Posted on 09/05/2009 5:53:45 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Just a little embellishment for morale purposes... ;~)
“Near the end of the train we heard moans from badly wounded soldiers – more than 10 of them - in a third-class Pullman. They were literally cut to pieces with bullets and glass.
“Further on a goods van had been split in two and the bodies of eight soldiers thrown out on the roof by an explosion. Alongside the train in the ploughed field, we saw 20 unexploded 100 kilogram gas bombs.
This looked familiar so I checked the Times stories. In "British Raid Fleet," page 7 above, the same scene is described in the section titled "Casualties Described," third column. The article also talks about 6,000,000 leaflets dropped by the British. Talk about a waste of paper.
I have had that happen, myself. But now that it is my own project I can just call it an important new topic and everyone else has to get sidetracked with me. Its like having super powers or something.
Bridgeheads over the Vistula? Where; north of Warsaw or South? Both Kuechler’s 3rd Army from East Prussia and Reichenau’s 10th from Silesia are aiming at the Vistula. I suspect this is German 3rd Army as Reichenau has farther to go, even though Kuechler is still facing some determined resistance. The Polish forces opposite Reichenau’s 10th Army have pretty much disintegrated by now.
There was an interesting bio on Reichenau in Shirer’s “The Nightmare Years.” Shirer met Reichenau several times in Germany before the war, and later traveled with Reichenau in Belgium when Reichenau commanded 6th Army in 1940. Shirer had a high opinion of Reichenau, even though Shirer knew he was a hard core Nazi. Anthony Beevor however described him as a “rumbustious thug.” Reichenau was definitely a hard driver, also very much an exercise/health enthusiast. When 10th Army reached the banks of the Vistula in Poland, Reichenau was the first German across. In front of his troops, he swam the river.
The stress of leading 6th Army and also Army Group South in the USSR later caught up with Reichenau. In the winter of 1941-42, while 6th Army was fighting bitterly for its survival against the Soviet counter-offensive, Reichenau went for one of his morning runs when the temperature was -20F. Later that day he suffered a massive heart attack and died before he could be returned to Germany.
German 6th Army was then commanded by a relatively unknown general named Paulus.
Still a good pennant race in the N.L. between Cincy and the Cards. The Cubs look to be too far back to be a factor.
In the AL, it appears that another “Yankee Blitzkrieg” wrapped up the pennant long ago. They may be motivated by the desire to “win for Lou.” Red Sox are 14 back; not even that hot rookie Williams could keep them in the race this year.
Check out Cougar's update covering activities from 9/5-9/8 in today's (9/6) post. That may answer your questions.
Interesting profile of Reichenau.
"They also invaded Poland."
HJS: "We (the Allied nations) didn't really attack the Germans in a big way until 1942. Until then it was the Germans attacking and everyone else defending. "
from 17, blackminorca: "You obviously miss my point - which is that the leftist west was in cahoots with the commies for 20 years prior to 1939."
from 16: MNJ: ""We" did[n't] attack anyone at this time. "We", at this time, were neutral."
from 19, blackminorca: "The Nazis are responsible for 35 million deaths, but the Commies murdered 100 million"
Well, blackminorca, welcome to Free Republic. I haven't noticed you before, so checked your previous posts back a few months, didn't find any evidence there of much interest in history. But if you stick around Homer's threads, I think you'll learn a lot.
That is to say, if you are actually interested in real history, as opposed to, say, just one-liner "bumper stickers."
In real history there are answers to your questions, which may or may not coincide with your one-liners.
For example: it wasn't just "the leftist west... in cahoots with the commies for 20 years prior to 1939."
Lenin's & Stalin's biggest supporters, from Day 1, were none other than the German military.
Lenin was sent to "infect" Russia with Communism, and was paid for by the German commander, -- future Hitler ally -- General Eric Ludendorf.
Ludendorf's reasons were totally straightforward: to take Russia out of the war in 1918, and allow Germany to transfer 50 divisions to the Western Front.
And German support was again critical in helping Communist Red Armies defeat the Whites in the Russian Civil War.
In exchange, during the 1920s, the pre-Nazi German military secretly used Russia to test and train new equipment and doctrines.
Yes, of course, Hitler claimed to be the great anti-Communist -- the opposite of Godless Stalin's International Socialism. But who would seriously argue that Hitler was any more religious than Stalin, or that Hitler's National Socialism was any more benign than Stalin's International Socialism? Nobody sane, I'd wager... ;-)
And what is the difference between International and National Socialism anyway? Nothing but minor details:
Point is: if anyone tells you that Hitler was a "right-winger," it's a lie. Hitler was just another left-winger, just like Stalin, and their differences were just matters of style and technique, not fundamental philosophy.
So, where do us Conservatives fit into this picture? Answer: WE DON'T, no how, no way, no when. We are not about ANY kind of socialism, whether national, international or interstellar! ;-) We are the true opposites of those people.
So what happened in 1939? Simple: one gang of socialist murders allied with another gang of socialist murderers to first divvy up Poland, and then the rest of Europe.
Americans wanted nothing to do with it -- indeed had almost nothing to do with it -- until Hitler destroyed our ally France and seriously threatened our ally Britain. Then and only then, "we" became worried and afraid -- very afraid.
“I haven’t noticed you before, so checked your previous posts back a few months, didn’t find any evidence there of much interest in history.”
I did my first research study of the Holodomor in 1972 and this is several years after studying Marx, Engels, Trotsky, the Young Hegalians, etc (along with all other major works in poly sci and philo)
You were saying?
Welcome to Free Republic! I hope you enjoy it here. ;-)
You'll find no one posting to defend the evils of Communism -- Stalin, Mao or otherwise -- but if you go the next step and say: "therefore we should have supported Hitler against Stalin," well, then we'll have some fun debates. :-)...
BroJoeK - I think you know exactly where I am coming from and here is a final clue - Eisenhower should have been court marshalled for denying Patton anything he needed to go straight to Moscow - would have saved us a bazillion dollars
I see you live in a fantasy world. So Welcome to FR, but be forwarned: you might learn something here. ;-)
It's pure historical fantasy to imagine that
Yes, of course, that's just what the Nazis wanted us to do, but there's no historical figure I know of -- including Patton -- who 1945 would consider high costs in blood and treasure (to go to Moscow??) worth the benefit. What benefit for America?
Unless you want to fantasize throwing nukes at Russians, but first remember what Truman did to McArthur in 1951 for suggesting such a thing.
Here's what's really important: of 60+ million who died in WWII, only 400,000 were Americans, and one reason is, we helped people like the Russians do most of our hardest fighting for us.
And there were virtually no Americans of that time -- or this -- who thought that "saving the world" was worth any more American blood than absolutely necessary.
“Defeat apparently the most powerful army in the world (Soviets)”
OK - we got your number.
“Yes, of course, that’s just what the Nazis wanted us to do, but there’s no historical figure I know of — including Patton — who 1945 would consider high costs in blood and treasure (to go to Moscow??) worth the benefit. What benefit for America?”
This quote betrays an abject lack of any understanding of Pattons plans to prevent the Cold War. This was a war that cost the world ( and us) a lot more than the cost of the last two nukes that Patton would have used to rid the world of communism (after taking care of Japan).
Umm, perhaps you will recall a little incursion called Korea? Or VietNam? And what was the cost of the 60 million that the commies slaughtered in China in 1960?
The Russian army at the wars end relied on mules and carts and Patton had plans to dispatch them in 8 weeks.
"The Russian army at the wars end relied on mules and carts and Patton had plans to dispatch them in 8 weeks."
We might note first that "today's date" is September, 1939, so your "prescience" about the "future" is just amazing... ;-)
But returning to the "present," of 1939, we might consider that Hitler too had already been thinking about the Soviets, and formed "plans to dispatch them in 8 weeks."
How do you suppose that might work out? ;-)
Remember this: Americans lost around a quarter of a million fighting Hitler, and mourned every one. Stalin lost over 20 million (including civilians), and didn't bat an eye. If I remember right, even at the war's end, the ratio of Soviet to German deaths was never less than 2:1, and often much more. But Stalin was willing to "spend" as much blood as needed.
And, by war's end the Soviets were not quite as backward militarily as you make out, thanks in large part to many thousands of trucks & other vehicles supplied by President Roosevelt.
Regardless, here's the bottom line: in 1945 or later, America was not going to war against the Soviets, period, end of discussion -- unless the Soviets started it.
So any suggestions by General Patton to that effect, only served to get him into trouble -- and got him removed from his command.
But here we are in September, 1939, and all that is still just "speculation" about the "future"... ;-)
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