English Histree

Saddleworth2 said:
so 20% of those that fought in the Battle of Britain were from our stated allies, Poland, Canada, NZ... and you still want to persist that Britain stood alone. ...
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I'm persisting that you are interpreting the phrase wrong. There is a need to recognise the service of anyone regardless of their nationality. There is no need to re-interpret the phrase because people fail to investigate or understand the facts behind it, otherwise we'll need to start re-inventing things like ...

The last English team to win the Champions League as the last English-Egyptian-Senagolese-Scottish-Dutch team to win - it's ridiculous.
 
Citizen of Legoland said:
I'm persisting that you are interpreting the phrase wrong. There is a need to recognise the service of anyone regardless of their nationality. There is no need to re-interpret the phrase because people fail to investigate or understand the facts behind it, otherwise we'll need to start re-inventing things like ...

The last English team to win the Champions League as the last English-Egyptian-Senagolese-Scottish-Dutch team to win - it's ridiculous.
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Nice try. The U.K. had stated allies in 1940. Those Allies provided servicemen to fight under U.K. command. The U.K. stood alone....

Strange argument.

I don’t think I am interpreting it wrong. The U.K. stood with its Allies against Nazi Germany during the Battle of Britain is a factual statement. The U.K. stood alone.....is not factual.
 
Saddleworth2 said:
Nice try. The U.K. had stated allies in 1940. Those Allies provided servicemen to fight under U.K. command. The U.K. stood alone....

Strange argument.

I don’t think I am interpreting it wrong. The U.K. stood with its Allies against Nazi Germany during the Battle of Britain is a factual statement. The U.K. stood alone.....is not factual.
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I think that's the point, it doesn't need to be factual, it's just a descriptive generalisation based on the majority of affected people being British, most of whom live on an island called Great Britain (aka Britain).
 
Citizen of Legoland said:
I think that's the point, it doesn't need to be factual, it's just a descriptive generalisation based on the majority of affected people being British, most of whom live on an island called Great Britain (aka Britain).
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If it’s not factual it’s not true. It’s a free country though and anyone can use the phrase if they so choose, either through a sense of British exceptionalism or ignorance of the history. I would rather state historical truths though rather than ’notions’.
 
Saddleworth2 said:
Nice try. The U.K. had stated allies in 1940. Those Allies provided servicemen to fight under U.K. command. The U.K. stood alone....

Strange argument.

I don’t think I am interpreting it wrong. The U.K. stood with its Allies against Nazi Germany during the Battle of Britain is a factual statement. The U.K. stood alone.....is not factual.
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Risk of fake history becoming truth.
The British Empire stood "alone" against the Axis (mainly Germany and Italy) not little old England. But the BE was arguably the greatest super power at the time, and economically much stronger.
The war drained the coffers and the US pulled away dramatically.

The Battle of the Atlantic was more significant strategically illustrated by Germany spending a major share of its defence spending on u-boats to attempt to drain the UK of imports such as food and oil.

Personally don't mind the mythologising of history, it's been going on for centuries.
 
I feel these last few pages are descending into pedantic chat.

It might not be technically true, that in 1940, Britain was completely on its own but anyone who’s read on WW2, to a reasonable degree, will know that the general perception at the time, both on the island of Britain and across the world, was that the only thing that stood in the way of Nazi Germany conquering the whole of Europe, in 1940, was the UK.

The narrative in the US, by those wanting to enter the war, was that they couldn’t leave us on our own to stop Germany. Churchill said in his famous speech, that they would go on, “if necessary for years, if necessary alone”.

Of course those that came to Europe to join our military and those in the Empire that helped, must be honoured and remembered, but it’s also important to give the UK it’s credit in trying to stop Hitler with all its major allies defeated or not mobilised.

Britain could never have won the war on its own but that stand against that, was probably the best thing we’ve ever done.
 
Ban-jani said:
I feel these last few pages are descending into pedantic chat.

It might not be technically true, that in 1940, Britain was completely on its own but anyone who’s read on WW2, to a reasonable degree, will know that the general perception at the time, both on the island of Britain and across the world, was that the only thing that stood in the way of Nazi Germany conquering the whole of Europe, in 1940, was the UK.

The narrative in the US, by those wanting to enter the war, was that they couldn’t leave us on our own to stop Germany. Churchill said in his famous speech, that they would go on, “if necessary for years, if necessary alone”.

Of course those that came to Europe to join our military and those in the Empire that helped, must be honoured and remembered, but it’s also important to give the UK it’s credit in trying to stop Hitler with all its major allies defeated or not mobilised.

Britain could never have won the war on its own but that stand against that, was probably the best thing we’ve ever done.
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Pedantic chat or proper reflection of historic fact. Everyone gets to choose which.
When you talk about Britain, do you mean the British Empire or the UK?
 
Saddleworth2 said:
If it’s not factual it’s not true. It’s a free country though and anyone can use the phrase if they so choose, either through a sense of British exceptionalism or ignorance of the history. I would rather state historical truths though rather than ’notions’.
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Which one are you accusing me of here?
 
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