D’oh!
Omygosh. Socialists hoodwinked people even back then? At least they’re consistent.
Similar to what the Brit and Hessian soldiers saw when they got here during the revolution, hearty, strapping, well-fed Americans with plenty of food, orchards and outdoors.
German prisoners were often plied with coffee in order to get them to talk. Coffee wasn’t only unavailable to Germans, they were disheartened when they realized that we were had enough shipping to bring something as simple as coffee. They had been told the U-boats had destroyed our logistics.
Our prisoner rations were considered luxurious which caused a backlash, especially after the concentration camps were found. The prisoners were an important source of labor.
In the cities the factories were functioning full bore, cars and trucks everywhere, lights on all over the place (inland), tons of food and no one as deprived as THEY had seen back home in their own country.
One soldier said “They lied to us and said the US was on it's a%$, but instead it's obvious their cars and trains are running, factories working, etc. “
In US prison camps, Germans had it so good that the locals called the camp the "Fritz Ritz".
But once German held US soldiers came home with stories about THEIR treatment, the Germans held here saw a marked decline in the quality and quantity of their food. Also, guards holding Germans here became MUCH less friendly.
Some Germans who got captured and held in Europe said Americans amazed them because if you asked for a cigarette, they'd throw you a pack. Also, Americans hopped out of Jeeps or trucks and left the thing running. Germany was SO short on fuel that leaving a car running could get you court marshaled or at least cost you your stripes!
Made me cry.
Industrial might wins wars.
Which is why we need to claw back as much production from China as possible as soon as possible.
(We were told fairy tales by criminals.)
They had CNN and MSNBC?
When the Soviet Union was still terrorizing the world, they had their own Potemkin villages. Any foreigner in the USSR was only allowed to “see” these modern towns, full of everyday supplies, even toilet paper. Foreigners were not allowed to see the general degradation. The USSR was a Third World country with a First World military.
When some Soviet leaders and bureaucrats flew over parts of the USA, they thought we had just a few Potemkin Villages also.
There was one Soviet leader who did not just get to see the suburbs in many, many States (no Potemkins), he witnessed the MASSIVE waves of grain in America’s heartland. When the Soviet leader returned to Moscow, I believe he fired (or worse) the Director of The People’s Agriculture.
I recall an American officer watching over captured German officers a day or so after D day. A GERMAN officer watching a ship unload said, “ Where are your horses?” The American officer stated to a fellow officer “I think we are going to win this war”
“We were told fairy tales by criminals.”
Kind of what modern day Democrat/Globalist/Commies are doing to control their Useful Idiots.
Elite Capture, then Nudge and Propaganda for the rest.
Been that way since the beginning.
I read a book about that, what the German POW’s reaction to the US.
As an executive of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, during WWII, my dad was charged by the Coast Guard to accompany troop trains carrying German POWs from their debarkation in New Jersey (Bayonne?) to a POW camp in Maryland. He often remarked at the astonishment of the prisoners upon finding a dynamic and flourishing USA.
Unfortunately, we are not as we were then.
Stating the obvious:
Well DUH! We had the BEST of you!
Ironically, we now emulate the worst of you and struggle to retain our identity as your home country demonstrates that after 2 World Wars its leadership caste has learned NOTHING.
We need to bring the Arsenal of Democracy back to America.
And soon.
What still find amazing is that while we were cuffing the Krauts around, we were kicking the crap out of the Nips and the Pacific theater was kind of getting the leftovers for the first couple of year of the war to boot.
"Those are German prisoners," my Mother said.
As I looked out of the back window of the car, I made eye contact with one of them. His hair was bright blonde; the bright sun was shining on it.
I can see him now in my mind. I'll never forget the way he looked at me. It's hard to put into words, maybe impossible. It was a combination of weariness, uncertainty, surprise, suspicion, and envy. This article explains it I think.
A German woman lived with my family briefly during the war. I think her name was Theo. She made wonderful pies. She introduced me to meringue. I couldn't get enough of it. I horrified my Mother by asking her if she liked Hitler. Mother answered: "No. No. No. Lots of Germans don't like Hitler." The woman also assured me that she did not like Hitler, that that was why she was in America.
they’d be even more shocked to see that we’ve exported most of our industrial might to Communist China
My Grandfather actually owned a coal mine before the depression but like so many lost his business early in the Depression. He had a little 20 acre farm that he and my Grandmother raised part of his 13 children on. The older ones were grown and gone. All through the Depression they always had food. They didn’t have much else just the farm and a ramshackle little house but they were clean and proud and good people.
Out of all the land in Pittsburgh County, Oklahoma the damned gooberment took 13 of his little 20 acres for a POW camp leaving him with not enough to live off of. They moved to town. Thankfully, one of his sons was able to take care of him and the remaining children having done well in spite of the Depression. Smarts and endless hard work paid off for him and he became a millionaire when that meant something. My Grandparents also sent three other sons to war. Gratefully, all of them came back. One was on a destroyer, one was an infantryman in Italy and the third was a submariner in the Pacific.
I am much less proud of our government than I am of my heritage.