From the Best / Worse commander thread :
France had the most complicated situation post-WW2 among the post-war democracies, and a lot of our views of WW2 generals was biased by own the 4th and 5th Republic celebrated them, which was not independant to the behavior of those generals after WW2.
In France, popular culture only know of Leclerc and De Lattre de Tassigny.
It took me some time to understand that De Lattre was overrated and never performed above expectations - though not bad - because well we needed a famous General coming from the Free French (that would be Leclerc) and a famous General from Vichy (and that would be De Lattre).
Leclerc, well, even after some research I still find hiim an excellent general, but am I biaised by my "official" education and the fact that he was French ?
Some important generals are forgotten :
Alphonse Juin, for the reason I already covered.
[He is certainly not the best General of WW2 nor even in the top 5, but he was an excellent one that everyone forget because :
1. He was French, so obviously in the shadow of German, Soviet, English or American commanders,
2. He chosed the side of Vichy, and couldn't help being a Pétainist till the end (he wanted to testify in favour of Pétain post-war)
3. He also managed to get opposed to the post-War republic policy, and then to De Gaulle policy in Algeria, so yes it did not help accumulating honors
4. He was certainly not flamboyant like Leclerc
On the other hand, he is one of the best performing generals of the campaign of France, he is the one who turned and took Mount Cassino using out of the book manoeuvres, and the rest of his campaign in Italy was without any mistakes, though certainly not with Rommel's brillance. Of all the allied generals in Italy, I believe he was the best. ]
I can't quite put the reason why Marie-Pierre Koenig is forgotten though. If you ask a French man who was in command at Bir-Hakeim (a symbolic victory for the Free French), most who would try to answer would say Leclerc - not Koenig. Possibly Koenig was too political to be glorified by the Republic ?
And then there are the vilified // forgotten because they chosed the wrong side during the "colonial events", in particular Edgard de Larminat, whom De Gaulle despised even though he joined the Free French from the beginning.
What's the take of a non-French taking interest in the French army on our generals ?
France had the most complicated situation post-WW2 among the post-war democracies, and a lot of our views of WW2 generals was biased by own the 4th and 5th Republic celebrated them, which was not independant to the behavior of those generals after WW2.
In France, popular culture only know of Leclerc and De Lattre de Tassigny.
It took me some time to understand that De Lattre was overrated and never performed above expectations - though not bad - because well we needed a famous General coming from the Free French (that would be Leclerc) and a famous General from Vichy (and that would be De Lattre).
Leclerc, well, even after some research I still find hiim an excellent general, but am I biaised by my "official" education and the fact that he was French ?
Some important generals are forgotten :
Alphonse Juin, for the reason I already covered.
[He is certainly not the best General of WW2 nor even in the top 5, but he was an excellent one that everyone forget because :
1. He was French, so obviously in the shadow of German, Soviet, English or American commanders,
2. He chosed the side of Vichy, and couldn't help being a Pétainist till the end (he wanted to testify in favour of Pétain post-war)
3. He also managed to get opposed to the post-War republic policy, and then to De Gaulle policy in Algeria, so yes it did not help accumulating honors
4. He was certainly not flamboyant like Leclerc
On the other hand, he is one of the best performing generals of the campaign of France, he is the one who turned and took Mount Cassino using out of the book manoeuvres, and the rest of his campaign in Italy was without any mistakes, though certainly not with Rommel's brillance. Of all the allied generals in Italy, I believe he was the best. ]
I can't quite put the reason why Marie-Pierre Koenig is forgotten though. If you ask a French man who was in command at Bir-Hakeim (a symbolic victory for the Free French), most who would try to answer would say Leclerc - not Koenig. Possibly Koenig was too political to be glorified by the Republic ?
And then there are the vilified // forgotten because they chosed the wrong side during the "colonial events", in particular Edgard de Larminat, whom De Gaulle despised even though he joined the Free French from the beginning.
What's the take of a non-French taking interest in the French army on our generals ?
.