The French have guns, never been fired, only dropped once.
I kinda start to get tired hearing brave men bashed. The French soldiers fought hard in WWI. Read up on Verdun some time. Didn't surrender in that one.
They fought hard in 1940 as well. They were let down by their military and political leaders. Most importantly, the Germans had a new military doctrine that was ahead of that practiced elsewhere, including the US. The French just didn't have the time or geography to learn how totally mechanized warfare had developed. Given how prepared we were for Pearl harbor and even more telling, Tunisia, where we gout our bellybutton totally kicked -- we have little room to talk. Unlike the French we did have the option to learn from our mistakes, and even take combined arms mechanized warfare to the next level in the process.
Napoleon was no slouch either.
The Norwegians... a bit complicated. There were cultural issues and they were occupied and people made choices. A lot also made the choice to have active resistance either on the ground in Norway or serving in the formal military in the UK. Anne Frank was eventually ratted out, but a lot of people risked their lives and their families' lives before that to protect her family. That takes guts that I don't know if I would have.
Then again, the US Nazi Party was notable up until 12-7-41. And, the US and UK both de facto backed the Nazis in Spain during the Civil War. Quite a bit of admiration for Herr Hitler among conservative circles at the time. Wouldn't it be nice if we had our own Hitler... he could sure deal with those unions.
The whole Ugly American thing can really be more than a stereotype.
Charon
