Good day to everyone,

I found some intresting pics of the Croats on the russian front. It supprised me that i never knew of this before as many others.

Good pics, thanks for posting them.

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Best Regards,
JW

Yes indeed! Great photos. There are many which I have not seen yet.

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The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

very interesting indeed ! wonder where the Kriegsmarine volunteers were stationed ??

its a pitty out of 9,000 of these soilders n with the pilots, only less then 200 survived at the end of the war.

as i heard it, they were stationed i think in Servasterpol

The pity is that they fought for the wrong side.

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The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

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For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman.

Enough Croats to keep one happy



The guy in the middle must come from Eastern Croatia!

(No Gott mit uns belt buckle ?!)

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1.One could debate that, since germany was the only allie to agree to accept them as a country. So who would they fight for, if no body else does that except germany. To me its common sense.

Too bad they pinned thier hopes and future of thier 'Country" on the losing side then. Though I seriously doubt they they considered Croatia as a real ally. Just another source to be used.

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For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman.

On the contrary germany was at the brink of winning the war for the second time, It occupied most of western europe and western russia, and northern africa. If it werent for hitlers stupidity they would have been easly the victors. Like in the bliz on england. The english in the middle of the bliz had only a handful of fighters and even less pilots(that's why they had to hire foreigners like canadians, americans, and poles)Then Hitler just attacked london with his full brute force of his air force. Which gave the english time to regroup and reorginize. Same thing in russia, where he could of just surrounded and passed stalingrad , before winter came

But that's beside the point.

2. Not all croats were on the german side either. The partisan revolution in former yugoslavia started in croatia, with Josip Broz Tito(croat) as the leader. You can say that they were on both sides.


But yes, in my opinon, i think that hitler just used them too. Same thing with the first yugoslavia where he signed with them.

You might want to read up a littlre more. A "handful" of fighters? They had way more then that. And they had to "hire" pilots? They were VOLUNTEERS and more then just Americans,Canadians and Poles fought with the RAF. And Im fully aware about the Croats both Pro and Anti Germany. The Pro-Germans were more then happy to carry out some things the same as the Germans. And it wasn't just Hitlers "stupidity" that lost the war for them. The Russians had a large hand in the defeat of Germany and its Allies.

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For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman.

I dont need to read more, ive been reading and learning about the second world war my entire life. So i think i have enough expirience in these matters. First of all yes the RAF had numerous fighters in the first days of the blitz but as months dragged on the RAF was beggining to loose alot of pilots and aircraft. In fact the RAF had more lack of pilots than aircraft. Which you can read about. volunteers, hired you name it whatever you want the RAF needed them.(you can read about that also) In fact Brittan ended up with loosing 1023 fighters, 376 bombers, 1,041 aircrew i believe.


Russia yes after the turning point(and also after sustaning heavy damage in his airforce as well, then automaticly turning to russia, which is complete stupidity if u ask me.) supprising the german sixth while figting in stalingrad(encircled). but it was hitlers stupidity that he could of went to moscow before winter,(by avoiding stalingrad) and then dig in so they can recuperate their forces from their long stretched supply lines.Zuhkov would have a harder time in supprising the germans then. And the fact that the germans were fighting on two fronts. Which he should of finnished england off before ever attacking russia. If he couldnt defeat them, he shouldnt have attacked russia.(even though it was the age of stalins purges in his own military)

Would I be so bold to point out that the German armed forces had structural faults of their own, and not all mistakes were made by Hitler?

That is the most amazing statement I have ever read in this forum. You have just defined yourself. Thank you.

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I agree Za. So you are experienced enough to state quite a few incorrect and inaccurate statements? And I also forgot to mention that alot of the foreign pilots that fought in the RAF were not "hired" but were part of the Commonwealth.Canada,South Africa,Australia,New Zealand,Rhodesia.The other foreigners were from Occupied Europe and were fighting for thier homeland not for pay. They traveled great distances and went through many hazards to carry on the fight. Another of your inaccuracies.

How US pilots joined the RAF

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For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman.

Lets keep our tempers in check here guys. I wouldn't want to have to close another thread and hand out warnings.

Stuka, you can do all the reading you like in your lifetime, but I gurantee you won't come close to learning/knowing everything. Many of the members here have read countless books and talked to veterans over the years, typically focusing on one area and have studied the subject well. None of them claim to be the leaderin the subject, and all have learned new things on these forums in regards to their favorite front. Some of your claims are ludicrous, and have been proven otherwise by actual Historians and easy-to-find books published on the matter. So keep that in mind before making such claims.

As for everyone else, lets keep this on topic! Thanks!

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