Quote from: Just a few Orcs on 01 November 2013, 10:40:46 AM

We were benevolent and gave it as a gift to our Colonials

  Nope...think the second world war did for us...

Bankrupt;
Lost an Empire;
Rationing;
Bomb damaged cities;
Nearly 500 000 casualties.

And the pride of knowing we stood, ALONE (in the beginning), against THE most evil regime the world has ever seen.

Alone?

Dont forget the 57% increase in the crime rate 

Quote from: FierceKitty on 01 November 2013, 12:01:47 AM
And Dunkirk. And selling out the Czechs. And the retreat from Kabul. Yorktown. The first Boer War. Having to be rescued by the Prussians at Waterloo. Having to be rescued by the French at Inkermann. And the fact that English armies lost the English Civil War, the Baron's Wars, the Wars of the Roses, Hastings....

France 1940 was a very small British army being evacuated when a very big French army collapsed. The army at Waterloo was a allied one - more Germans than British (even a big chunk of the "British" army was Kings German Legion) and Wellington was holding until the Prussians could link up.  

Quote from: Sandinista on 01 November 2013, 07:34:14 AM
also losing to the Dutch and having their leader made king

Anything's better than a Catholic. I think Willy 3 was more of an invitee than a proper conqueror. His wife, after all was in line of succession.

Quote from: Sandinista on 01 November 2013, 04:28:32 PM
Alone?

As a nation, at that time, yes!  This is not to belittle the efforts of thousands of partizans and Nazi resistors.

Ah! The Resistance!

Why do we never speak of the collaborators?

Quote from: fsn on 01 November 2013, 04:55:05 PM
Ah! The Resistance!

Why do we never speak of the collaborators?

I watched a documentary the other day and apparently in Northern France in 1940/41 only 1% of the French resisted in any way.

This however is not what i have found - All the French Totty I have tried to conquer have resisted 100%. 

Although there was a quite attractive waitress in Normandy this year who did give me extra helpings of Whipped Cream,  or Chantilly Plus was what she actually said.   

Quote from: fsn on 01 November 2013, 04:39:47 PM

Anything's better than a Catholic. I think Willy 3 was more of an invitee than a proper conqueror. His wife, after all was in line of succession.

?

Quote from: fsn on 01 November 2013, 04:55:05 PM
Ah! The Resistance!

Why do we never speak of the collaborators?

I have just been reading about the British Free Corps...Interesting stuff

Alone ... so Australia, Canada, India, etc were just no-account colonials not worth mentioning!??

Pretty much every nation has had it's up and it's downs on the world stage. It's moments of heroism and it's times of ignominy.

"Patriotism is, fundamentally, a conviction that a particular country is the best in the world because you were born in it...." ― George Bernard Shaw  

Quote from: fsn on 01 November 2013, 04:55:05 PM
Ah! The Resistance!

Why do we never speak of the collaborators?

Because I think, any single one of us could become one:  if you're scared for your family, if you were hungry, if you fell in love.  In fact, any of the thousands of things that make us human, could make us a callaborator.

I know, for a fact, I don't have what it would take to resist: I couldn't risk my my wife and boy.  One step from here to callaboration.

Dear lord this is getting dark

Quote from: Ithoriel on 01 November 2013, 05:18:26 PM
Alone ... so Australia, Canada, India, etc were just no-account colonials not worth mentioning!??

No, to qualify, I meant at first.  I realise many countries fought against the Nazis.  Sorry if I was unclear

Unclear and wrong

At first we were allied with Poland, France, Norway, Belgium, Holland and the Commonwealth. As many of these countries fell a surprising number of their young men and women made their way to the UK to continue the fight.

We were never truly alone.

To try and lighten the mood ... anyone ever gamed the Brazilian Expeditionary Force that fought in Italy from September '44 to May '45? 27,500 men strong and yet I'd never come across mention of it until this afternoon.

I have heard of them...But that is all