German wire, machine gun posts, identification of bodies.

Then what do you think we'II do to Krautkissers like you?

It's going to be a long, dull job, but it's a damn sight worse for the Germans.

Now, listen, Mrs Collins, you remember that scarecrow in my field signalling to the Germans?

Germans can also thank the mettle and competence of their political leaders, including Chancellor Angela Merkel and her predecessor, Gerhard Schröder.

Paris fell to the Germans on 14 June 1940, and the French leaders surrendered on 24 June 1940 after the British Expeditionary Force was evacuated from Dunkirk, along with many French soldiers.

Unlike the French, who are handicapped by the high cost of housing, Germans purchasing power is more harmoniously distributed, creating more room for household consumption to contribute to economic growth.

French tanks were also very slow in speed in comparison to the Panzer s (except for the SOMUA S35), as they were designed as infantry support, enabling German tanks to offset their disadvantages by out manoeuvering the French on the battlefield.

Was it defeat or liberation? For Germans this question was not easily answered, though clearly our family was liberated in every sense.

In English, as in several other European languages, the term austerity derives from the Greek austeros, which means harsh and severe, whereas for Germans it is merely a technocratic savings scheme, a Sparprogramme.

Merkel will have to explain the inconvenient truth to Germans that the price of having the euro is inevitably a transfer and economic union, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy will have to make clear to the French the price of a real economic and stability union.

Thanks to its moderate housing costs, Berlin has not become, like Paris, a ghetto for the rich. Unlike the French, who are handicapped by the high cost of housing, Germans purchasing power is more harmoniously distributed, creating more room for household consumption to contribute to economic growth.

For Germans this question was not easily answered, though clearly our family was liberated in every sense. The question then was this liberated for what?