WW2 Trivia

I have a friend whose father was a German soldier on the easter front. He was shot through the neck, survived that, and survived being in a prison camp for several years, finally returning home. I'll tell you what, you know you come from hardy stock if you fought on the Eastern front, were captured and survived.

I recently watched a documentary TV series on Netflix that was really good. It isn't eastern front focused. It is about Hitler and his inner circle and is named "Hitler's Circle of Evil".

Though a tv series, it is a documentary rather than a drama or soap. It delves into the very deep dysfunction of the whole lot.

I like the discussion that is coming from this thread, especially the proof sources Marko is mentioning.  A couple of points.  First, uncovering the truth about the Eastern Front is difficult with some level of disagreement on most topics...

http://www.historynet.com/did-russia-rea...ermans.htm

I have a friend whose father was a German soldier on the easter front.  He was shot through the neck, survived that, and survived being in a prison camp for several years, finally returning home.  I'll tell you what, you know you come from hardy stock if you fought on the Eastern front, were captured and survived.

I recently watched a documentary TV series on Netflix that was really good.  It isn't eastern front focused.  It is about Hitler and his inner circle and is named "Hitler's Circle of Evil".

Though a tv series, it is a documentary rather than a drama or soap.  It delves into the very deep dysfunction  of the whole lot.

I'm watching that series now - I'm learning a lot about the early years that are often glossed over. It really was a perfect storm of economic ruin and a people desperately looking for a saviour being taken advantage of by uniquely evil men. There is much that can be learned from history about the conditions that give rise to extremism and the consequences of ignoring the warning signs along the way.

I like the discussion that is coming from this thread, especially the proof sources Marko is mentioning.  A couple of points.  First, uncovering the truth about the Eastern Front is difficult with some level of disagreement on most topics...

http://www.historynet.com/did-russia-rea...ermans.htm

Great link BPman - anyone who asserts the Russians did it alone and that lend - lease made no difference is ignoring reality. I'm not sure its a fair comparison to compare the number of British tanks supplied to all of the Russian tanks inclusive of the large number destroyed in the second half of 1941 - a destroyed tank isn't much use to anybody. The equipment supplied and when it was supplied was important.

The USA basically fed the Russian military with SPAM for the duration of the war and our trucks kept them mobile as well.

The USA basically fed the Russian military with SPAM for the duration of the war and our trucks kept them mobile as well.

A daily diet of spam for that long would put anybody in a fighting spirit!

Gents, I realize that I've been coming across with a tone of the Russians being the best thing since sliced white bread relative to WW2, which isn't true. Hitting on the main countries represented on DFS:

The US:
Fought a nasty enemy on the Pacific front. The closer we came to Japan, the worse they were. We lost a lot of good men on that front.
Manufactured and shared critical weapons.
Won the peace after the war.
Were critical in demolishing Germany's ability to make war, at a great cost to our men. I won't go look it up, though I believe casualties were 70% for bomber crews flying into Germany until the P51 Mustang long range fighter was available.
I am amazed at how quickly we were able to change manufacturing to produce military equipment.

Canada:
Canada fought above its weight. Don't let their 'niceness' fool you. The gloves come off when needed.
I'm not sure how much this was the case in WW2, though currently their snipers are among the best, if not the best, in the world.

Britian:
A heavy hitter in WW2 any way you look at it.
Won the Battle for Britian.
Were awesome cryptologists. While not sexy, breaking the enemies code was a very big deal.

Australia
They were in from the beginning, sending troops to Europe before having to pull them back.
I don't have examples, though they were fighting for their lives to keep the Japanese from invading, thus I feel sure they fought above their weight.

France:
The issue with France was that the military and country's leadership didn't have the stomach for a fight. This did not apply to the soldiers. They fought valiantly, killing nearly 50,k Germans in the short duration of the Blitzkreig. I'm pretty sure many of them sacrificed themselves to enable the escape at Dunkirk.
Their resistance was very helpful.

The rest of Western Europe:
They did what they could and were part of the resistance.
A lot of people in these countries helped Jewish people.

A little more info:


http://www.historynet.com/russias-life-s...review.htm



The USA also was the deciding factor in WWI. Von Hindenburg said as such in a little known early post-war interview with American journalist George Seldes, although he later went along with the National Socialist "stab in the back" theory which was totally false.

...“But the balance was broken by the American troops. The Argonne battle was slow and difficult. But it was strategic….The day came when the American command sent new divisions into the battle and when I had not even a broken division to plug up the gaps. There was nothing left to do but ask terms.”...

http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/Gener...w_1918-pdf

Gents, I realize that I've been coming across with a tone of the Russians being the best thing since sliced white bread relative to WW2, which isn't true.  Hitting on the main countries represented on DFS:

The US:
Fought a nasty enemy on the Pacific front. The closer we came to Japan, the worse they were.  We lost a lot of good men on that front.
Manufactured and shared critical weapons.
Won the peace after the war.
Were critical in demolishing Germany's ability to make war, at a great cost to our men.   I won't go look it up, though I believe casualties were 70% for bomber crews flying into Germany until the P51 Mustang long range fighter was available.
I am amazed at how quickly we were able to change manufacturing to produce military equipment.

Canada:
Canada fought above its weight.  Don't let their 'niceness' fool you.  The gloves come off when needed.  
I'm not sure how much this was the case in WW2, though currently their snipers are among the best, if not the best, in the world.

Britian:
A heavy hitter in WW2 any way you look at it.  
Won the Battle for Britian.
Were awesome cryptologists.  While not sexy, breaking the enemies code was a very big deal.

Australia
They were in from the beginning, sending troops to Europe before having to pull them back.
I don't have examples, though they were fighting for their lives to keep the Japanese from invading, thus I feel sure they fought above their weight.

France:
The issue with France was that the military and country's leadership didn't have the stomach for a fight.  This did not apply to the soldiers.  They fought valiantly, killing nearly 50,k Germans in the short duration of the Blitzkreig.  I'm pretty sure many of them sacrificed themselves to enable the escape at Dunkirk.
Their resistance was very helpful.

The rest of Western Europe:
They did what they could and were part of the resistance.
A lot of people in these countries helped Jewish people.

Excellent summary Pete123 . As a Canadian I would agree with your summary of Canada's role. As a nation we're faced with a lot of the same issues going on in the US and most other Western Democracies. Our military has been starved by consecutive governments for decades now leaving us to depend on our neighbours and this is unfair to both nations. Even though Canada's population is 1/10th that of the US, I believe that we can and should do much more. They're currently arguing to stalemate on replacing whats left of F-18 Hornets that were purchased in 1978. Seriously? I'm not sure what the ratio of maintenance hours to flight hours is but its not good. Canada's contribution of soldiers and equipment in WWII was significant and nothing to be ashamed of and the point you make about not being fooled by our niceness is accurate. There are still places in Europe that members of certain Canadian regiments (22nd) aren't welcome - when the chips are down you do what needs to be done. There was a humorous segment on the Daily Show a few years back calling Canada a blood soaked Oil-ocracy which showed us training children as young as 5 to fight / play hockey which is basically the same thing.