On Sun, 25 Mar 2018 00:14:24 -0400,
wrote:

On Sat, 24 Mar 2018 22:40:25 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 24 Mar 2018 19:15:26 -0400,
wrote:

On Sat, 24 Mar 2018 18:25:32 -0400, John H.
wrote:

Finished the 12th episode of the 13-episode 'World War II in Color'. Damn. Hate for it to end. Wets
the appetite for some more WWII documentaris.


===

That's about the most lucid and comprehensive documentary on WW2 that
I've ever seen. It was especially meaningful after just watching
"Dunkirk" last week. I also recommend "A Band of Brothers" if you've
never seen it - not nearly as comprehensive but really well done I
thought. B of B was especially meaningful for me because my Dad was
at the Battle of the Bulge. He was a surgeon at the field hospital in
Bastogne that was featured in one of the episodes (101st Airborne). I
still get choked up thinking about the hardships those guys endured.

Yeah my dad had a souvenir from the BoB too.
One of 2.
http://gfretwell.com/ftp/Purple%20Heart.jpg
This and the CIB were the ones he was most proud of. The rest of his
ribbons were for just being somewhere according to him.


===

Nice, hope he wasn't injured too badly.

He lived the rest of his life with shrapnel in his skull and had foot
problems for from frostbite he got while in captivity.

If he was in the 101st Airborne he might have also gotten one of the
silver cups made from melted silverware liberated from Hitler's
private dining room in his "Eagle's Nest" atop Kehlstein Mountain near
Berchtesgaden, Bavaria.

Nope, not that lucky. He thinks he was probably left for dead when the
106th retreated and woke up in a German field hospital. Just about
everyone in his unit died or was captured. (12/18/44) He never saw any
of them again.
He was not a huge fan of the nazis but he did respect professionalism
of the German army for not just finishing him off or leaving him there
to die.
There were no "Hogan's Heros" moments tho. They went East into Germany
and then started back the other way when the Russians were coming. It
was a 700 mile hike in 60 days with scarce rations. He lost 40 pounds.
In the end both the Germans and the Americans thought they were
running for their lives because the Germans told them the Russians
killed everyone they came across. In the end, he thought the Russians
were not that bad after they linked up and got to know each other.
(4/15/45)
He did believe the reputation the US had about abiding to the Geneva
convention saved his life.
When asked in a post war interview if we should have treated the
Germans worse in captivity he said they will be punished enough when
they leave the US and have to go back to the hell hole Germany was at
that time.