What German soldiers thought about Americans in the aftermath of World War I
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wrote on 24 Jul 2022, 21:58 last edited by
Hard to know whether those are cherry-picked.
I do have a first hand anecdote which is entirely believable. As a 20-something intern I worked briefly with a German-American late career engineer who had been a young German soldier in the war.
In May of 45, after Berlin fell, he was in some place where Russian and US troops were nearby. The German units had completely disbanded and he said every German soldier was trying to surrender to the Americans rather than get caught by the Soviets.
He found a US camp and tried to surrender himself. The guy at the gate told him they were overwhelmed and asked if he could come back the next day. He snuck back into the woods for another night all the more determined that this was where he wanted to tie his fate.
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Hard to know whether those are cherry-picked.
I do have a first hand anecdote which is entirely believable. As a 20-something intern I worked briefly with a German-American late career engineer who had been a young German soldier in the war.
In May of 45, after Berlin fell, he was in some place where Russian and US troops were nearby. The German units had completely disbanded and he said every German soldier was trying to surrender to the Americans rather than get caught by the Soviets.
He found a US camp and tried to surrender himself. The guy at the gate told him they were overwhelmed and asked if he could come back the next day. He snuck back into the woods for another night all the more determined that this was where he wanted to tie his fate.
wrote on 24 Jul 2022, 22:15 last edited by@jon-nyc said in What German soldiers thought about Americans in the aftermath of World War I:
The German units had completely disbanded and he said every German soldier was trying to surrender to
the Americansanyone but the Soviets rather than get caught by the Soviets.Fixed it for you.
My grandfather was in Russa in '44 and '45 and he was among those who made a rally to the West when the end of the war was near. He was caught by Brits.
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Hard to know whether those are cherry-picked.
I do have a first hand anecdote which is entirely believable. As a 20-something intern I worked briefly with a German-American late career engineer who had been a young German soldier in the war.
In May of 45, after Berlin fell, he was in some place where Russian and US troops were nearby. The German units had completely disbanded and he said every German soldier was trying to surrender to the Americans rather than get caught by the Soviets.
He found a US camp and tried to surrender himself. The guy at the gate told him they were overwhelmed and asked if he could come back the next day. He snuck back into the woods for another night all the more determined that this was where he wanted to tie his fate.
wrote on 24 Jul 2022, 22:38 last edited by@jon-nyc said in What German soldiers thought about Americans in the aftermath of World War I:
Hard to know whether those are cherry-picked.
I do have a first hand anecdote which is entirely believable. As a 20-something intern I worked briefly with a German-American late career engineer who had been a young German soldier in the war.
In May of 45, after Berlin fell, he was in some place where Russian and US troops were nearby. The German units had completely disbanded and he said every German soldier was trying to surrender to the Americans rather than get caught by the Soviets.
He found a US camp and tried to surrender himself. The guy at the gate told him they were overwhelmed and asked if he could come back the next day. He snuck back into the woods for another night all the more determined that this was where he wanted to tie his fate.
If he had known how Americans would discriminate against transgendered people 80 years later, I doubt he would have felt the same.
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@jon-nyc said in What German soldiers thought about Americans in the aftermath of World War I:
The German units had completely disbanded and he said every German soldier was trying to surrender to
the Americansanyone but the Soviets rather than get caught by the Soviets.Fixed it for you.
My grandfather was in Russa in '44 and '45 and he was among those who made a rally to the West when the end of the war was near. He was caught by Brits.
wrote on 24 Jul 2022, 22:45 last edited by@Klaus said in What German soldiers thought about Americans in the aftermath of World War I:
@jon-nyc said in What German soldiers thought about Americans in the aftermath of World War I:
The German units had completely disbanded and he said every German soldier was trying to surrender to
the Americansanyone but the Soviets rather than get caught by the Soviets.Fixed it for you.
My grandfather was in Russa in '44 and '45 and he was among those who made a rally to the West when the end of the war was near. He was caught by Brits.
True, no doubt. Although I suspect US or CA > UK > FR > SU in terms of preferences but Soviets would be so much worse than all other options that would be splitting hairs.
In this guy’s case though, his immediate options were US and SU