Friday, March 12, 2021

Death Up Close and From Afar


Sgt. Otto Walls leaned down from his hatch and yelled to Sgt. Charlie Gammell, "I got movement in that big building over there," he was gesturing frantically at the building in question, "Do you see that three story deal with the hole in the roof?"

Gammell had been watching that very building as it stood out from among the rest. He figured that it would have a good view of the surrounding countryside from that hole in the roof. He would use it, why wouldn't the Krauts?

"Let's make that hole in the roof bigger!" Gammell yelled up, then returned to looking through his rifle scope at the building. He saw what Walls had probably seen, it was someone wearing a Kraut helmet, it was a kid, couldn't be more than 13 or 14, but the kid had a rifle.

A moment later the gun on The Wall (Walls' eponymous tank) barked and the roof of the building was obscured by the explosion of a 75 mm high explosive round. Gammell watched as the dust and the smoke cleared. The hole in the roof was a lot bigger now, he couldn't see anyone up there, but it didn't mean that the kid didn't have friends on the ground floor. Friends with Panzerfausts.

"Frank, take your team up the street, see if you can see the entrance to that building. Posey, Ray, Schultz, and Page you're with me!" Cpl. Frank Barnett's team, the B.A.R. men and the squad's grenadier, Pvt. George Haskell, went up the street to the next corner. Barnett gave Gammell the high sign, they could see the entrance to the three story building.

"Come on guys, follow me." Gammell set out on a side street to the left which he figured had to loop around to connect to the street they were on, at least that's how he interpreted the map he had.

As he dashed forward, crouched low, he heard Barnett's B.A.R. start firing. "Posey, go left, Ray, you go with him. Schultzie, Billy, stay close, we're going right."

When they reached the corner, Pvt. Ross Flowers had his rifle up and pointing to the right, covering that direction, Gammell could see bits of masonry and dust flying off of the opening into the three story building. The door which should have been covering the opening was lying in the street, it was smoldering.

As he watched, someone began to poke their head out of the opening, Barnett's B.A.R. drove whoever it was back inside. Gammell heard a scream, then saw a soldier fall into the street from what must have been the second story. He was an older man, dressed in civilian clothes with some sort of armband on the left sleeve of his overcoat. What the Hell was going on in there?

Pvt. Rick Schultz yelled, "Sarge!" then opened fire as he saw movement inside the building. A moment later, a kid in a uniform of some sort came stumbling out holding a stick with a white rag tied to the end. He had blood all over his front, he coughed and a great gout of blood spilled from his mouth before he collapsed onto the street.

Gammell heard Schultz mutter, "Jesus, it was a f**king kid..."

"Put it behind you Schultzie Follow me guys." Gammell was up and moving.

They moved into the street, rifles trained on the building, Gammell heard Barnett yell, "Sarge, it's clear!"

Cautiously Gammell and his team went into the building, there was another dead kid in there, sprawled across a beat up sofa. Whether he'd been killed just now or earlier, Gammell didn't know, nor did he care, a dead Kraut wasn't a threat.

Moments later, Barnett and his team entered the building. Barnett and his assistant gunner, Pvt. Ken Buchanan, stayed by the door, covering the street. Gammell looked at Pvt. Billy Page and said, "Give me your rifle, you hold mine."

"Schultzie, with me..."

Gammell went up the stairs to the upper floors, weapon at the ready. Schultz stayed close, ready to cover him. When they got to the second floor, it was obvious that that was where the kids were bivouacked, cots were set up and there was a lot of spare gear lying around. There was one kid on a cot, dead and apparently had been for a while. They moved on.

The third floor of the building was mostly attic space, though there were a couple of dormer windows and a large hole in the roof which still had flames licking at the outer edges from the round Walls' tank had hit the building with. Near the hole was a dead kid. Gammell recognized the kid's Hitler Youth uniform and he had one of those armbands like the old guy who had fallen from the second floor had been wearing.

Gammell knelt next to the body and tugged the armband off, it read "Deutscher Volkssturm Wehrmacht." He showed it to Schultz, "Any idea what that says, Schultzie?"

"Yeah, German People's Storm Armed Forces, it's kinda like the Kraut's version of the British Home Guard. Mostly kids, old men, even women, or so I've heard." Schultz was a second generation American, his grandparents had left Germany when his mother and father were kids, so both sides of the family were German. He was ten years old before he had learned to speak English.

(Source)

"So these guys are legal combatants?" Gammell asked.

"Yup, that's how I understand it, Sarge. Even though a lot of them are in civilian clothes, with this armband they are to be treated as soldiers if captured." Schultz explained.

"How do you know all this stuff, Schultzie?"

"Some judge advocate guy briefed us in the repple depple, just before I got assigned to you guys. There was some big deal over shooting civilians after capture if they were caught shooting at us. I guess that's legal, but the armband makes them legal combatants, can't shoot 'em if they surrender."

"This is a crazy world Schultzie when you have to fight old guys and kids." Gammell shook his head as they moved downstairs to continue clearing the small German village.

On the way out, Gammell noticed that the dead kid on the cot was a girl. He shook his head, what a f**ked up war this is, he thought.


Leutnant Manfred Sauer was updating the overlay on his map, using a grease pencil, with the latest intelligence information from battalion. When he was done he looked up at the commander of his 2nd Platoon, Unteroffizier Manfred Klügmann, and said, "So the Amis are in Rommersdorf, here..." he pointed to the map, "and we're here in Rhöndorf. Division wants us to hit the Amis, but the Major says to stay on the defensive for now. We're not ready to attack anybody just yet."

In truth, the remnants of the 2nd Battalion were footsore and weary. After escaping from Köln, they had laid low for a day in a small village upstream from Köln on the eastern bank of the Rhine. At dusk they had set off to reinforce the troops who were trying to eliminate the American bridgehead around Remagen. They had marched all night, thirty kilometers, in rain and sleet.

Major Jürgen von Lüttwitz had tasked his staff with finding rations for the men, they had been unsuccessful so far. So the men were wet, tired, and hungry.

Klügmann said, "I have my men dug in along the southern edge of the village. We've got good protection and really good fields of fire. But if the Amis hit us with tanks..."

"I know Manfred, I know. I'm trying to find some Panzerfausts but no luck yet. Maybe the staff will find some of those and rations. The Major is having them scour the area." Sauer grunted with disgust, he didn't like staff men, felt that they didn't understand what it was like in the field. With the battalion reduced to the size of two weak companies, the staff men would have to fight alongside the rest of them. That should be interesting, he thought.

"Sir, some of my men are openly talking about surrendering the first chance they get..." Klügmann seemed reluctant to bring the topic up, almost as if he felt the same way as his men.

"I understand. I don't want you to take any unnecessary risks, but remember, the authorities can still get to your families, make sure your boys know this. Hold your positions as best you can, we just have to handle the situation as it happens." Sauer explained.

Klügmann nodded, "Understood Herr Leutnant, wouldn't want to have Vati and Mutti¹ get shot because little Klaus decided that he didn't want to fight anymore. I'll make sure the lads understand."

"Good. Take this map with you," Sauer said as he pulled a copy of the map he was using from his map case. "Now tomorrow we shall have to see what the Amis have in mind. I don't intend to move before then, the Major might have other plans, we shall see."

Klügmann stood up and stretched, he spread his arms wide, the map in his left hand. He was exhausted.


Across the river, in a church steeple, a sniper was watching. He had just climbed up into his high perch when he had seen movement in the ruins across the way.

He had noticed troops digging in along the southern edge of the ruins but he didn't want to waste ammunition on a bunch of privates, he was looking for someone in charge.

He saw movement behind where the Krauts were digging in. He looked through his scope, a man with braided epaulettes holding a map was stretching. A sergeant?

The man looked at the map for a moment, he was obviously speaking to someone in the shell hole below him, just out of the sniper's field of view. He pointed to the south then stretched again, he was yawning now.

A guy with a map, pointing, gotta be someone in charge. So he settled himself, breathed out, then squeezed the trigger.


Klügmann was starting to speak when Sauer heard a hard thump from behind his 2nd Platoon leader. He knew that sound, the sound of a bullet hitting flesh.

"Klügmann? Are you..."

Unteroffizier Klügmann looked puzzled, as if he couldn't process what was happening to him. They were behind the lines, how could this be?

"Herr Leutnant..." he managed to say before a trickle of blood entered his mouth. He was having trouble breathing. He dropped to his knees, he was patting his tunic pockets as if he were looking for something. He looked once more at his lieutenant, then he fell, spinning onto his back in the mud of a small ruined German village.

Sauer looked on helplessly as another of his men died.

(Source)




¹ Dad and Mom

Link to all of The Chant's fiction.

58 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. It was a depressing time. The Germans see the end of their existence looming. All they know is being swept away in fire and violence. The Americans know the Germans are defeated, increasingly they can't understand why the Germans won't quit. American soldiers want to survive the European war, yet the war with Japan still rages.

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  2. Even the "quiet" times aren't that. "Frank, take your team up the street, see if can see"...... missing "you" maybe Sarge? Furthering Scott, reading this on a daily basis does result in lots of emotions, sure wakes the body and mind up early each day. Good wordsmithing Sarge.

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    1. Yup, fixed that. (The story often moves faster than I can type!)

      There is a reason many writers refer to this period as Götterdämmerung, the Twilight of the Gods. (That term is more Wagner than Norse mythology, the Norsemen of old would have called it Ragnarök.)

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    2. To make matters worse, the Germans knew what Hell was approaching from the East. Something they could understand.

      But from the West? Maybe understand what the Brits and Free French will hand out, pain and suffering for what was caused them, maybe. It was the Americans who were unsettling them, as we didn't play fair. With our leaders calling for unconditional surrender and war crimes trials, we sounded worse than the Hells they expected from everyone else.

      Yet it was the USA that treated most of them the best as soon as they surrendered.

      Weird. But uncertainty and unknowing gets a lot of people killed.

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    3. A good synopsis of the times.

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  3. This story is really intense. It's giving me a whole new perspective. I've read that kugelschlag is the word for the sound of a bullet hitting home.

    Gravy, that last picture... The guy in back-right looks positively terrified. I hope his hands are empty. He's nearly sitting on another helmet, is that a body, too? The helmet has a spall or a hole in it...

    The handful of times I got scared to death a sudden calm rolled over me. My head cleared and what didn't matter seemed to fade away. Only a couple were life threatening.... The shakes after are a bit disconcerting...

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    1. I've had that same feeling, everything seemed to move in slow motion as well, as if my brain were operating at light speed.

      When I found that picture, it dictated the end of today's episode. That German officer's humanity shines through the grime and horror of war.

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    2. Definitely looks like a body underneat the rear of that positively terrified soldier.

      And when I first looked at the picture I thought the guy in the middle was an American, as you can't see the helmet from the side and everyone else could be prisoners. Just looked like it. Took 3-4 relooks to notice the German insignia.

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    3. Another reason why I liked the photo, the officer does look rather "American." (Which could mean many things, but he looks no different than the American infantry of the time period.)

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    4. The shakes after meant I was still alive. Once, they didn't happen until two days later. Every day, every night I see the faces, I hear the sounds. I have my words, my anchors to reality,that I speak to myself. To maintain, to steer a course of 'normalcy'. Sleep has been sparse and fitful for 31 years. Yet I survive.

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    5. And we remember your sacrifice.

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    6. Dang, SL. I had a handful of buddies over in the sand then. I'm glad you made it back. Welcome home.

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  4. I understand, or at least I would like to think I understand Lt Sauer and Maj Luttwitz are doing and their reasoning behind it, but they have to see their situation is untenable and that it is over. They are not "radical" fring of the "Party", they are men doing their duty to their country....but they are also very intelligent. What in gods name kept them going even in the face of complete disaster? They would have to know there is no way they were going to "win" (whatever that means).

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    1. That very thing has puzzled writers and historians for decades, why did they keep fighting? I puzzled over that for years as well, why didn't they surrender? In the movie Fury, I found a partial answer...

      CAPTAIN WAGGONER - Why don't they just quit?

      WARDADDY - Would you?

      They're fighting for their homes, their people, their way of life. Sure, we see that way of life as hideous and evil. But that was the politics of the era, that's not what the common people saw.

      It wasn't about winning in the end, only an insane person could think that was still possible.

      They fought because they could see no other way.

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    2. There may have been another element to it. Not that long before, Germany was able to negotiate an armistice at the end of WW1. Perhaps some were thinking they only had to hold out long enough to negotiate a peace again...at least those not completely aware of the totally insane fanaticism of the people in power.
      And yes, for the soldier, the dogma of Duty and Following Orders often doesn't allow room for thinking there are any other alternatives.

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    3. I think what Sauer said holds true.

      "I understand. I don't want you to take any unnecessary risks, but remember, the authorities can still get to your families, make sure your boys know this. Hold your positions as best you can, we just have to handle the situation as it happens." Sauer explained.

      Sure, there's the fear of surrendering due to the horror stories of prisoners being shot and such, but surrendering knowing your family will pay for it? That's gotta provide some incentive to not surrender right there.

      And what I said above. FDR and those handling him at the end (only 1 month before that happens) wanted complete regime change, complete surrender, with known threats of war crimes trials and such. Why would anyone surrender under those circumstances?

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    4. Patrick D - Many in Japan thought the same way, hold out until the Americans get tired of the losses.

      Didn't work in 1945, sad to say, it probably would work today.

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    5. Beans - And some in the U.S. government, Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr., wanted to completely dismember Germany. Reduce it to a number of small agrarian entities, much like the Germany of the 19th Century, minus Prussia. His thoughts had been publicized, the Germans knew this, Goebbels made sure all Germans knew this. They had no idea what would come, it wasn't outside the realm of possibility that the German people would be enslaved and Germany disappear from the map.

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    6. "Didn't work in 1945, sad to say, it probably would work today."

      Like Iraq and Afghanistan? Sure works today. Go in shouting "CHANGE EVERYTHING" and you give the locals a reason for complete resistance and a 'wait it out' attitude, then go back to what is normal for the area after the Amis leave.

      So much stupid done in the name of Forever War.

      It's why no war should ever be fought in a limited fashion. Good old total war, stomp everything into the ground and then burn it all, and then walk away. If they get spicy again, repeat. Repeat as needed until they get the message or they're not there anymore.

      But we don't have the national heart for that. And too many of our enemies know how to play the UN and the Media like fiddles to play the victim.

      As to Morgenthau et al, it was a time in America where Progressives, of the Woodrow Wilson type and full out closet commies, ruled. Much like now.

      Am for Unconditional Surrender. That makes sense. Stop what you're doing and give up 100% or we'll rip your arms off and beat you to death with them. Just don't call for the outright execution of the enemy's leaders. And, well, used to be, you lose and you pay bigly, then everyone gets over it. Or not.

      Is there any good solution?

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    7. If you're going to make war, then make war damn it. If it isn't worth "kill them all," it's probably not worth it at all.

      No, there isn't really a "good" solution.

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    8. Sarge, as much as I abhor violence, you are correct. If you are going to make war, make war to the point of victory. Musashi notes in A Book of Five Rings that the requirement for victory is to break the spirit of the opponent. It is just that total war is so terrible, we shy away and rather make less than total war, which becomes just as horrific and costly, yet leads nowhere.

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    9. Ah yes, the inestimable Miyamoto Musashi. Rather enjoyed that book when I read it, simple, straightforward, yet very profound.

      We do shy away from total war, and therefore draw it out and make it worse by a hundredfold!

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    10. (Don McCollor)... a quote from Genghis Kahn in the old old bad days..."I am the punishment of God. If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you"...

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    11. My Dad the Seabee wondered the same thing as he watched the Viet Nam War unfold on the nightly news.

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    12. Don - The great Khan had a point.

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    13. drjim - I get that, I really do.

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  5. We are less than two months away from VE Day. I think I see what the Muse has for you OldAFSarg and will say no more. While there will be sadness between now and then, the resolution will make us sigh in relief for some in this story and even be happy for some. Please write a good epilogue to tie up some of the lose strings. My wife is an author and I understand I couldn't and can't do what you have done here even if I had the knowledge you have. This has been a great trip and an enjoyment each morning to read; I will miss it when it is over. I look forward to the book version to reread.

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    1. We all know the ending, we just don't know who will be left standing.

      I don't know myself, this story started writing itself sometime last summer, I'm just the guy entering it into the computer.

      Thanks BillB.

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    2. Talk about 'just following orders'...(chuckle).

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  6. Hey Old AFSarge;

    The Germans are using the "Deutche Volksturm Wehrmacht" and not all of those people are volunteers. The End is in sight, Lt Sauer and Major Von Luttwitz know the war is lost but they will fight to the end because it is their duty to the comrades and to the fatherland, not Hitler and then they will surrender when upper headquarters tells them to with a sigh of relief because they did all they could and not until then. Another excellent post.

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    1. That's pretty much the gist of it.

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    2. Everyone knows the end is nigh, just... well... ya gotta keep going until you stop, know what I mean?

      I wonder how many senior officers gave their troops the order to surrender knowing that they (the senior officers) just sentenced their (the senior officers') families to death?

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    3. Not many I think. Most just disappeared into the woods and blew their own brains out. Walter Model springs to mind.

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    4. OAFS et al/

      LOL, my Father brought home one of those arm-bands depicted, above! (along w. other items like rank collar tabs & two P-38 Lugar pistols "liberated" from their owners when (iirc) his 42nd Rainbow ID liberated a major sub-camp of Dachau.)

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    5. I have a few souvenirs as well from that war, from my uncle and a couple of my father's friends.

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    6. Sarge/

      Of course given the current SECDEFs attempt to purge all "white nationalists"/"skin-heads" from the force I wonder if I could even get a TS clearance today if the knew I "harbored" such--especially if they knew about the giant Reichskreigsflagg Naval flag I have (like the one conveniently depicted on wiki) given to me by one of Dad's friends, an old Navy Chief who served on a DD in the Med. :)

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    7. I think no one is safe from the idiocy going on right now.

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  7. And there's the monster lurking in the corner. At this point, who's a legal and illegal combatant, and who, on the front lines, cares?

    My high school journalism teacher was an old school newsie. Said, when he was in Korea, and they were in the North section, that kids and old people would come out to the road to see them drive north. And it got to the point that anyone standing near a road was shot at, or just shot, because the Norks were using kids and old people as bomb chuckers. His story, backed up by another Korean vet of the early years, sounded horrible, but the kicker was the two old guys said about 95% of the kids and old people shot out of caution had grenades or bombs of some sort on them.

    And in total war, where does the war-fighter, legal or illegal, definition end and the civilian begin? Does a civilian carrying food or ammunition or other supplies for a soldier make them, the civilian, a legitimate target?

    It's so much simpler when all the fighters aren't mixed up with civilians, and when all the fighters are easily seen in uniforms.

    And the environment doesn't lend itself to good determination either. City fighting sucks, sucks so very bad. And not acting on movement can get you killed. So there's that 'I just saw a face in the window, do I shoot or not shoot?' moment that could mean life or death for the one seeing the face. If you don't act on your paranoia, it could be you and yours that get killed. On the other hand, nobody wants to shoot a pure innocent who's just lookie-lookying. On the other other hand, by this time, are there any pure innocents?

    This is the stuff that drives men mad years later, as the memories come bubbling out from wherever they've been stuffed.

    Great writing, as usual. You owe your Muse a tall glass of something fermented or a short glass of something distilled.

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    1. Well put, shoot and be damned, don't shoot and be damned, and probably die!

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  8. All I know is that last week, Sarge, your Muse shanked me.

    Spin

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  9. It has been topic of thousanbds of pages, and litres of ink: Why the Germans held out so long in the dire circumstances of 1945?
    Well, my theory goes with the dark magic of Hitler's charisma and his success of creating functional autocracy. Once he was gone, armies in the field collapsed like Sauron's Orcs following destruction of the One Ring.
    In 1918 by comparison, there was a sensible civilian leadership to listen to generals telling the war is lost, and civilian population up-in-arms being fed up with war.
    In 1945 even if anyone knew it - was forced by terror and compliance to follow orders to bitter end.
    Also, compare Italy that folded up as soon as the writing was on the wall, and Japan that was even more stubborn in refusal to admit reality.

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    1. The Germans fought on in the rubble of Berlin for a full week after his death.

      But yeah, the apparatus he and his minions created held the German people in thrall.

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  10. Sarge, this reminds me (in reverse) of the last battle scene from Saving Private Ryan.

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    1. It is similar, though as you say, in reverse.

      Truth be told, that film, among others, inspires my writing.

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  11. Had me going there, Sarge! I thought Sauer was going to meet his maker for a bit.

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    1. It was close. He's cheated death more than once. How long can his luck hold?

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  12. I think in Germany from 1933-1945, the Nazis dominated one's life. Brought them out of sheer depression and possible civil war with the communists. Stabilized the currency - got people work. It is hard to imagine the times in the 20s but by 1936 Germans were working, if not prosperous, not starving and proud of their country again. They viewed the end as a Gotterdammerung I am sure. Particularly with the Russians closing in.

    I have read in several history books Roosevelt's insistence of unconditional surrender prolonged the war with both Japan and Germany. What did they have to lose?

    OTOH keeping both of those regimes in power would have been from our perspective intolerable, and just setting the stage for another conflict.

    But that was the whole purpose behind Ketsu-Go. The Japanese knew they wouldn't have won, but they wanted to make the invasion of the home islands so costly that a war-weary American public would have just wanted peace.

    Without the Bombs that strategy might have worked.

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    1. I met a young man from South Africa back in 91. His dad was Hitler Youth. Still had his dagger, still sang the songs, still longed for the fatherland. Still had fond memories of it all... I don't know if he fought or not, but it was interesting to hear about it. That young man was level headed, and very smart. Rice U post grad....

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    2. The bombs saved millions of lives; and made others possible, mine for one, the Nagasaki bomb was my Dad's 18th birthday present. He was in uniform studying Japanese on that day. Doubtful he'd have survived to father me.
      Boat Guy

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    3. If the war had gone on much longer, my Dad would not have been on Occupation duty in Berlin, no doubt he would have gone ashore in Japan. To that uncertain fate.

      A hard, devastating strike may seem brutal, but those tend to end wars much faster than the lingering crap we see in Afghanistan. Shorter wars, fewer deaths.

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  13. According to scuttlebutt, there used to be some old timers in Bavaria who would greet each other with "Drei Liter" -legal but had sort of a ring to it.
    Klugmann was tired and tired men make mistakes.
    Boat Guy

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    1. Well, I'm not all that surprised, the NSDAP was founded in Bavaria.

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Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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