Why is the French war effort in WW2 so looked upon ? Correct me if I'm wrong, but these are pure acts of badassery :
>1940, the cream of the French and British troops are trapped in Dunkirk, the French hold the line for days while the British are told not to fight and the belgians surrendered, 300 000 troops are saved
>1942, Free French under Koenig hold Rommel's Afrikakorps and Italian troopsalone in the Libyan desert for 14 days, using old anti air guns to destroy tanks, inflicting heavy casualties and giving the British enough time to defend Suez and later fight in El Alamein
>1944, Marshal Juin designs the plan to end the German resistance at Monte Cassino, Operation Diadem, his troops accomplish their objectives with a surprising speed, flanking the Germans in the mountains, they later were the first Allied troops to reach Rome but were denied the right to enter the city first because of America's prestige.
>1944, Jean de Lattre de Tassigny's army is the main force behind Operation Anvil Dragoon in southern France, they take their objectives ( Marseilles and Toulon ) one month before they were expected to be able to do so, and then proceed to move north along the Rhone gathering French Maquis ( Resistants ) and incorporating them into the army.
>1944 ( Again ) Leclerc's 2eme DB is the first to enter Paris despite the allies wanting to ignore the city, and later the same 2eme DB is the first to enter Strasburg.
>1945 De Tassigny's troops are the first allied army to reach and cross the Rhine, they then proceed to take Stutgart and defend it before launching the "Rhine and Danube" operation which ended in Austria
I'm not saying they're the best and did it all on their own, but this all seems enough to wipe out the 1940 humiliation to me