Flandry and the Vixenite Emil Bryce wait in the rain to ambush Ardazhiro. Rain penetrates Flandry's hood but he must not move. He resents the ease with which Bryce, a professional hunter trained from boyhood, remains completely stationary for half an hour but surely Flandry's own profession requires similar skills? See:
- particularly the concluding paragraph and the combox. Hunters must focus their attention outward, not inward.
For more about Flandry's activities on Vixen, see here.
Also:
9 comments:
Actually, "resistance' in that sense only becomes significant if there's a prospect of the occupiers being defeated and driven out soon.
Otherwise most people keep their heads down and do what they're told, sensibly enough, unless they think they'll be killed whatever they do.
If they think that, they're usually killed whatever they do.
The "resistance" in France was nugatory until the D-Day landings, for example. Much was made of it by de Gaulle (and in a slightly different way, by the French Communist Party), but that was just ex post facto mythologizing.
In the case of the French Communists, to disguise the supine collaborationism they esposed right up to the day Hitler invaded the USSR.
And in de Gaulle's case, to hide/draw attention from the lousy performance of the French Army in 1940, and also from the fact that the overwhelming majority of French people backed Petain and Vichy until it became obvious Germany was probably going to win the war.
Such is life.
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Paul: Flandry was trained to be absolutely still when necessary. He simply didn't enjoy it.
Mr. Stirling: I agree, there will be both understandable/necessary and contemptible reasons for obeying foreign conquerors. The French Communists being a good example of the despicable sort of compliance.
You did stress not all of the French Army's performance in 1940 was terrible, in other comments.
And you meant "...Germany was probably going to LOSE the war."
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: yes, by Gum, I did mean 'lose'.
Yes, not all of the French army's behavior was bad. The best units were up in the northwest with the BEF, fighting in Belgium.
The ones in the northeast, opposite the Ardennes, were second-line reservists, because that was considered a position unlikely to be attacked.
And they were hit with the best of the German army.
However, the French -high command- was uniformly bad -- they got caught flat-footed, and the Germans stayed 'inside their decision loop' right to the end, which meant that they never really had a chance to recover.
Mr. Stirling's knowledge of the French Resistance, and what the British, Americans, and FNCL wanted them to do before and after the invasion is - limited, to be charitable.
By 1943, of course, an Allied aviator shot down over northwest Europe had a 1-in-2 chance of evading capture and making it back to Allied territory; some 12,000 European "resistants" are credited with enabling the MI-9 and MIS-X organizations to accomplish their tasks.
There are multiple peer-reviewed and official histories of both organizations, of course.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Got it, the Germans did not repeat what they did in 1914, attacking the French/BEF at their left flank thru Belgium. The French were caught by surprise when the Wehrmacht struck thru difficult territory on their right.
Ad astra! Sean
DS: you're confusing escape routes and intelligence operations with "Maquisard" attacks on the Germans, which is what I was talking about.
And I'll thank you to be more polite, please. Or bugger off.
All views can be expressed - and I hope that they are. Politeness is certainly preferred.
No mention of "attacks on the Germans" in your initial post, however; lot of criticism of France and the French, however, which leads to the obvious question of "why" ...
Obviously, given the example of the Vercors battle, which occurred after NEPTUNE but before DRAGOON, moving from intelligence, sabotage, and evasion support missions to active combat by the Resistance BEFORE Allied forces were in a position to support was a waste of lives and resources ... but recognizing that reality doesn't come easy to some.
Thank you, Paul.
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