I just saw the program on the history channel and they said that 40 American soldiers were killed by Nazi guerillas in the two years following the end of the war in Germany.
Thanks. No doubt they supplied the 40 names, units and locations of where this happened so that it could be verified. Or did they not?
Yep, I saw the history channel program. Among the things I saw:
1. A map showing the anti-occupation actions in one three month period including 69 assaults on US personnel.
2. The mention of AT LEAST 40 US soldiers killed. I bet it was a good bit higher IF 69 assaults were made on US personnel in one three month period.
3. The first free elections were something like 10 years laters.
4. The equivalent to the CPA was only dissolved after 5 years.
5. The insurgency using RPGs, land mines for IED, snipers, plastic explosives. [Is this sounding familiar to anyone?]
6. The last big attack/explosion two years after the end of action in the ETO.
7. A people tired of 6 YEARS of war in Germany v. a people who only had 6 weeks of major combat operations with much more accurate bombs in Iraq. [As I have maintained elsewhere, a costs of fewer civilian casualties may well be a tougher mopping up/occupation. Is it worth a few more US deaths in the occupation to fight the war as we did?? That is a calculation each must make AND SHOULD MAKE DURING THE WAR WHEN DEMANDING FEW CIVILIAN CAUSUALTIES.]
8. Poisoned bottles of alcohol left for Russion soldiers to discover, drink and kill themselves.
9. Several murders of civilian Germans who were willing to take the mayors position in various occupied cities.
10. A severe de-Nazification, that the US had to back off from, similar maybe to the de-Bathification in Iraq.
11. Severe retribution and execution of those caught being part of the opposition to occupation. Many will say worse than panties on their heads, but I will say not much different than killing 1000 or so of the Sadr militia for opposing the occupation.
I would love to know the total number of post end of action in the ETO deaths of allied soldiers or even after battle deaths since all that has happened this time is the end of the Battle for Iraq, the War on Terror continues, so the better comparison would include allied soliders killed behind the front in France, Belgium, etc by irregular forces.
BTW, I did see the History Channel about the planned Japanese dirty bomb in SF. I also saw the History Channel about the ballon bombs to the west coast. WWII is not as neat and nice as we read about in high school history books. It was ugly and dirty with some misbehavior on the US side just like this ugly and dirty War on Terror. The battle for Iraq needed to be fought and the aftermath needs to be won too in my mind.