does the french have any military victories after the time of there revolution?

Question

I didn't think so

Napoleon wasen't french and the only reason they won was becouse of him and the french would have died a horribal if america and 75% of europe was not helping them

and I'll give the friench foren legion credit but other than that it's sad

Answer 1

Nope.

Rules of French warfare.

1. The French are only successful in battle when led by someone other than a Frenchman.

2. France wins only when America does most of the fighting.

3. When incapable of any victory whatsoever - claim someone else's".

Do a google search on "French Military Victories" and click on "I feel Lucky" for a complete listing of articles related to French Military Victories.

Answer 2

World War 1 - Yes, that was a French victory as much as it was a British or American one. Don't dupe yourself into thinking anyone put more effort into this one than France. Somewhere around 60% of their military-age men either died or were permanently maimed. Around 4% of the whole population died. When the allied forces were reorganized following the late American involvement, guess who led everyone? A Frenchman.

World War 2 - Arguably a victory too. Despite the relatively quick defeat of both British and French forces in the Battle of France, casualties were far higher for both the Allies and the Axis than in the previous WW2 battles in Europe. Gee, that's a lot of resistance in such a short time span.

Most of the Western allies surrendered masses of land and forces early on in that war - Britain in their Asian colonies, the Americans at the Philippines and Wake Island, et all. It's just bad luck for France that their first defeat took place on their own soil.

So what happened to the Free French Armies and resistance forces? They won everywhere else.

Gulf War - Yep. Guess who protected the left American flank in Iraq, overcame an infantry division and held a successful blocking action?

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Arguably, few nations truly win by themselves these days. Let's face it, when was the last time the United States won a war alone, save for the overthrowing of tiny banana republics?

Answer 3

Napoleon came into power toward the end of the French Revolution, and afterward he nearly took over the world. And then there's the French foreign legion--you might look them up. And WW1--the French practically LED WW1.

Geez. I sometimes wonder why the French put up with us as their allies, as obnoxious as some Americans get about them.

ETA: Napoleon WAS French--he was born in Corsica which, though an island, is one of the 26 régions of France and considered part of metropolitan France. Try again.

Answer 4

The French have a very honorable record with regards their fighting abilities, true they were not always on the winning side of wars but they tried their best.

Napoleon was one of the greatest leaders of his time, and for your information Corsica was and still is a part of France.

The Americans came very late into World War 1, by this time the French had been virtually bleed dry fighting the Germans, over half a million French soldiers were killed at Verdun, alone.

Large parts of France were devastated by 4 years of war, to appreciate their casualty rates from WW1 & WW2 see under:

French casualties in WWI.

World War I cost France 1,357,800 military dead,
4,266,000 military wounded (of whom 1.5 million were permanently maimed),
and 537,000 made military prisoner or missing -- exactly 73% of the 8,410,000 men mobilized, according to William Shirer in "The Collapse of the Third Republic."

Some context: France had 40 million citizens at the start of the war; six in ten men between the ages of eighteen and twenty-eight died or were permanently maimed.
10% of the active French population and 3,5% of the total population died on the battlefields.

As a comparison, if this were to happen now in the United States, the number of casualties would reach 10 million.

There would also be 680,000 widows and 760,000 orphans.

Throughout Europe, the number of crippled soldiers amounted to 6,500,000.

Between 1914 and 1918, the drops in births in France is estimated at 1 million.

Regarding WWII, between 1939 (when war was declared by France and the United Kingdom) and 1940, 120,000 soldiers died, not to mention the number of French citizens who died as war prisoners, forced laborers, deported civilians or in acts of resistance against the Nazis during the German Occupation. The amount of suffering occasioned by WWII in France is impossible to assess and should not be forgotten.

It's very easy to sit back and consider the French poor soldiers when you do not know all the facts.
America has never had to suffer civilian casualties in it's home land (apart from the Pearl Harbour attack) in the numbers the French did.So please give credit where credit is due.

They, like the USA failed to win in Indo-China / Vietnam, and the French Colonial War in Algeria has to be considered not in the light of a military defeat but because of a change of political opinion they decided to pull out of that country and allow the Algerians independence.

Answer 5

The French havent won a major war without others help since the Revolution. Le Grande Armee was defeat by Mother Russia and then at Waterloo

Answer 6

Of course...World War I comes to mind and certainly until Napoleon's defeat, they kicked just about everyone's *** from one end of Europe to the other, and even burned Moscow.

But like all great empires, sooner or later they lose.

Answer 7

Franco-Austrian and Crimean Wars...WWI...let's not forget they had troops in the Gulf War in '91...they CURRENTLY have troops in Afghanistan. Pick a battle that matters, bub. The French are ok.

Answer 8

Yes

Answer 9

The French couldn't fight their way out of a wet paper bag.
The U.S. bailed them out of W.W.1 and W.W.2 as well as the
Korean and Viet Nam war.