Posted on 01/17/2006 9:38:34 AM PST by GermanBusiness
When I was in eastern Germany recently, the stores were all selling alongside the romance novellas for women: WW2 war novellas for men...which are based on real-life accounts of German soldiers in such campaigns as the run for the Caucausus (with the placing of the German flag on the top of Mount Ebrus, the tallest mountain in Europe), the desert war, the 6-month Battle of Monte Cassino or the Final Battle for Germany.
West German men wouldn't so openly buy this literature because the left has told them to completely forget about military matters and their own history. In reading them, I actually admire the fact that some German men recognize that not all German soldiers in WW2 were Nazis and these stories are healthy...they are not written from a fascist perspective at all. There is no politics at all mentioned, no glorification of the Third Reich at all. So you read about German men helping their hometown buddies staying alive, about a dying German soldier who is attended to by an old Italian woman who cries and prays on her rosary for 10 hours...atrocities are not mentioned...the Geneva Convention is followed in these books (of course the Geneva Convention implied that everybody had to fight in uniforms). German men are often reading how their own grandfathers were killed.
Any of you interested in the History Channel, and who know some German, would find the Landser Paperback Series fascinating.
Guys in Iraq: if any of you read German...I can send you some of these in the mail...because there is a lot of tactical wisdom in these books. Of course, the very existence of these books would, to the politically correct, seem very politically incorrect. The cover shots like the one above...causes an initial feeling of discomfort.
In the end in real life, the American and Russian armies had to wipe out the German guys who had gained the most tactical experience.
At the beginning of each book is a profile with picture of someone in real life who had won the Ritterkreuz for bravery and then followed his career up the ranks on different fronts and in different battles until he was inevitably killed (the last year of the war resulted in the deaths of an enormous number of German men who'd previously won important medals).
One book has an interesting account of how German mountaineer forces scrambled to get across the Adriatic from Greece in time for the Battle of Monte Cassino in the late fall of 1943. German newspapers, at the time, derided the Americans, British and Canadians for conducting a "Snail Offensive" up Italy's boot. They encouraged German soldiers to go shoot the "snails".
American fighter bombers, called Jabos in German (pronounced Yabo as an abbreviation for Yagdbomber), would attack from the direction of the sun in order to blind the flak gunners on the troop ships. If the defenders were ready for them...the American planes would do a tight circle in the direction of the sun (out of range) and make a few feints so the German flak gunners would have to blind themselves for a long period of time looking at them. Then a few American planes would fly over to the other side of the German ships and fly within shooting range to see if a dumb ship's captain would turn his guns around and leave himself open to 3 planes coming at him from the sun. You get all this from a German perspective.
The German war humor was cool to read as well. "The Amis were welcoming us to the area (with mortar fire)." The "Amis sent Christmas greetings" on 12/25/43 in the form of an attack near Monte Cassino.
Green German troops were often reminded to put their helmets on faster with the words "they're not just throwing the usual potato salad these days."
After awhile, in some units, the German equivalent of "incoming!" was "potato salad!" as in "Jetzt haben wir den Salat".
For anyone who wants to study battle tactics or just loves the History Channel...here is a great excuse to learn some German. :-)
I heard that 'Saving Private Ryan' is big over there, too, but they run it backwards, so it ends with the Germans driving the allies into the sea.
[I heard that 'Saving Private Ryan' is big over there, too, but they run it backwards, so it ends with the Germans driving the allies into the sea.]
That is funny. I have to use that joke over here.
By the way, "Landser" in German means soldier who fights on land. The Germans called navy guys "Lords" which was the actual German name, not a translation.
Being a history buff, I LOVE first-hand accounts of the Wehrmacht in WWII; see 'The Forgotten Soldier' by Guy Sajer, or 'Legion of the Damned' by Sven Hassel; both are non-ideological, grittily realistic accounts of life and death on the Eastern Front
"I heard that 'Saving Private Ryan' is big over there, too, but they run it backwards, so it ends with the Germans driving the allies into the sea."
Good one! We should run "Pearl Harbor" backwards too!
Of course, this is not to be interpreted as a show of sympathy for the Third Reich or any of the atrocities it committed. And those members of the German government, including the military, who were involved in the Holocaust itself can rot in hell for all eternity, as far as I'm concerned.
Ever read Rattenkrieg? It's a novel about Soviet and German snipers duking it out in the Battle of Stalingrad. Cool book.
FWIW, Der Amis und Anglishche habt gertranslatenhaben sommen diese stuffen-verlanger zu English. Likenhaben Otto Skorzeni's gerbooknicht.
parsy, who also sprach.
"The cover shots like the one above...causes an initial feeling of discomfort."
There is a lot of respect for the German army among American troops in combat arms, because those troops have a high level of interest in military history. I've seen almost an affection for the German soldier among some special ops troops. It is an odd experience to listen to modern warriors, German and American enthusiastically, and without self-consciousness telling of their fathers tales of fighting the other side, including things that would shock a liberal
On that note, did you see the following article? The origins of the Great War of 2007 - and how it could have been prevented
'Das Boot' is another excellent movie from the German point of view. I also liked "The Longest Day's" portrayal of the Germans side of the war, brilliant move by Zanuck to use Germans to direct and act in the German scenes. My favorite scenes in The Longest Day were the ones with the Luftwaffe pilot arguing with his commanders.
Missed that, thanks.
Guy Sajer is (was) French fighting for the Germans. The "forgotten Soldier" and "Cross of Iron" incredible stories.
Bad news, dude. I've The "bridge" part of Saving Private Ryan was lifted from a German film about some German kids defending a bridge against attacking Americans.
"There is only two of us", yet the pilot was portrayed going ahead and doing his duty.
The German sense of duty and honor is a profound thing to think about.
Yes, the Rattenkrieg book was better than the movie "Enemy at the Gates" which I assume was based on that book.
By the way, go to Volograd now to see the Murmaev Kurgan hill in the center of the city overlooking the October Factory, which still exists, and where a lot of the sniping took place (on the hill and in the factory). On top of the Kurgan you will see this 300' high statue of a young woman with a sword held high (she is huge like the Statue of Liberty, only more flimsily dressed) and the inscription "He who comes here with the sword, will die by the sword" Kto priedut suda mechom, ot mecha pogibnut". The eternal flame is in a building to the north.
I forgot to mention that my main point for mentioning all this is because the Dresden, Leipzig area has the largest contingent of neo-Nazis and right wing political parties. This book series sells well to this crowd I am sure...but, with this series, they and their kids are getting healthy stuff...and that was my point. This redirects their feelings from pro-fascism to simply pride in their grandfathers. And pro-Americanism is high in that area. Some German college coeds were telling me that Bush should send troops into Iran. You don't get that kind of talk in the west of German or Berlin.
I know leftist women in the west of Germany whose grandfathers were killed in WW2 and were not Nazis or atrocity participants...and they are ashamed of their grandfathers. That is wrong. It is nihilist to be that way.
Thanks. I just put both of them on my Amazon.com wish list.
Sergeant Steiner: And I will show you where the Iron Crosses grow.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.