UK would be a pushover if Putin invaded

[Snoopinator]

AIBU to think the UK population would be too busy fretting about rude receptionists, grousing about trans issues and spying on their possible benefit-fraudster neighbours to put up any meaningful resistance to a Russian invasion? It's hard to imagine people coming together in any significant degree.

Most definitely this!

Who mentioned Vikings?

It's absolutely true in the case of 1940. Without the Channel Nazi Germany would have continued the steamroller that saw them conquer the Low Countries and France in a matter of weeks. The French Armed Forces were an order of magnitude larger than the UK's, yet they were utterly and comprehensively defeated, what little land capability the UK had was more or less completely destroyed by a series of retreats and the fiasco at Dunkirk. The Royal Air Force, while still intact and perfectly capable of making life for any invading land force a complete misery, would also have to contend with a Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica that was not faced with the same range and loiter constraints as they did having to travel from mainland France and cross the Channel, the Royal Navy would have been rendered wholly irrelevant, as would the potential manpower available to the UK in the Commonwealth Nations.

Ask yourself why the UK, with it's already puny land army completely decimated, would somehow be capable of defeating the Nazi forces without the fortune of having the natural barrier of the Channel to assist, when that same Nazi war machine had completely and utterly ragdolled far greater forces than the UK fighting in their own backyards. It's nonsense.

The UK armed forces were in such a state in 1940-1941 that even the shambolic Italian Army kicked them all across North Africa before they finally got their act together. The idea that the Home Guard and a ragtag bunch of soldiers armed with nothing more than rifles would somehow be capable of standing up to unrestricted, unhindered Blitzkrieg in full swing is risible. We'd have had a Quisling government in London and Churchill and the Royals in Canada by Summer 1941 at the very latest, were it not for the fact Germany had no capability to launch an amphibious invasion of any substantive size.

😅😅😅

I remember a few years back hearing that the uk had been involved in active conflict somewhere in the world for 100 years. Not that it had declared war but just involved. I think this was in 2015.

Well, a few months ago hundreds of thousands of people traveled long distances, queued for hours and walked several miles in rain and shine to mourn and pay tribute to the late Queen, and however many millions watched her funeral… that was pretty unifying

Since I saw a male elected town councillor flounce out of a finance meeting in tears from being correctly sexed by an older councillor, it's made me wonder if the younger generation are too snowflakey and obsessed with never hearing anything they don't like to become soldiers.

Yep.

Branleuse
Whereas all other countries never have contraversial or divisive issues, and that means they would definitely be better at fighting off a hypothetical Putin invasion.

They don't, though; I have lived in several countries, and the UK is unique among them in this regard.

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I'd disagree as I've also lived in several different countries and actually, most people are not very different

@FourTeaFallOut I agree with this. You don’t really know how a group or community will cope until the challenge is real and your survival depends on it.

Also, I’ve lived in Russia. Russians are just people like everyone else, and we’re all the same deep down really (if you get my meaning). They’re not some sort of “übermensch”, trust me. My impression is they’re not a terribly happy nation, there’s a lot of cognitive dissonance that permeates society, so that’s not great from a fighting perspective as I really think they lack the motivation to successfully subjugate and control another country in the long-term. That’s not to say that they’re harmless, that’s really not the case as we have seen from the last 12 months. This Ukraine war could drag on for 20 years, but ultimately I wouldn’t bet the farm on a Russian victory.

Ah, it this what the papers are telling you to worry about today?

How is that consistent with their stories about Ukrainians killing 100 Russians for every Ukrainian death? I think they've also been saying since last March that Russia has a weeks worth of ammo left.

Yeah, sure, Russia might get all the way through Europe and put boots on the ground in the UK.

Still, if you're enjoying the fake fear and the opportunity to have a pop at British men, knock yourself out while everyone laughs at you

And the Dutch in the 1600s, that was the last time we were invaded successfully

I agree with some of this, but I grew up with my grandparents (basic working class Londoners, born in the 1910s) referring to Churchill as a warmonger, they had no time for him.

I didnt really understand until I was older of course.

I dont know how wide spread that view was but its not the case that this is a recent thing

This somewhat supports the OP's assertion. People travelling hundreds of miles in the rain, queuing for 24hours, potentially even taking annual leave to attend all just to spend a few seconds shuffling past the queen's coffin by quite a few feet away shows just how much servility is welded to the national psyche.

I think they knew it was a big occasion (heck, most of us only ever had the Queen as monarch) and wanted to be able to say/post on Insta - "I was there"

If Russia invaded UK, it would mean Europe was once again under occupation of a hostile nation

The only difference this time is that Putin has buckets of sunshine to throw around and there would be nothing worth occupying by the time they got here 😔

Weather was part of it, but they also needed air superiority, which they didn't get after they lost the battle of Britain

I agree with you.
People would be out stealing, causing trouble etc.
Russia would beat us in a second.

“Sees itself as holier than thou“!!? Don’t make me laugh. Have you been in a British bookshop and looked at the new releases? Pretty much every book has titles like ‘Britain’s Evil Empire’, ‘How Britain was Built on Slavery’, ‘Churchill’s Dark Shadow’ and on and on. I doubt there is a country in the world filled with more people who hate their own identity. Self-loathing is one of the few things we are good at.

I hate to break it to you, but the history of the world IS the history of war and empire and invasion. Ever heard of the Mughals? Or the Aztecs, or the Incas, or the Zulus, or the Ottomons, or the Arabic Caliphate, or the Mongols, or the Vikings, or the Barbary pirates...(tell me when you want me to stop)? Everyone had empires. Everyone enslaved their neighbours. Had China or India industrialised before Europe, you can bet your life they would have colonised us instead of the other way around. Had Irish kings and landowners been more powerful than their British equivalent, you can bet they’d have found an excuse for colonising Britain. It’s what people did.

Of course the empire was full of cruelty and racism. That goes without saying. And no one should invade another country (though it’s not as simple as that, since most of the places Britain colonised weren’t countries at all). But that is to project modern standards onto seventeenth-century people. And by the way, had there been no British Empire there would be no United States, Canada or Australia as we know them. Instead, the world would now be run by Putin and China.

Absolutely this. It makes me laugh that people that want to jump to be the first to criticise and wring their hands about the UK/England invading and colonising other world countries because the UK thought this or that about itself, thought it was the centre of the world, dont know a jot about world history, sort of demonstrating themselves that they can only think in a way which centres the UK.

Neither did they know prior to WW2 they learnt - you go on a training course - 6 weeks and off you go

Also, people are here being critical because the UK is very welcoming - and tolerant of people whose second language is English.

You go to Europe with less than perfect Italian, Spanish or French and see how you get on.

Quiet you. We don't talk about the past transgressions of the UK unless it is to frame them in a positive light.

I've always found the Spanish very tolerant and understanding about any mistakes I've made speaking their language.

Oth some posters only post negative comments on U.K.