Recceguy and Reinhartd both make good points; fine to make poor taste jokes about France's defeat in 1940, but people quickly board the outrage bus when the tables are turned. We all know that the small Marine detachment put up a brave fight in 1982, but some seem happy to forget the reality of France's effort forty-two years earlier.
For those who have conveniently forgotten or were too disinterested to find out, here are a few excerpts from history:
Remember that France had taken a beating in WW1 and had decided to fight a defensive war behind their line of fortifications, the Maginot Line instead of trenches. The line did not extend into Belgium or the Netherlands; they were expected to hold their part of the front.
The Germans seized the initiative, capturing the key Belgian fort of Eban Emael with a daring airborne operation. The speed of the German advance and the brutality of the air raids gave them a huge psychological advantage, and on 14 May the Dutch surrendered.
The British and French responded by putting into operation a plan to advance to the River Dyle, in Belgium... ...It soon became clear that by advancing into the Low Countries the Allies were dancing to Hitler's tune. On 13 May, the first German forces emerged from the Ardennes near Sedan. In a two-day battle, the Panzers crossed the River Meuse, despite some surprisingly stiff resistance from the second-class French defenders.
With the bulk of the Allied forces fighting in Belgium, there was little to stop the German forces as they sliced across the Allied supply-lines. The German spearheads reached the English Channel on 20 May.
Lacking a centrally placed strategic reserve, the Allies tried to pull their armies out of Belgium to respond to the new threat emerging in their rear. And the Germans did not have it all their own way, as French forces under Charles de Gaulle showed how vulnerable the flanks of the German forces were to bold counterattacks.
With German forces pushing through Belgium and the Panzers looping up from the south and west, the Allies were encircled. The Belgian army surrendered on 28 May, leaving a gaping hole on the British flank of the Allied forces... ...Allied high command seemed paralysed.
Then General Lord Gort, the commander of the British Expeditionary Force took the morally courageous decision to abandon his role in a projected Anglo-French counterattack, and fell back on the Channel ports... ...The French, not surprisingly, regarded this as a betrayal, but Gort's decision saved the BEF... ...hastily organised evacuation by sea, code-named Operation Dynamo, lifted 338,000 Allied troops from Dunkirk.
5 June... ...the Germans striking southwards from the River Somme. Despite the fact that the French in many areas fought well, the Germans destroyed the Allied forces in the field in short order. The 51st Highland Division was forced to surrender on 12 June.
Following the surrender of the Netherlands and Belgium and the retreat or surrender of British troops, France was isolated and out-gunned.
A fresh British force was sent to Normandy, only to be evacuated almost immediately. Meanwhile, the victorious Panzers raced in different directions across France, finishing off pockets of resistance, crossing the River Loire in the west on 17 June, and reaching the Swiss frontier a few days later. The end came with the surrender of France on 22 June.
France fought and lost.