re: #502 Jay C

I’ll second that. Shirer’s tome on Nazi Germany was an insightful memoir by someone who was there: his book about the Fall of France is something else, though: a thorough and comprehensive history.
And, while it doesn’t excuse French mistakes - military OR political - in the lead up to, and the early battles of WWII ( and they were beaucoup) - it puts a serious dent in the “cheese-eating surrender-monkeys” myth. Definitely a worthwhile read.

The people who call the French that shit are the same people in mindset anyhow who felt we didn’t need to get involved with “another European war” in 1938. I don’t blame the isolationist sentiment at that time nor do I do those who wanted us to stop Hitler but I certainly do blame those who throw that crap at the French and crap on Chamberlain with hindsight bias and Churchilliean propaganda.