[henkster]

There is the story in Cornelius Ryan’s “The Longest Day” about the two POWs taken on D-Day; nobody could understand them. It turned out they were Mongolian. I believe they had been press-ganged into the Red Army in the late 1930s, captured by the Germans in 1941, and then pressed into service for the Germans and sent to France.

They wound up being repatriated through the United States and across the Pacific, completing a round-the-world tour that few Mongolians have ever done.

Too bad for them they didn’t stay in America and start one of those nice Mongolian BBQ restaurants.

[fso301]

There is the story in Cornelius Ryan’s “The Longest Day” about the two POWs taken on D-Day; nobody could understand them. It turned out they were Mongolian. I believe they had been press-ganged into the Red Army in the late 1930s, captured by the Germans in 1941, and then pressed into service for the Germans and sent to France.

Thanks. Interesting story. I have heard mention that there may have been a significant number of non-Germans in the Wehrmacht at Normandy/Atlantic Wall but never really delved into the matter.