BARBAROSSA

 

Today's the anniversary of Operation Barbarossa, when the Reich invaded Russia/USSR with over 3 million men. They reached Moscow and I'll stop there, what a hideous conflict. Millions died.

As did the Reich. What an utter, no holds barred catastrophe. 

Respect to the fallen,

LSP

Surrender

 

I'll just let this repost stand as it is except to say that when I was a very junior LSP I asked a WWII vet "what was it like" when they surrendered. We were in a Morris Minor on the way to Oxford where he taught and I possibly pre-school learned. He replied, "They were incredibly disciplined, even in defeat." That's stuck with me over some 50 years.

Again, a babysitter from Germany in Texas (!) 1972, who had been in Berlin around the end. "What was it like?" She replied, "The Fuhrer would speak to us in the underground from speakers, 'Fight! We will win!'" Maybe it was Goebbels instead of the Fuhrer, and we know how his family ended. Again, an old, hoary and civilized diplomat, "I heard Hitler many times and never thought him anything other than absurd."

Make of this what you will, and if you want something uplifting check out Love The One You're With by the unwashed CSNY.

Cheers,

LSP

Gotterdamerung

 

On May 1, 1945, victorious Russian troops hoisted the Red Flag from the Reichstag, the heart of the Third Reich. The day after, Supreme Warlord Adolf Hitler shot himself in a death pact with Eva Braun. Germany surrendered unconditionally on May 5.

Soviet estimates for the battle of Berlin are 81,116 killed/missing and 280,251 wounded, with German casualties as high as 458,080 killed and 479,298 captured. Civilian losses may have been as much as 125,000. These figures are surely high for the German side, but an undoubtedly catastrophic loss of life occurred at the close of this titanic conflict.

Not that anyone cares, but I respect the German Army and soldier of the 1940s, the Deutsche Heere, though their cause was bad. I respect the Russian soldiers too, who took the grisly fight to conclusion.Very brave men, to put it mildly.

May 9 is fast upon us and with it the Russian Victory Parade. Will RF forces achieve significant victory over the weekend? Unlikely. But readers, let's not forget this "rule." It goes like this, do not go to war against Russia. It ends badly, see Napoleon and Der Fuhrer.

Cheers,

LSP