We do make such jokes. Not about WW1, though. But the reputation of the French was heavily tainted by their failure to check Germany in the interbellum and the Vichy regime.
Not to mention that the main reason why French army underperformed in the war is that lots of resources were spent on Maginot line as spending them on a potentially offensive things would upset the British
This is an old theory that doesn't hold up at all. The Maginot line was a good investment and worked as intented. And it was by no means as large an investment as people claim.
Where they failed is in terms of their officers, command&control and training. The French Generals made some horrible mistakes and never managed to recover.
Of course, however they are all framed as "LOL, look how stupid/naive politicians are" rather than "LOL look how stupid/naive our country was". "Chamberlain" is still used as a shorthand for a politician accepting a deal that no one believes will be upheld.
> Yes, a misleading statement, but also one which bought the British valuable time to build up their military.
This is not really the case. The most important things the British could do against the Germans was the Blockade. And the Blockade was available at literally any time since WW1.
And the Germans were already in full buildup, they delay between 1938 and 1939 helped the Germans far more then it would have helped the Allies. Not to mentioned it took out the Czech military.
Specially since its only when the Germans invaded Prague that the British really started the buildup.
And in the end, the British army was kind of useless in the Battle of France, since the breakthrew happens in Verdun and the British were in Belgium.
