tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post5079594640202749906..comments2023-10-30T06:31:05.501-07:00Comments on MilPub: Osttruppen @ NormandyFDChiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-9777729075012468522019-06-08T13:18:43.409-07:002019-06-08T13:18:43.409-07:00Cole mentions the Noor Inayat Khan PBS documentary...Cole mentions the Noor Inayat Khan PBS documentary: "Enemy of the Reich". That is one flic I've gotta see. Luckily it is in my library system. Daughter of a Muslim pacifist Sufi from India and an American mother, British SOE wireless operator for <i>'La Résistance'</i>, Sorbonne student, poet, author of children's books, sitar player, great-great-great granddaughter of Tipu Sultan, she was executed at Dachau.<br /><br />There is a short five minute video of her on YouTube produced by the Noor Memorial Trust: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Kx0yNu-aa8" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Kx0yNu-aa8</a><br /><br />The Korean flic unfortunately is not available thru my library. I may have to bite the bullet and sign up for netflix or googleplay.mikehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09123137206598163451noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-84154257276925040932019-06-08T03:54:12.551-07:002019-06-08T03:54:12.551-07:00Cole's site has a good discussion of the journ...Cole's site has a good discussion of the journey of the Allied soldiers from places like Senegal and what it today Pakistan to the fight in France. Those guys, too, came a hell of a long way to fight against European fascism. It would be nice if certain latter-day fascists remembered that rather than indulging in their usual slagging-off on the dusky furriners that they detest because, like the original Nazis, they're just basically racist bastards.FDChiefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-802371756454806532019-06-08T01:11:37.904-07:002019-06-08T01:11:37.904-07:00I did not know about any of this!I did not know about any of this!sheerahkahnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16694622087244891222noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-40567338458546131612019-06-07T04:49:35.427-07:002019-06-07T04:49:35.427-07:00And that's an amazing story about the Korean g...And that's an amazing story about the Korean guys' journey. I gotta see that movie; that's got to be an incredible story...FDChiefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-33458906563076955022019-06-07T04:47:15.374-07:002019-06-07T04:47:15.374-07:00The forced "repatriation" of the Ostrupp...The forced "repatriation" of the <i>Ostruppen</i> is little remembered now but IMO was one of the worst acts of the immediate postwar SHAFE directives. Yes, they were "henchmen of the evil empire". No, we GIs with our delicious K-rations and V-mail had NO idea why these people had volunteered to escape the death sentences of the Nazi Soviet-POW camps to wear the German uniforms.<br /><br />I always catch a huge ration of shit for this, but I can't help reminding Americans that while the GIs fought a tough little war in France and Germany, the people who actually <i>beat</i> the damn Nazis were the Soviets who died in their hundreds of thousands - as regular grunts, as partisans, as civilians who were butchered by the Nazis - and gutted the Nazi war machine. I should really write a "decisive battles" post for Operation Bagration this year, because that - not D-Day - was really the End for the Thousand Year Reich.<br /><br />Army Group B in northern France had two armies (7th, 15th) with about 38 divisions. That said, these included a bunch of these <i>Ostruppen</i> outfits and three of the relatively worthless <i>Luftwaffe felddivisionen</i>.<br /><br /><i>Armeegruppe Mitte</i> LOST more than 30 divisions to the Soviets between 23 JUN and 19 AUG. A total of 31 division or corps commanders were KIA or POWs. The destruction of Army Group Center really WAS the end for the <i>Heer</i>. <br /><br />Credit to the GIs and tommies and Canadians and all...but the Western Front was a sideshow compared to the appalling carnage of the Eastern Front in 1944...FDChiefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.com