From US National Archives - When Members Of A 9Th Af Republic P-47 Thunderbolt Fighter-Bomber Group Took Over A Former Luftwaffe Base Near Gottingen, Germany, They Found This Republic P-47 Equipped With German Markings, And Olive Drab Paint Job.
Picture of the day
- Thread starter jwhc
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According to my father (who was ‘there’ - NW Europe) Hitler Youth soldiers believed to have been sniping at Canadians ‘sometimes’ didnt survive capture.
The story of Hans (above) is interesting … there was a reservist officer in Toronto (iirc G. Drube) who as a youth, commanded a Flak 88 gun position that was manned by Russian POW’s. It was pretty common apparently.
The story of Hans (above) is interesting … there was a reservist officer in Toronto (iirc G. Drube) who as a youth, commanded a Flak 88 gun position that was manned by Russian POW’s. It was pretty common apparently.
Over a million Russians/Soviets defected and fought alongside the Germans. Not out of any love for Germany, Hitler, or Nazism, but out of a deep and abiding hatred of Stalin.
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/the-fate-of-nazi-germanys-cossacks/
When Hitler is the lesser of two evils, you really have to wonder.
Members of the "Russian Liberation Army" captured in Normandy. None of them would be smiling if they knew of their eventual fates.
General Anton Vlasov, commander of the Russian Liberation Army, reviewing some of his troops:
Poor sods. Thrown to the meat grinder by Stalin, and abandoned to their fates once captured - Stalin viewed all captured soldiers as traitors, and famously told the Red Cross that "There are no Soviet prisoners of war." This had dire consequences for their treatment in captivity, as it meant that legally, the Geneva Convention did not apply to them.
Vlasov and a million Soviets threw their lot in with the Germans. What choice did they really have?
As the situation on the Eastern Front became more critical, Hitler's distrust of the RLA soldiers (who were actually some of the most effective soldiers the Germans had on the Eastern Front at the time), led to them being transferred to the Atlantic Wall.
Captured by the Western Allies, for a brief few months they received the best treatment they had experienced in their entire lives. They were treated like human beings.
As the war ended, unfortunately, they were betrayed again. Pawns in the politics of the time, they were turned over to the Soviets. The Western Leaders were fully aware of their likely fate, but were war weary and didn't want to risk an all out war with Stalin. The majority were summarily executed upon repatriation, the rest worked to death in the Gulags.
