Soviet Command's true face

"On this very first day the Soviet Command showed its true face. Our troops came across a German patrol which had been cut off by the enemy earlier on. All its members were dead and gruesomely mutilated. My A.D.C and I, who often had to pass through sectors of the front that had not been cleared of the enemy, agreed that we would never let an adversary like this capture us alive. Later on there were more than enough cases where Soviet soldiers, after throwing up their hands as if to surrender, reached for their arms as soon as our infantry came near enough, or where Soviet wounded feigned death and then fired on our troops when their backs were turned."- Von Manstein

"During our retreat we found 20 soldiers murdered in the most bestial manner. Their ears were cut off, their eyes gouged out, their genitals cut off. Naturally, we felt enormous rage. So then our commander gave the order that all civilians in the area were to be shot as a reprisal. We weren't to spare women or even children. – Carlheinz Benhnke, 4th SS Police Panzer Grenadier Division

So whatever happened to the soviets after that should be considered merely as reprisal.

 

Or far more accurately those acts should be considered reprisal against the atrocious behaviour of the German aggressor in assaulting and raping a country in the most bestial racist manner imaginable with the declared intention of wiping out an entire people labelled as 'Untermensch' merely for not fitting Hitlers racial profiles.

But no, of course, one always takes the word of Von Manstein & the ever trustworthy testimony of an SS police commander as an acceptable justification of further war crimes...

 

And whatever happrened to the soviets before this should be considered merely as pre-emptive reprisal

This was a message from the "SS were just aryan uber soldiers in fancy uniforms" comittee.

 

I've just read that when a Soviet artillery commander told his troops to open fire on the Germans on June 22nd 1941 the men replied that they should let them come closer and try to explain to them that they should come to their senses and help rise up against Hitler.
The Russian people at the beginning of the war thought the German people were fine, just their leaders that were evil.
It took awhile for the Soviet people to treat the Germans in uniform as the enemy.
Stalin even alluded to that in a speech in May 42, that indifference to the enemy had been replaced by hate.

Ironcross,
Have you ever been to war?
Have you ever become a killer of men?
If the answer is No, then do not judge those that have.
You just don't know what can urges can be released in people in combat.

As for chopping off ears etc, that went on in the Falklands War in 1982.
Respectable people change once they've been in combat.

 

An unfortunate point of view from the misinformed.


Insulting...

 

Sorry if you feel insulted, that was never my intention. I just find it hard to justify the fact that many Germans were hanged for doing what the Russians had done.

 

Well, the Russians were tying up a majority of the Wehrmacht forces and they were our buddies so why rock the boat over a few incidences of excuberent behaviora against the common enemy. To victors go the spoils and the right to judge the losers. Has always been and always will be.

 

The Russians, did not start a war of attrition against a sub-human race with the intention of exteminating an entire people for their own benefit.

If the Russians had fought with the same valor and chivalry in which the glorious Germans had, then perhaps the Germans too would suffer the same fate that the Russians had under the Germans.

The war in the West was very different from that in the East.

 

Manstein had some nasty things to say about the Russians in his book.
BTW, this is for you: Russian Victories The Russians

 

Don't forget when reading anything by von Manstein to have Shaggy singing 'It wasn't me' playing in the background...

I find it sets just the right tone.

 

Phear der PanzerPenguin!

 

Ironcross, you really should change your nickname to Pendulum. You go from one extreme of Common Sense to Total Lack Thereof in an eye-flick.

Whatever you're smoking, drop it, it blocks your synapses. Think, man, Think!

 

Ironcross.

Who came to whom uninvited? I'll abstain from this, it's not even sporting.

 

I will say this though, the guy in the middle is not someone you want to piss off.

 

This is an excellent photo Chuikov..... Belarus?


Any info on this?

 

Not really I think it is postwar though not too long after the fall of Berlin. I did hear somewhere that they are a recon squad. I think that they're definitely authentic Russki soldati. I'm going to look into it later. Unless somebody knows what we are looking at already.

 

They have their belts on, which means they were nowhere near Germany.

 

Why is that? Does the belt signify rank? I notice the middle guy has a star on his. This could have been taken after the fall of Berlin in Europe, just about anywhere really. They are carrying PPS-43s which were used by recon units as I thought.

PPS-43 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

You are right, they were only protecting their homeland. I would have done the same thing if my homeland was devastated like that. I am sorry.

 

That was a good one! Very sad.......but true!