A Brutal Eastern Front--but don't forget the Pacific.

[Guest smbutler]

There's no doubt that the EF was the most brutal front where all of the worst human impulses came to an ugly head. I remember listening to an NPR peice about the German units (Eingruppen I think they were called) who purged captured towns of certain elements of the population. They played a sound bite from the Nuermburg trial of an English speaking SS officer talking (in a very matter of fact tone of voice) about one massacre. It went something like this: 'In the town of X we killed 80,000 of the inhabitants, give or take around 10,000. One can never get exact figures from these kinds of operations..."

Certainly the scale of destruction on the EF was horrible, but the conflict in the Pacific caused humans to de-evolve in many cases. The starving Japanese ate dead Austrailians during the fight for the Kokoda trial, and in Burma the struggle was every bit as primal and surreal as the movie "Apocolypse Now." And many Marine vets will point out that Tarawa was a three-day Omaha Beach compressed into a much smaller area.

As the Polish General in "A Bridge Too Far" says, "When men decide to play the war game, it dosen't matter who does what... Everybody dies..."

[Guest Ol' Blood & Guts]

Well how is BTS gonna model cannibalist Japanese? Give them little pointy and jagged "monster" teeth?

Just jokin' witya.

This has been discussed in length before, but the basic answer is that BTS knows the ETO much, much better than the PTO and so they aren't planning a PTO version of CM, until at least they finish up with CM4

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"Why don't we say that we took this one chance, and fought!"

"Stupid humans. Hahahahahahaha!"

--from the film Battlefield Earth

[Gen. Sosaboski]

Other quotes from my namesake:

"Don't you think that if we know that Arnhem is so crucial to their safety they might know that too?!" (To Browning)

"Tell them at Arnhem, we are coming tonight"

"I began to think that we were dropping into Holland not to support a victory, but to reinforce a defeat"

Just couldn't help it .

I am also in support of a CM for the PTO, but I also can't wait for the "Med Sea" version.

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Sosabowski, 1st Pol. Abn.

Yes, I know my name is spelled wrong as a member!

[sage]

For reference, "Einsatzgruppen", although my spelling may be a bit off. It means "First Strike Group", which was just marketing, as it sounds a lot better than, "Overweight middle aged guys out shootin' up Jews."

Sage

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by smbutler:

There's no doubt that the EF was the most brutal front where all of the worst human impulses came to an ugly head. I remember listening to an NPR peice about the German units (Eingruppen I think they were called) who purged captured towns of certain elements of the population. They played a sound bite from the Nuermburg trial of an English speaking SS officer talking (in a very matter of fact tone of voice) about one massacre. It went something like this: 'In the town of X we killed 80,000 of the inhabitants, give or take around 10,000. One can never get exact figures from these kinds of operations..."

Certainly the scale of destruction on the EF was horrible, but the conflict in the Pacific caused humans to de-evolve in many cases. The starving Japanese ate dead Austrailians during the fight for the Kokoda trial, and in Burma the struggle was every bit as primal and surreal as the movie "Apocolypse Now." And many Marine vets will point out that Tarawa was a three-day Omaha Beach compressed into a much smaller area.

As the Polish General in "A Bridge Too Far" says, "When men decide to play the war game, it dosen't matter who does what... Everybody dies..."<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

[Zamo]

You tell 'em Smedley!

Semper Fi!

[Username]

HEY LETS ALL CUT THE S#@T!!!

LOOK LISTEN..

US units gave surrounded german units one chance at surrender! Any german trying a quick panzerfaust shot and hands up was shot.

Snipers were shot. Ive seen footage of them coming at very tired pissed off US units and getting it through the gut! Bradley even said as much.

The only chance at surrender is when both sides stopped. Maybe a german teen wasnt killed because of beliefs.

Want to hear something REAL and TRUE and NASTY??? (warning..go to your rooms if you cant handle reality)

My friends father served in recon under Patton. Hated it all cause he was sent into the unit for punching a butter bar looey. He was in an attack on a village supported by american black tankers. The tanks took losses after the recon had penetrated the village. The tanks pulled back after losing a few tanks. The recon unit was swarmed by german infantry and left everything including leaders, friends, backpacks,etc.

When his fathers unit caught up with the tankers there was a no holds fight that resulted in deaths. It was an all out brawl that only stopped with MPs almost killing both sides even more.

Any of you people here that think war aint the absolute expression of human hate, frustration, racism, madness, and total insanity are stupid.

Theres nothing like someone pointing a weapon at you. Cleaned out all MY daydreaming. People get into "death sports" and what have you..wanna know why? makes you know what its like to really be alive.

Lewis

[Tim]

Well Sage, I hope your not German cause then I´ll make a fool out of my self, but according to my dictionary(German-Danish) "EinsatzGruppe" means "EffortGroup".

In fact it doesn´t seem to me to mean, "Overweight middle aged guys out shootin' up Jews.", but rather "Young brainwashed fools shootin´up everything they were told.". Hate isn´t something you´re born with, it´s something you´re taught.

Tim

[Chris Jenkins]

Einsatzgruppe means "action group." Einsatz is action. They are referred to as "Special Action Groups" by military historians.

[Juju]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Tim:

In fact it doesn´t seem to me to mean, "Overweight middle aged guys out shootin' up Jews.", but rather "Young brainwashed fools shootin´up everything they were told

Tim <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Einsatzgruppen (only six at the start of the Polish camaign,don't know about later)as a whole were roughly comprised of:

35%: SS

20%: Polizei (regular police)

10%: Gestapo

5%: Kripo (criminal investigations if I translate correctly)

Furthermore a small number of army personnel presumably serving in an administrative function and some SD personnel(sicherheitsdienst).

Source:The SS: Hitler's instrument of terror, by Gordon Williamson