Posted on 02/01/2015 2:57:53 AM PST by Paid_Russian_Troll
One comment I got from one of the history shows I watch came from a British WWII vet who said “We were good men who committed acts of unspeakable brutality because the nazis would accept nothing less from us”.
I said too often the political LEFT forget.
I made no reference to Stalin as a WWII ally.
You made that leap.
Apparently you are looking for a fight/argument.
Good-bye.
My mistake.
I used to make a living commercial fishing on many of those wrecks and some smaller vessels and even planes. The East coast of Florida is littered with debris from that war, although many of the smaller ones have silted over and/or rusted mostly away.
A problem, indeed. That is why subs back then, and today, make an effort to determine the type and mission of the ship. . .except for Italy and Germany in WWII. I don't recall ALL belligerents engaged in unrestricted sub warfare. I believe we didn't do that.
Ref bomber pilots or artillery. . .spotters, forward air controllers and targeting Intel play that role.
You made a comparison between Stalin, and how many Russians were killed in WW2 (the latter my stats & point in previous post). Those two issues are/were not related.
And, when I asked what your point is, you said Stalin was a butcher and the left forget! Again, not related to my stats on Russians during WW2.
All the best.
I pass no judgement about what a man must do in the heat of combat. But I do so on a military person who murders non-combatants in a situation where it is not the heat of combat.
I understand the bombing of German and Japanese cities. I understand machine gunning Japanese troops in the water whose transport was sunk with Japanese held land nearby.
I can find no excuse for what the Soviets did to Polish officers in the Katyn Forest, just as an example.
Glad to see you, too!
“How expediently do you forget.”
Notwithstanding your attempted jab. . .cheers.
And what Germans did to Russian soldiers and civilians.
Ah, but we did. We very specifically authorized the USN to engage in "unrestricted submarine warfare". As such, every Maru in the Pacific was fair game. And that is why public dispatches in WW II did not identify submarine capatains and crewmen by name (at least, I believe that's the case).
One target sunk by a US submarine, for example, was a "prison ship" which was transporting POWs from The Phillipines to Japan. There are several such cases, reported here.
There is simply no practical way for a submarine commander to determine whether a merchant freighter is carrying military personnel and/or materiel. But, in a war zone, an enemy-flagged vessel is presumed to do so.
Agreed, I don’t have any issues with what you’ve said in your post.
I didn’t think you would...It was an unspoken distinction in this thread that I felt and obligation to state...
Yes. The treatment of civilians by both sides was horrendous, as was the treatment of each other’s POW’s.
I think our country treated our POW’s pretty well, for the most part.
Thank you for making the distinction. I was actually quite close to 2 Jewish families, and their kids I’ve known since my childhood yrs ago, and with whom I’m still in contact. Many fond memories too :)
“Funny no one has mentioned the firebombing of German and Japanese cities.”
I was just think that as I opened your comment. We killed millions by carpet bombing cities, not to mention a few nukes we let loose.
The Sultana.
“There are such rules in war as all combatants agree to abide by, which is why even the Nazis fed and housed Allied P.O.W.’s in accordance with the Geneva Conventions of which Germany was a signatory.”
Not all our enemies have been so inclined, as we found out the hard way. Japan didn’t treat POWs like that and neither did the Koreans or the Vietnamese or the Muslims.
As I recall, since Japan was not a signatory to the Geneva Convention, and they demonstrated by the way they were fighting the war, that lighting the insignia on the ship would only invite the Japanese to attack it and ships around it, so it was deemed safer to stay in a darkened ship condition.
And you are correct. We did engage in unrestricted submarine warfare.
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