Stephen E. Ambrose, Band of Brothers
The following site is not related to todays news but is something to keep in mind as we read during the coming months. War is war and things happen, we were not boys scouts all the time. I think the info is fairly presented.
What I did find interesting is that most of the incidents cited were with SS solders. I knew an individual who was part of the German occupation and he also noted the vast difference between the regular German prisoners and the SS prisoners. I have not seem much differentiation between the SS and the regular army in our readings so far?
It does have a little info on the coming Dachau killings in spring of 45. My reading of that from WWII magazine was that the solders were shocked and angry at what they found there. The contrast between the prisoners celebrating their freedom and the death the soldiers saw was such a great chasm for them, they couldn’t sleep that night. Patton lost the paperwork on their court martial.
I am a little disturbed at the notion that the French preferred German occupation but I view that as an aberration of our troops. Noticed in a recent article that wall street was pre alerting to prayer on victory day, and cautioning against riotous celebration. People are people though out history.
http://pictureshistory.blogspot.com/2011/01/when-american-and-british-soldiers-went.html
Operation Market Garden is coming up. A little background on the situation from WWI. I did not know that Holland remained neutral in WWI. There was a little animosity with England then from the Boer Wars. The Kaiser retired to Holland and the dutch wouldn’t give him up. Quite the contrast with WWII.
http://pictureshistory.blogspot.com/2009/12/neutral-netherlands-holland-during-ww1.html