Would it be wrong if I say that the soldiers of the Wehrmacht were/are heroes, of course I know that you should not generalize, at least I think that most of them were not involved in war crimes and that they were committed by a minority of them and mostly by parts of the RSHA (SD, Gestapo) I mean lets have a look on this pictures, they were soldiers like the US ones and thought that they did the right thing for their nation. They sufferd like their allied counterparts, they lost their brothers in the field and were so courages. I don´t say that they were/are heroes, not at the moment, I just wanna hear what our members think about them and hope that I will come to the right conclusions with your help. Sry for posting so much pictures, I just wanna show that these Soldiers aren´t this faceless evil mass that tortured everyone, soldiers without feelings etc. Regards, Che.
Che, it all goes back to how you want to define a hero. Does it require a Ritterkreuz, or equivalent? Or does it merely require going into a situation that most people would run from? Most of those men were honorable soldiers, doing their duty for their nation. Some were not so honorable. Those two sentences apply to every army that ever fought in any war. Take that for what it's worth.
As a whole the men and women of the German Armed services in WWII have equal right to be considered heroes and any act by them heroic as any other armed force.
The pics are not a problem, Che, except for the one with the wounded soldier on it which I removed for the innocent viewer's sake. Like Simon said, I don't think we should consider the average German soldier of WW2 to be any worse morally than the average American or British soldier, but for each it all depends on that average soldier's personal actions. No doubt the Germans in general have been more atrocious towards certain peoples than towards others because they simply believed it was supposed to be like that, but they recieved repayment in kind from the Russians, which is enough punishment.
[/quote] Agreed. Every nation on earth has exactly the same percentage of of evil/oportunistic/sadic/idiotc.... people, so there is no reason why german soldiers should somehow be more evil than their colleagues from any other army. The problem was just that the german army served a criminal governement which gave the criminal elements in it's army free hand....
I agree. I have tried to strike a balance and explain both the good and bad parts of their heritage to my sons. Their heritage is mostly anglo from my side and German from their mothers side (3rd generation?). There are some bad things that they should be aware of and there are lots of good things on both sides to be aware of.
To Germans they were heros, to the Allied nations villians; some honoured some despised; some may have seen them just as the enemy nothing more. You pick. The Mutant Poodle
Ultimately, the individual soldier finds himself simply fighting to survive another day... and his loyalties are to his platoon, or the guy he shares a foxhole with. In this scenario, all soldiers are honorable. Didn't German-soldiers refer to Pattons' 3rd Armored as "Roosevelt's Butchers?" (The rumor being that the USA had emptied it's prisons and mental institutions and filled the ranks of the 3rd with criminals.) The legends of the SS are well-known. I do know that there were occasions where the "humanity" of soldiers was allowed to blossom. Theres a story about GI's and Germans sitting down for a proper "Christmas celebration" in a French farmhouse during the Ardennes Offensive. I have never thought ill of the individual german soldier. All men are capable of great evil. German soldiers cried for their mothers--just like American, or British or Russian soldiers--when they laid wounded on the battlefield. Tim
here's a true soviet hero!!!!!! the great sniper vassili zaitsev who carries the same name I do (lucky me) [/img]http://elite59.blog.jeuxvideo.com/images/mn/1128532960.jpg
lôl this thread ist just for german heroes (just kidding) Yep, he was a great soldier, no doubt, the russian Rudel hehe. If I remeber right he shooted more then 400 german soldiers, right ? Regards, Che.
from what i heard that is the Russian propganda talking, i might have possible been over 100 maybe less, but he was deffinately a good sniper to have survived that long in stalingrad
i believe he survived the war because he was taken off the front due to an eye injury and that he spent the rest of the war training future soviet snipers(but dont count me on this)
