D-Day? France Preferred Us to the U.S. Even Then, Says German Veteran

The Telegraph ^ | May 30, 2004 | Tony Paterson

[STFrancis]

Gockel was actually in an A&E special I saw the other day. A American, Brit and him got together at Omaha and talked about their experiences. He comes across as a genuine guy who did his duty. No more, no less.

[CatoRenasci]

I think you are right that most Americans attitude towards the French is more contempt and disgust at their betrayal and ingratitude, than it is hatred. As to the Germans, there is residual respect for the traditional German virtues of diligence, persistence, hard work and technical expertise, their general competence if you will. However, Americans do remain a bit chary of the Germans, with a bit of the Anglo-Saxon distrust of the Germans but not in so pronounced a form. (Many would agree with Churchill's comment that the Hun is always at your throat or at your feet). I'm actually a germanophile: Ich kann Deutsch, and enjoy German music and literature (from Der Arme Heinrich and Niebulungenlied up through Goethe and Schiller to Mann, Hesse and their nochfolger), and have studied German history and philosophy. But, I don't like what has emerged in the past few years. It reminds me of the film Wir Wunderkinder and the ditty in it about the "postwar time becomes the prewar time".

[John Jorsett]

The fact is that people are people, and the occupying troops weren't necessarily seen as representative of their oppressive government. I spoke to a woman in Norway who talked fondly of a German soldier named Otto whom she had become friends with as a child during the occupation. She greatly regretted that when Germany pulled out he was sent to perish on the Russian front. I don't doubt that bonds formed between some of the Germans and some of the French. That's just how it is.

[Blood of Tyrants]

This moron STILL believes der Fuhrer's BS 60 years later. But there is a grain of truth to his words. The Allies freed France and they have never forgiven us for it.

[Verginius Rufus]

John Keegan in his book Fields of Battle talks about his experiences as a student in France not long after the end of WWII. He says that the landowners who suffered property damage in the battle for Normandy complained constantly about the damage and that "stringent anti-Americanism" was "de rigueur at almost every level of French society."

A fine book with some amazing errors--for example, he says that Bent's Fort, founded in 1833 in present-day Colorado, was visited by President Thomas Jefferson (who died in 1826, of course, and never traveled west of the Appalachian Mountains).

[F.J. Mitchell]

Too damn bad we didn't know that before so much young American blood was spilled, saving the French surrender monkeys against their wills!

[CatoRenasci]

Interesting. My wife is Norwegian, and her family, and my brother-in-law's family were seriously active in the resistance. From what they have said, most Norwegians were not at all happy with the German invasion. Not even in Alesund, where Kaiser Wilhelm II gave generously to rebuild the town after a disasterous fire. (Kaiser Bill is remembered fondly there for that, but not the Nazis).

[CatoRenasci]

Things happening in the US tend to be Keegan's weakest area, although he gives Grant his due in The Mask of Command.

[longtermmemmory]

So begins the revisionist history of the left's version of D-Day. It all the USA's fault. Nevil Chamberlain was right.

[olde north church]

Too damn bad we didn't know that before so much young American blood was spilled, saving the French surrender monkeys against their wills!
Shouldn't that be:
...CHEESE EATING, SURRENDER MONKEYS...?

[nonliberal]

No revisionism about it. Ze French were perfectly happy living under Nazi domination.

[Tribune7]

I honestly don't hate the French. OTOH, I don't have any respect for them.

[F.J. Mitchell]

Thanks. It certainly should have been Cheese eating surrender monkeys. As a matter of fact it should have been cheese eating vinegar drinking surrender monkeys. Can you believe their gall, calling that stuff wine?

[America's Resolve]

Yeah, he did his duty killing Americans, while his fellow countrymen (and their french allies) used that time to kill that many more Jews and enslave that many more people.

Real nice guy!

[F16Fighter]

Mr Gockel is troubled by more, however. "D-Day is remembered almost exclusively from the Allied point of view," he said. "We Germans have been depicted merely as the occupiers of France.

Gockel should be thankful he wasn't summarily executed for murderously machine-gunning Lord knows how many young American liberators on the beaches of Normandy.

Instead, today, 60 years later, he has the gall to whine about being "troubled" by Germany's role as occupier and the allies role as liberators regarding D-Day?

Eff Herr Gockel, and eff the French.

[nathanbedford]

I am afraid it is more than revisionism of D day going on here. The assumption is that when America liberates a people it is successful only if the expectations of the liberated people are fully met. Here the left establishes a standard that can never be met.

It is my understanding of history that we invaded France to defeat Germany which had declared war on us and only incidentally to liberate the damn Frogs. When we permit Liberals to rewrite history we can be sure they have a collateral and contemporary motive.

That is why it is a mistake to cast the war in Iraq as a war for democratization of the country. Rather it should be advertised truly as a military operation to further American security and not an experiment in nation building.

[WorkingClassFilth]

As I recall, the entire German occupation garrison never exceeded 10,000 troops. The French did it to themselves - not suprising when you consider the nature of the French.

[CWOJackson]

From everything I've read most germans thoroughly enjoyed their time in france.

[Polybius]

The fact is that people are people, and the occupying troops weren't necessarily seen as representative of their oppressive government. I spoke to a woman in Norway who talked fondly of a German soldier named Otto whom she had become friends with as a child during the occupation. She greatly regretted that when Germany pulled out he was sent to perish on the Russian front. I don't doubt that bonds formed between some of the Germans and some of the French. That's just how it is.

I had the same experience with a Dutch-born woman now living in the U.S.

She was a 14 year old in Arnhem at the time of Market-Garden and talked about how, during the occupation, her family had Jewish refugees hidden in the attic one year and, later, had German troops quartered in their house.

I jokingly asked her if "the Germans were nice".

She replied, "Yes, actually, they were. The SS troops, of course, were monsters but the ones that stayed in our house were draftees and they were very nice boys."

[BenLurkin]

"Sand sculpture : A sand sculpture representing soldiers landing on a beach sits in Vierville-sur-mer, which was known as Omaha beach on D-Day." (AFP/Mychele Daniau)