--- In [email protected], "authfriend" wrote:
>
> The brutality of that war was unimaginable. What a chilling
> story.
>
As a child (hell, as an adult) I was always horrified by the total
brutality of the German-Russian Eastern Front conflict during WWII -
including the use of prisoners as slave labour and their being worked to
death - both sides adopting the same approach.
In contrast, British and German prisoners were treated with comparative
respect. And for the Brits there were also the more romantic episodes of
war, for example, German battleships like the Bismark sinking British
cruisers but eventually being cornered themselves and being sunk.
The German-Russian barbarism was unspeakable, in the original sense of
that word: talking about it would degrade the speakers themselves.
But one day, someone mentioned to me something that - as soon as I heard
it - I recognised as true. If the Russians hadn't prosecuted the war
with such ferocity and callous disregard of life then when the Yanks and
Brits had landed at Normandy they would have had to adopt the same
degrading tactics. In a way, the Russians accepted the blood guilt and
maybe there's something of bad faith about striking superior attitudes
about western, more civilised, conduct.
(And let's not forget the controversial issue of the carpet-bombing of
German and Japanese civilian areas carried out by British and American
heavy bombers.)
Having said that, the mass-rape of German girls and women after the
surrender - carried out by Russian occupying forces - really turns my
stomach and has no possible justification.
