever he could to secure France's position amongst them. It can certainly be argued that he overplayed his hand, and that he was far too arrogant and abrasive, but it wasn't all a personal thing.

This scene grossly misrepresented deGaulle. He was the one leading actual attacks that scored actual victories against the Germans. In fact, the French fighting men fought hard and well when given the opportunity and the corect intel. The trouble was the high command, and the government in general, was unprepared to fight what the German military had become, and made a lot of bad decisions. DeGaulle was an arrogant dick who loved his country and was the person of highest rank to keep on fighting for it even after the government surrendered. He got himself recognized as the head of government of France by the allies, was able to get past various allied shenanigans to minimize his role and get him out of the way, and made sure that France was an independent allied nation at the end of the war, and not just another occupied country awaiting allied permission to hold elections. The allies did not "ferry him back to France" in 1944. He took his plane, with his pilot, and flew back without telling anyone at night. When his pilot could not identify the land below him, DeGaulle was able to figure out where they were and guide the pilot to a place to land. The Anglo-American allies wanted a submissive France that they could force into a new nation in a form that was not too powerful so that they wouldn't be an issue later. But deGaulle put the kibosh on that idea, and made sure that as France was liberated, it came under Free French control right away. you are damn right it was about saving fact, but it was also about saving France. And deGaulle did it.

@@captainzorikh I’m sure you would agree that it’s never a good idea to take too fast a run through the facts. Let us slow down and consider the following: Few would deny DeGaulle’s love of country, and history demonstrates his willingness to take up arms against France’s enemy. And yet, DeGaulle had no real chance of standing up against the Third Reich in 1940, as France was overmatched both in military capability and also a new and effective method of waging war. Most military leaders in France foolishly relied on the Maginot Line, thinking they could defend against the Panzer assault of the Germans. DeGaulle had some of the better ideas, but France was just not prepared to come along with him. He was betrayed by others in the French government, such as Petain, who signed an armistice with Germany while DeGaulle was overseas seeking military support. DeGaulle was a military man, and as such he had a good knowledge of military strategy and tactics, but that was not enough to withstand the German assault. To his credit, DeGaulle’s unit put up an appreciable fight in 1940 before being put down. He tried to persuade others in France’s government that the future of warfare was not to dig in and play defense, but to mobilize and strike hard at one’s enemy. Ironically, France was defeated by Germany using precisely this method. DeGaulle’s weakness was his chutzpah. He was a self-centered, arrogant man who consistently overplayed his worth. So much so that he came off to others as being potentially unstable and gained the trust of very few, not even Churchill and Roosevelt. Once during a meeting with Roosevelt, the secret service kept their machine guns at the ready while keeping a constant eye on DeGaulle, not sure what he might do. He was thought of that way. After DeGaulle fled France…and yes, he did flee or he would have ended up in a German POW camp, or worse…his sole aim was to position France as having a seat at the table when the war was won. France was granted that position, but DeGaulle did not achieve this - he was given this. The Allies “allowed” DeGaulle to keep his pride, speak as a victor, and take part in the war’s end….in spite of him having little to do with the outcome. His sense of superiority was entirely self-spun and completely false. In fact, he was more tolerated than respected. Many years after World War II , he attended the funeral of JFK and was unhappy to find that his seat was to be on the eighth row. He violated all protocol, not to mention upsetting family members who were more deserving of those seats, when he marched arrogantly to the front row and sat down.

Monty was totally disrespected by CDN troops. My father was there and told me that. Canadians did not want to fight under a British commander and become cannon fodder

DeGaulle was a competent officer. He was the guy who recognized the fault in the French defenses and tried to bring attention to them. He knew the Germans could cross the Sedan in a few hours. He was also brave enough to never surrender. Thats worth something.

But MacArther was an American general and DeGaulle was an exile Frenchman.

It was the greatest time in America when Ike was president and he then warned us about the military industrial complex that needed to be done away with. But they killed Kennedy and here we are, with a hand full of nuts in Washington.

Joseph Henderson I know one thing he had more power than any president I’ve ever heard of. I mean the CIA would have never pushed him around like they did Kennedy. Ike warned us about the military industrial complex too.!

Joseph Henderson Who Kennedy? They killed I believe. Ike said the military industrial complex that had been created during ww2 was out of control and growing way to much and would insist on being fed, and fed by wars. Ike was not a war monger he was an administrator and that’s why he was so successful. Patton and others would have just kept on fighting, lol. Kennedy also had made some stark discoveries during the Cuban Missile Crisis that changed his way of thinking. Did you know that general Curtis LeMay actually wanted to hit Russia with a first strike? They were crazy. The MIC wanted a ground war in Vietnam and pushed Kennedy to do that under the guise of watching China and communists. But everyone knew a ground war there was impossible including Kennedy. Truman Fired Mcarthur Because he wanted to bomb China with an atomic bomb.

Joseph Henderson He was extremely good at it and that’s how he realized how out of control it was.

@@ronniebishop2496 I would add the media to that complex.

And he was a moral man too. But he just couldn’t be a supreme commander, he was to arrogant just like Patton.

When is bashing French NOT extremely fashionable?

@@TheBatugan77 And why the Hell not bash the French? They spend an awful lot of time bashing the U.S.

Group Commander Stagg received an appointment as an Officer of the U.S. Legion or Merit (and he got the medal that goes with that) and was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (and the medal that goes with that) as well. After the war, he left the armed services, and eventually went on to be the President of the Royal Meteorological Society. He died on June 6th, 2019 - the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. Besides being portrayed by Christopher James Baker in this film, Stagg was portrayed by Patrick Barr in the 1962 film "The Longest Day", David Haig in his own 2014 play "Pressure", and Steven Cree in 2017's "Churchill". And I have WAY TOO MUCH trivia crammed in my head that I would know all of this.

Well, there was no british government allied with the germans.. so there's that

Complete nonsense! Firstly, Dunkirk only happened because of the gross incompetence of the French high command who were in overall command of the defence of their country. Over the objections of the commander of the British Expeditionary Force Lord Gort, they chose not to reinforce the Ardennes because in their opinion it was impassable for tanks. They then retired to their chateaus to drink wine connected to the front only by a WWI era communications system, so you can imagine how much of a shock it was for them when they discovered that they were the last to know that Heinz Guderian had rolled through the Ardennes with the cream of the German panzer corps with a sickle cut manoeuvre that threatened to trap the BEF in Belgium. What made things worse was that the sector commander General Gaston Billotte, on seeing his lines crumbling choked and then locked himself in his quarters for 8 days refusing to issue orders. Gort had no option but to retreat or the BEF would have been torn to pieces but he lacked the authority to order a general retreat so he contacted London who sent the Chief of the General Staff Edmund Ironside to France where he found Billotte in his quarters crying like a little girl. Enraged at his cowardice, Ironside lifted him out of his chair and shook him like a rag doll before assuming command. He then ordered a counter attack but by this time the situation was irretrievable however the counter attack bought enough time for the BEF to get to Dunkirk where 340000 troops were evacuated, many by British civilians who had sailed across the English channel under fire from the Luftwaffe. 120000 of those troops were French. Contrary to popular belief, it wasn't just the French who provided the rear guard at Dunkirk as 20000 British troops remained behind and fought until they ran out of ammunition. Some of them were executed by the SS after they surrendered. The BEF lost 68000 men and all of its heavy equipment defending France. Dunkirk was necessary because defeatism had gripped the French high command and Churchill concluded that if they were not prepared to defend France, why should the British? This is why he refused to commit the full strength of the RAF to the Battle of France. He knew it would be needed for the Battle of Britain where as it happened, Hitler suffered his first defeat! Eisenhower had no authority to make to "make commands" about British internal affairs. Churchill would have had him relieved if he had like he did with Joe Kennedy when he started running his mouth off. FDR knew the war couldn't be won without the British and that goes for the Far East as well where they annihilated two Japanese armies in Burma. As for D-Day, Juno and Gold were the only beaches to be linked on the first day. The only allied objective besides actually getting ashore that was achieved. Your assertion that the French were required to expand the British/Canadian beach head is complete nonsense. It was the British and Canadians who tied down Rommel's tiger tanks at Caen en route to wipe out US Shermans moving out of Cherbourg. The Free French army were nowhere and all the resistance were doing were doing were blowing up railway lines and taking potshots at German soldiers. How you've come to the conclusion that their help was "significant", I have no idea! While on the subject of the French resistance, you may want to look up on how it came to be. It didn't exist until British Special Operations Executive agents were infiltrated into France in 1941 as part of Churchill's plan to "set Europe ablaze". Even then it was riddled with Gestapo informants who gave up hundreds of allied agents that were later tortured and executed. The French resistance has been mythologised by the French nation to obscure the shameful levels of collaboration between it and its German occupier. Just do a little research into how the French railway system enthusiastically co-operated with the SS in shipping hundreds of thousands of people to extermination camps and you'll get the idea. With regard to Churchill "having it easier", nothing could be further from the truth. He not only had the combined resources of occupied Europe ranged against him but after 1941 had to stretch the line even further to keep the Soviets in the war by stripping the defences of Malaya, Singapore and India so the equipment could be sent to the Red army. This left them wide open to Japanese invasion leading to the largest defeat in British military history. Also, being an island left Britain vulnerable to a naval blockade which almost left it on the verge of starvation. To relieve this the British merchant marine suffered horrific casualties transporting food and other supplies across the Atlantic. Then Churchill had to make the agonising decisions to sink the French fleet at Mers-El-Kebir to prevent it from falling into German hands and whether to feed the army or civilians when a cyclone wiped out the rice crop in Bengal triggering a famine that cost the lives of 2 million people. Did any French leader have this burden? No, they did not. De Gualle merely accepted British protection while making lofty radio broadcasts as he picked off any potential rivals to his leadership until he had the cheek to strut along the Champs-Elysees stating that "Paris had liberated itself!". The man was a pompous arrogant narcissist who was hated by many of his own people which is why he was targeted for assassination on several occasions. The French had no right to be treated as equals. For the most part they were cowards and collaborators.

'Heck, look up just Dunkirk at the beginning of the war where the British fled and were saved at the cost of French soldiers holding out to protect them, so that Britain could live to fight another day.' At Dunkirk, 110,000 French troops were saved, mainly by British ships. Part of them on last day, which was entirely given over to saving French troops. If anybody fled, it was the French armies in front German onslaught.

Yes

I read somewhere that Keitel was incredulous at the fact France was present at the surrender signing. No bloody wonder!

@@canuck_gamer3359 I never knew I could agree with Keitel on anything. LOL!

Yes the Germans laughed their asses off about that, but I think just to keep from arguing with that crazy DeGaulle, and insult the Nazis some more.

Joseph Henderson The way that DeGalle acted with Ike I wouldn’t let them do anything, in fact I might have punched him in the face.

Politics

We escaped from German prison camps more than once during WWI and let the most successful attacks against the Germans in 1940.

Well that’s why they’re called Great Britain, they were a great Empire and helped a lot of heathens.

That still doesn’t explain his arrogant attitude towards America not only refusing to give a damn speech but all along, I’m sure everyone had the wrong idea about him, right?

@@ronniebishop2496 What are you talking about "refusing to give a speech?" DeGaulle was an arrogant dick, yes, but France needed an arrogant dick, because otherwise both the allies and the Germans would walk all over them.

captainzorikh The Germans did walk all over them and went through them like crap through a goose are you kidding? The German snickered at the French even being at the surrender. Giving that speech had nothing to do with allies walking all over him at all.

@@ronniebishop2496 And was deGaule in charge then? No. France did not have an arrogant dick at the time. So deGaulle stepped up when no one else would and led the fight against them, and the Free French started kicking German butt. Now, what is this speech you keep talking about?

captainzorikh The speech Ike asked him to deliver to the French on the eve of the evasion. That’s what this entire scene is about! You didn’t see it? Look you obviously know more about him than Churchill, Ike and Roosevelt but I don’t think so. They were all arrogant dick that doesn’t explain anything! But to jeopardize the entire invasion because of his embarrassment and arrogance is absurd.

Nonsense! Your view is amateur and ridiculous. Stay in school, kids.

De Gaul wasn t as bad as he's portrayed here, he was an arse but he did agree to most of the plan for d-day. Mainly he just objected to France being occupied after it was liberated and he had concerns about resistance cells being destroyed if the invasion failed, he also felt that the exiled French should have had more input into the planning. I think he felt that since it was his country being stormed he as it's representative should have been counciled more and treated as equals, it's understandable when you consider a lot of the intel used to plan d-day came from French resistance members, many of whom died to pass the info on.

Napoleon Joan d’Arc Lafayette ???

@@punch6832 Charlemagne maybe.

Yes yes we do.

DeGaulle was a very easy man to hate. Most everyone he ever met did.

Monty WAS a prima donna, but at least he knew who the boss was. De Gaulle was just an arrogant ass. Maybe Ike should have reminded him of who it was in 1940 who surrendered.

@@antonbruce1241 I agree.

The Russians didn’t like De Gaulle either and felt they was weak.

Yes the French Underground did great but it’s the leaders that show how ridiculous DeGaulle was. But the French have insulted us forever and thus was the worst.