Quote:
Originally posted by Falcon:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />they were fighting to the last man for their OWN country, nothing else
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And what was UK fighting for? As Poles, British soldiers were also fighting for their country. We were fighting for our country, but also for defeat of Nazi Germany - it was common to all Allied countries involved in war... </font>[/quote]Falcon,
I never meant any disrespect, I adore my Polish vet, so uncomplicated and non PC! [img]smile.gif[/img]
I think people try too hard sometimes to over-analyse motivations behind some people's call to fight the Nazis. We don't owe the Polish for volunteering any more than we owe the normal Kent farm boy for signing up, in fact we did them a favour in giving them a weapon to continue their struggle. There are many people who demonise the Germans for instance for shooting pilots who'd bailed out of their aircraft, the Poles did this as well, according to Richard there was nothing that he enjoyed more than killing Germans, whether "on the record" or off. He found any way he could to accomplish that aim and rid the world of them. Geneva conventions be damned.
A British born SAS vet I know here in England said he joined up because he was bored and wanted to shoot other guys, same with the rest of his company. When asked about patriotism he just laughed it off and said that things were a lot simpler then than today.
I get the feeling that this generation wants to be able to explain-away the tulmotuous times of WW2 in some freudian-like navel gazing frenzy, and not look to the simple facts.
[ 26. January 2004, 02:20 PM: Message edited by: BratwurstDimSum ]