Having read the posts about the places people would want to serve in WW2 and those about Das Boot, It came upon my mind that a submarine would actually be the worse place for me to serve. Not a matter of phobia, but being trapped in a sinking sub, isn't exactly what I fancy. At least you have a chance in a burning tank or ship for instance. So I am asking you the question. What would the last place you would want to be in WWII ?

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I agree, the thought of submarines fills me with dread. To that I'd add : -

The Jungle : heat, insects, parasites, disease as well as people shooting at you. Ugh !

Eastern Front in Winter : -45C, frostbite, poor equipment, misery - as well as people shooting at you.....

To be honest, the thought of serving practically anywhere in WWII doesn't really appeal

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

Hmmmm...say on German side late February 1943 at Stalingrad or Berlin late april 1945 come to my mind first.

Allied side: On convoys to Murmansk during wintertime...

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The Japanese military almost anywhere. Your life expectancy is somewhere close to nil but while you are waiting to die you get to be mistreated, starved, and diseased making the whole experiance that much better. A second choice would be concentration camp guard. There is a job you are sure to burn in hell for.....

I'll borrow one of Kia's: merchant seaman anywhere. Freeze in the Atlantic or roast to death in Pacific.
The idea of me being alone in an ocean scares me.


I'd hate to be caught up in one of Hitler's "fortresses"........no retreat,fight to the death. No help is coming,no supplies are coming,you're on your own.

I am going to agree with Kai....

Being a German in Stalingrad must have been anything but pleasant.

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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

I would rather be a Japanese POW guard than be a prisoner in a Japanese POW camp. A German in a Russian POW camp would not be fun either. Most did not get released until 1955. And those are only a fraction of the thousands and thousands that were taken by the USSR.

I think the bottom of the barrel would to be a Russian who survived being in a German POW camp, only to be put back in prison after the war for being captured in the first place.

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Work Harder ! Millions on welfare are depending on you.

Have to agree with Kai as well. I'd hate to be in any unit (especially) the 44th Infantry Division at Stalingrad. Those boys were virtually destroyed, as with many of the other units.

As a 2nd choice, Berlin did come to mid as well but I think serving in the Kurland pocket would not be much fun either.

And lastly, i'd definately hate to have been in the 98th Gebirgejager Regiment - which is in the 1st Geb.Div. Those boys saw much more than their fair share of fighting and death.

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

Ya, good one. I'd hated to have served under Gen. Custer.......oops, wrong war.

Demolition or minesweeper man. No thanks.

What about being unexperienced Volksturm with a panzerfaust in Berlin's trenches? If you are "lucky" you get one shot before being ran over by a tank.
You would be twelve, maybe younger, and the only game you would have played in your childhood is "war" and you would die without even realising that you are not playing this time..... Your mother would beg your superior to let you go, and yet you would run back to the barricade to rendez-vous the Devil

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Bataan 1942 comes to mind.

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Lord, let me be the person my dog thinks I am.

Skipper I agree with you. Serving in a Sub is definitely at the top of my list. Next comes:

-Serving as a landser in Von Paulus's 6th Army at Stalingrad after Uranus

-Serving as a landser in Gruppe Stemmerman fighting in the Korsun Pocket

- Serving as a Marine on Tarawa, Pelelieu, Iwo Jima, or Okinawa

-Serving in a Polish cavalry division in the early days of September 1939

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Anywhere within 500 miles of a frontline.

The Japanese Merchant Marine.
I believe (if it came down to the two), I'd rather freeze than be chum for sharks.
I get the death before dishonor thing, but getting tore up by hundreds of sharks can't be the best way to go about it.

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"Danger Will Robinson!"

First wave Omaha.

yikes.

French or British tank 1940 and to hear that roaring sound of a stuka ><!

Anywere the last fighting days for Germany. Though I couldn't stand the hot weather in Africa :/

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Time is only enemy you'll never get rid of.

Good Qustion skipper. The last place I would want to be would be in a U-Boat. Not just the risk of being sunk but also the long trips confined in a coffin with smelly buddies.

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American by birth, TEXAN by the grace of GOD!

as per POWs, from a statistical point of view, you fare much better being a German POW in Soviet hands, than a Soviet POW in German hands.