Drift3r

True or the repercussions of siding with the Germans also could of been just as bad. Like having your entire family sent to a gulag in Siberia to be worked to death.

Well they couldn't really be expected too, they were very short of food in 1941, the Germans. You couldn't expect your average fraulein on the street to give up a nice bit of cake just because some dirty Russki got himself captured. I mean the bleedin' Slavs were barely human, the prison camps were probably luxury compared to the 'orrible peasant huts they were used too. As for summary execution, well they were used to that with the NKVD and all, made 'em feel right at home I'm sure. It might have been more appropriate to keep 'em in zoos I suppose but I imagine there would have been a bit of trouble with the RSPCA on account of the conditions. Of course you're right. Absolutely swarms of Russian prisoners elected to help the Germans out. Purely on ideological grounds of course, the choice between digging fortifications in sunny France or participating in experiments to test the limits of human endurance had nuffink to do with it. I challenge anyone to prove otherwise, stands to reason doesn't it, and don't bother posting any load of bollocks like that Nuremberg proceedings tripe. That were a fit up if ever there were one. </font>

The Soviets treated their own people who they freed from POW camps just as bad if not worse then the Germans. There is nothing like being freed from a German POW camp and then being put up on trail by the NKVD for treason because you were captured in combat. As far as the Germans and pens go at least it had to do with not wanting to waste scarce resources on captured prisoners. The Germans didn't really feel the need to setup large well stocked detention centers because they didn't think the war would last as long as it did. They thought and were lead to believe that Russia would fall like a deck of cards. So why waste precious resources on elaborate holding centers if the war in the East would be over quickly ? Also you forget that many thousands of capture Soviet soldiers also switched sides and either worked in rear areas or were allowed to fight along side German units against their own comrades. In fact the most fanatical units in the German Army were not even German but ex-Soviet soldiers who had switched sides for many reasons. Some for example switched sides because of racial and political/religious issues faced by ethnic non-Russian peoples ( Asian muslims and Buddhists in the Crimea for example ) who were treated horribly by Stalin and his cohorts before and after the war.

BRAVO ! BRAVO ! One of the best AAR's I've ever read. I loved the screenies as well. To bad you got robbed with the cease-fire at the end.