Interesting story.
Boy finds WWII plane and pilots remains
Interesting story.
Boy finds WWII plane and pilots remains
A bit more on the story;
https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&r...eZzMlGcMjooMPg
Well, maybe the pilot can finally go home.
Apparently the new Germany don't seem to revere the return of their lost war dead like we seem to here and elsewhere. They only bring home those identified by name with living relatives otherwise they go into mass/communal graves locally. Mind you, the OLD Germany knew quite a bit about mass graves. (sorry if that glib remark was offensive to anyone)
Well, a fallen soldier should always get respect.
Look at how tenacious the aussie was to uncover the mass graves from Fromelles, if you get to read that book by Patrick Lindsay the whole effort was a wasted stunt and a tragedy personified with over 5,300+ diggers gunned down in one 24hour period our greatest loss in a single battle ill conceived as the German OP's had a good view of our back line so knew we were coming.
With grazing fire they cut their legs off and then the torso fell through the bullets. But they have found peace at last interned in the soil they fought over and will never be forgotten, the search still goes on for relatives of those identified also the identification of the diggers themselves.
I agree with Ovidio every soldier that died deserves to be brought home or at least given some dignity the Pacific engagements may prove a daunting task and would probably not interest the Japanese govt, bit like our New Guinea the diggers are out there waiting for some one to come along and find them, every country has lost souls I wonder how many are still laying in VN waiting..........?
I should have clarified the US missing soldiers sorry Clarky as I should imagine they would have a few the Australian armed forces are as stated tenacious at finding our fallen how long did they look for the Sydney wreck and finally finding her though we may never know the truth of her demise.
I might be wrong here Cinders, but hasn't Australia now accounted for all its Vietnam fallen? I seem to recall the last few were an SASR soldier and a Canberra Bomber crew, all located and remains recovered in the last 5 years.Quote:
Originally Posted by CINDERS
I personally think Germany's attitude to its fallen is disgusting, as a Government, they really don't seem to give a s***! Its a general "Nothing to do with us chief" attitude that came sharply to light following the Cold War thaw in the 1990's when bodies were recovered from the old eastern front.
I wonder what the German general public think??
People who gave their young lives for their Country deserve the right to treated with respect and have their remains repatriated and properly interned with dignity, if this isn't carried out it would strongly suggest to me that certain members of German society haven't truly learned the lessons of their own very recent past!
Germans have a very difficult relation with their recent past.
They just wasted the baby with the dirty water while trying to come to terms with it.
If you consider what happened, it is very difficult to look at it with neutral eyes if you're one of the "blemished" people, so it is probably easier to just bury everything and carry on.
Still, I bet it will slowly start to change now even in regard to the many fallen who fought well and "clean".
My experience with over 40 years of frequentation with Germans is that in the recent years they have started to ease a bit on these topics.
Might be not 100% good, but it was definitely time!
I remember the late 70ies and early 80ies there. There was not a single day where you had TV programs about the war and how mean they had been, about NS-times, dictatorship, Holocaust.
I was really impressed as a kid.
The peak might have been the late 80ies, then, very slowly, it has started to change.
But the scars are deep and still very sensitive, believe me.
I don't appreciate but can somehow understand it.
A few of the old folks now will I am sure remember this word ~ Terrorflieger............
Too right. Soldiers don't really get to pick sides. A lot of soldiers, conscripts in particular, are unwilling participants. Certainly, there are the 'true believers', but a lot are just doing what they see as duty and honourable.Quote:
Originally Posted by mrclark303
I've met a few former Wehrmacht soldaten over the years. One, a former gebirgsjaeger spent most of his time on the Eastern Front, but admitted being shifted to the Western Front late on in the war saying it was probably the only reason he didn't end up dying in a Soviet Gulag. Once, I also met a bloke (an engineer for Northrup at the time in the 1980s) who was shot down near Paris and badly burnt. Quite by coincidence, he had been at an engineering conference a few years earlier and actually met the FW190 pilot who shot him down when the 'old lads' were talking about the war in the bar after one of the conference session. They became fast friends.