Though I would post a couple of YouTube links to while away the time, mostly about the Soviet Union:

The Battle At Kursk (in 3 parts)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghXWJPU4xdE&feature=related

Dance With Death (5 parts – Vietnam War – Russian television. The U.S. lost 2500 a/c in Vietnam. Soviet missiles were very effective.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRDmPoWYHT4

Dasvidanya Afghanistan! (Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan – they don’t look like the losers they are portrayed as in the west, but the U.S. got its missile revenge. They look pretty proud, I don’t think it was a loss of face to pull out. Now the U.S. is mired in it after supplying billions in war materiel to the mujahadeen and they came back and smashed the World Trade. Who won? The Soviets!)

There was another 20-25 mln of civilian losses in SU. That also includes guerilla forces, I guess, but at the same time military losses include soldiers without rifles. In the “enemy” movie you saw that – they give one rifle for two, they run together…

Soviet Union lost 23-26 million people during WW2…

Yes, I saw both “Stalingrad” and “Das Boot”. I was not very impressed by “Stalingrad” – maybe I was not watching carefully.

But “Das Boot” is a totally great movie, I just forgot about it. And I also think it teaches a little bit less about the war, there is no feeling of that face-to-face direct encounter.

I don’t know, I liked “enemy”. Do you remember russian comissars shooting at the running soldiers? Or Krushev who ordered the commander to shoot himself, samurai-style?

I’ve made so many posts against the war in Iraq that I thought that I can write whatever I want without being afraid to be accused

I should not drink and drive ))

>>> I’m glad you came out of the closet

I hope you’re kidding? Btw, this site is getting a lot of visitors with google search for “holocaust”.

Let me say that I have some sympathy for Germany – the way they led the whole Europe into prosperity, by pure economic means and the way they refused to participate in Iraq from the day one.

I just like to make provocative posts, but sometimes it bites and people turn it personally ;-(

I do not agree with guy, I think he simply didn’t get what you wanted to talk about.

High number of dead Russians is simply because they didn’t give a damn about the life – and they still don’t even nowadays in civil life, their motto was “Ye nas mnogo” = “there is plenty of us” meaning they sent without hesitation tens of guys with shovels against tanks and grenades, that is simply not attributable to German army qualities but to the willingness of Russians to win at all costs.
Then also even allies soldiers were not doing nice things to enemy soldiers and committed “crimes”, but that is simply war.Give a man power and he simply changes due to serotonin hormone influence. I mean the allies would be doing the same atrocities if they found themselves thanks to their governments on the attacking side…
Regarding the wars for resources….don’t forget why the first Gulf war began. There is the single biggest oilfield on borders of Iraq and Kuwait, the vast majority of it in Iraq. Iraq and Kuwait agreed at the end of 80s that Kuwait will pump million barrels per month (maybe in a year, I don’t remember exactly, sorry) as Kuwaitis agreed that the oilfied belongs to Iraq. It worked till US and UK pushed Kuwait to pump 10 instead of 3 simply not telling Iraq. But Iraq intelligence soon knew what is Kuwait doing and wanted him to stop it. But then US and UK told Kuwait not to be limited anymore by any quotes and Iraq then invaded Kuwait to take control of its own oilfield. The rest you probably know quite well. Maybe I am wrong on numbers/frequency, but the principle is like that.
Don’t ever forget that propaganda exists and is more powerful than ever, note that American media never lies but often simply doesn’t tell everything.

Would you say that in Vietnam or Iraq the American troops proved themselves to be much better soldiers than the opposite side?

Lastly, while not all German soldiers committed war crimes, many did, especially on the Eastern front, so any celebration of the German soldier without acknowledging of this fact is rather hypocritical

Essentially the battle of Stalingrad was all about oil (the same Greenspan said about Iraq war – that’s oil, stupid).

It is true that in Hitler’s thinking the drive to the south toward the Caucuses (far south of Stalingrad) beginning in the summer of 1942 (an offensive which was, before the disastrous winter of 1942/1943, spectacularly successful in terms of territory overrun) was aimed at capturing Russian oil fields. But the attack on Stalingrad itself also held significant symbolic importance for Hitler — due to the name of the city.

http://www.markit.com/information/products/cdx.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_ace

http://www.csd.uwo.ca/Elevon/aces.html

Here is the list of 10 German pilots who downed more than 100 enemy planes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Cross

“In real life it would take 40 or 50 Americans to have an equal fight against 15 Germans.”

I believe US losses versus Germany were near par, with the US probably with a slight edge. The bulk of the US kills was using airpower which was used decisively against the Germans. The US used its strategic bombers to decimate German front lines to mimimize US ground troop causulties. Only during the Italy Campaign did the Germans have a higher kill ration and that was because they Germans fought in entrenched positions in the Alps and the terrain provided the Germans with a substaintal advantage.

The German-Russia front was a true tragedy. The Russians endured huge losses, it was was really a pointless war. Both sides were lead by rutheless dictators (Hitler and Stalin), both of which should have never risen to power.

In the grand scheme, what really isn’t important which nation had the highest kill ratio, by the loss of about 60 million people (Miltary and Civilian) that occured during that period. 60 Million people who lost their lives and all there dreams and hopes lost forever.

If there is one lesson that can be taken from this is, is that groups of people should never consider themselves better than anyone else. Strong national pride leads to arrogance and aggressions towards outsiders. The second lesson is that the public should never become dependant on thier gov’t. Dependancy on gov’t services leads down the road of totaliarism.

“First, I want to wish everyone that humanity stops fighting for resources. I understand that the war can happen when neighbors are trying to dispute some land, that happens all the time. But when a powerful country attacks someone to get its oil it’s outright disgusting. Are we not strong enough to just buy what we want?”

Unfortunately, its likely to get far worse in the years to come. The problem is that as some point, countries are no longer able to just buy what they want. Consider that the one of the reason why Japan went to war is because they could not buy the resources they needed.

Consider this conversation:

“It’s simple economics.
Today it’s oil, right?
In or years– food, plutonium,
and maybe even sooner.

What do you think the people
are going to want us to do then?

Ask them.
Not now. Ask them when they’re running out.
Ask them when there’s no heat and they’re cold.
Ask them when their engines stop.
Ask them when people who have never known hunger start going hungry.

Want to know something?
They won’t want us to ask them.
They’ll want us to get it for them.”

From the Movie “Three days of the Condor”

The bottom line, is that when they people can’t get gas to put into thier cars, heat their homes, and put food on the table, populations will almost unanimously demand that the gov’t go get it for them. Even if that means sending thier sons and daughters into harms way.

But, just to make that “Ryan” movie fair to the real history Spielberg had to add to the German team 2-3 real commandos and just those commandos alone would take down 15-20 Americans.

Remember, that German brigade was not just sitting in the sandbox and defending the bridge. It was a team of hitmen who came to chase the invaders deep behind the frontline.

I stand to my position that in that particular case, just to make a movie realistic, Americans must have at least 2-1 advantage just for equal fight.

Otherwise it’s just another Disney movie. And Tom Hanks won by transforming German tank into pumpkin

By the time the Allies hit the beaches of Normandy the Wehrmacht had already taken a battering in the East and it isn’t evident that they could field all that many soldiers who had been fighting for 6 years. A number of German units in Army Group B (defending northern France and the Low Countries were significantly depleted and/or made up of sub-standard or non-German troops (although the latter were commanded by German officers from units that had been disbanded folowing defeats on the Eastern front). The situation in the East was even worse, with many units operating at 50% of their complement. It was all downhill from then. By the time the Allies reached Berlin, the Germans were fielding the equivalent of their Boy Scouts…