That was quick Nav has it.
It is indeed much to Benny's disgust and a few others the frog eating, garlic crunching, surrender monkeys The French!
Despite rolling over twice in the early part of the 20th Century, and a couple of well documented ar4e whippings at Waterloo and Agincourt. The French have been highly successful militarily, choosing their battles as opposed to having them forced upon them. Famously achieving what Hitler failed to by reaching an entering Moscow under Napoleon.
The French have arguably the best military record in Europe. According to historian Niall Ferguson, of the 125 major European wars fought since 1495, the French have fought in 50, more than both Austria (47) and England (43). And they achieved an impressive overall batting average: out of a total of 168 battles fought since 387 bc, they have won 109, lost 49 and drawn 10. Quite how we get a draw in a war is a bit beyond me!
A lot of the words used in modern warfare derive from French words, such as: army, artillery, captain, cavalry, charge, espionage, general, lieutenant, lance, marines, manoeuvre, military, mine, naval, parachute, pilot (Benny will LOVE that), platoon, regiment, soldier and trench.