Bear Down Wildcats

Figure we can have a dedicated history thread for the subject. Today is the 75th anniversary of the German invasion of Poland. This German ship started it with shelling coastal Polish areas a little after midnight

What was the German justification for beginning operations in Poland?

Germans dressed as Poles invaded a German radio station.

scumdevils86 wrote:http://www.reddit.com/r/wwiipics

Kind of hot in a military sort of way.

Mongolians captured in Normandy in 1944 by the US Army while serving with the German Wehrmacht being transported back to an interment camp in the United States.

These guys likely were serving with the Russian army since1939 during the Japanese-Russian border conflicts prior to WW2. During Operation Barbarossa in 1941 these Mongolian troops were captured by the German Army and then pressed into service as occupation/static defense troops for the Reich. Not surprising they surrendered pretty quickly when they had the chance to the Americans. Like "get me the fck out of this whole mess already so I can go home to my herd in Mongolia some day. fck"

An American Marine, in foreground, still clutches the knife with which he killed a Japanese soldier, in background, in a duel on Engebi Island, Eniwetok Atoll. A moment after finishing off his adversary, a sniper’s bullet killed the Marine. Coast Guardsmen brought these hardy fighters to the beaches.

CalStateTempe wrote:What was the German justification for beginning operations in Poland?

To expand the Fatherland.

Seriously, Hitler just did not give a flying fuck. His stated goal was empire and he tried his hardest to achieve it.

Chicat wrote:

CalStateTempe wrote:What was the German justification for beginning operations in Poland?

To expand the Fatherland.

Seriously, Hitler just did not give a flying fuck. His stated goal was empire and he tried his hardest to achieve it.

Yeah, the truest answer is that it doesn't matter. Hitler wanted conquest, and created pretexts to get him there. It was always just taking over that one little area too...until he got it and went for more.

No Sh*t.

I was just hoping for a bit deeper understanding than what I learning in high school. But maybe somethings, like Hitler's drive for domination, you just can't understand.

Expanding living space in the east for the Germans and providing a food supply which was primarily the Ukrainian grain fields.

Slavs (Poles/Russians/Czechs/Slovaks) were subhumans and should be treated as such.

Battle of Midway Island, June 3-5, 1942. Enemy torpedo bombers attacking USS Yorktown (CV-5) through a hail of anti-aircraft fire. Taken from the deck of the USS Yorktown.

CalStateTempe wrote:No Sh*t.

I was just hoping for a bit deeper understanding than what I learning in high school. But maybe somethings, like Hitler's drive for domination, you just can't understand.

What the Germans told their people and the world was that during the 30s there had been increasing Polish on German violence in border areas. The Poles didn't like the Germans by them and in their territory and were acting out. Lots of ethnic Germans lived in Poland after the treaty of Versailles. General tension between the two governments as well. German troops dressed as Poles attacked a German border post/radio station and the Germans used it as a pretext to invade and stop this incessant sabre rattling by Poland and bullying of ethnic Germans on the border and inside Poland.


Draw any parallels to Ukraine and Russia that you like.

CalStateTempe wrote:No Sh*t.

I was just hoping for a bit deeper understanding than what I learning in high school. But maybe somethings, like Hitler's drive for domination, you just can't understand.

In terms of why Hitler did what he did, it really is just that simple, at least in my opinion. He didn't have any actual justification past conquest.

His motivations were a bit more complex. I'd say it is a mix between the "master race" belief system and the way in which war and that ideology consolidated his own power. Creating an "other" to attack that is subhuman and evil is a way to unify your people behind you. Hitler was very good at using the concept of the "other" to appeal to his people and consolidate his own power.

The million dollar question is how much was genuine belief and how much was for his own benefit, IMO.

Side note: I'm not suggesting anything Hitler did is any less monstrous if it was motivated by a desire to consolidate his own power. In fact, it becomes even more sociopathic.

The Germans also felt that they were "stabbed in the back" by the German WW1 leaders who surrendered to the allies which caused them to agree to massive reparations which they could not possibly pay. Germany was also forced to give up huge tracts of lands after WW1 to the French and Poles, which they wanted back.

Japanese kamikaze moments away from hitting the USS Columbia on January 6, 1945 in Lingayen Gulf, Philippines



and the aftermath

Photo taken at the instant bullets from a French firing squad hit a Frenchman who collaborated with the Germans. This execution took place in Rennes, France. Himes, November 21, 1944

American A-20 Havoc aircraft aflame after being hit by German anti-aircraft fire, date unknown

Merkin wrote:The Germans also felt that they were "stabbed in the back" by the German WW1 leaders who surrendered to the allies which caused them to agree to massive reparations which they could not possibly pay. Germany was also forced to give up huge tracts of lands after WW1 to the French and Poles, which they wanted back.

The degree to which WWI hammered Germany is what made so many people receptive to Hitler's message, or at least I'd like to think so. He offered them the promise of converting subservience and defeat into conquest and power. It's seductive, and doubly so when Germany was dealing with some real hard times

CalStateTempe wrote:No Sh*t.

I was just hoping for a bit deeper understanding than what I learning in high school. But maybe somethings, like Hitler's drive for domination, you just can't understand.

I wasn't trying to simplify it. I believe he stated openly on more than one occasion prior to the invasion that Poland was a part of the German empire and that he was taking it back. Same with the Sudetenland. It was the promise he made in Mein Kampf (lebensraum for the German people). He at one point told Poland to give him the city of Danzig and when they didn't he used that as justification to ramp up his military rollout.

He did use supposed persecution of ethnic Germans as part of his justification but his open aims were to get back to pre-WWI boundaries and nullify the Treaty of Versailles. Why Neville Chamberlain kept telling everyone Hitler was bluffing I have no idea.

View from an American A-20 Havoc aircraft during a bomber run against a Japanese airfield, 1943-1945; note Ki-21 aircraft about to be destroyed

Of course the WW1 losses:



were trivial in what they lost after WW2 just to Poland:



Wroclaw (then Breslau) was near my ancestral home but my ancestor left long before WW1, and shortly after the Austrian and Danish wars due to not wanting his kids to have to serve like he was forced too.

The German speaking people of Silesia were given 24 hours to pack up and leave the homes that have been in their families for centuries.

The Russians took the eastern part of Poland after WW2 and needed somewhere for those Poles to live.

I had a distant relation that served on the Eastern Front. He was captured by the Russians and not released until sometime after the war. He lived, unlike most of his fellow POWs.

But can't blame the Russians after how the Germans treated their Slavic POWs.

US Marines displaying a captured Japanese flag, New Britain, Bismarck Archipelago, late Jan 1944

those are some tired looking guys

Low level aerial reconnaissance photo of beach defenses in Normandy in May 1944. Note the workers on the beach setting up obstacles running away.

Men of the 5th Marine Regiment under fire from concealed Japanese positions on Orange Beach, Peleliu, September 15, 1944. Note the burning LVTs in the background.

For some reason your pics aren't showing up for me. I get a black box with an X.

Chicat wrote:For some reason your pics aren't showing up for me. I get a black box with an X.

I have a blue box with a question mark in it.

crap. well they were working yesterday when I was posting them.

F4U Corsair aircraft dropping napalm on a Japanese position on the Umurbrogol Mountain, Peleliu, Palau Islands, 1944

well damn...anyone know how to fix them? I'm using the IMG code and posting direct links for the pics

scumdevils86 wrote:well damn...anyone know how to fix them? I'm using the IMG code and posting direct links for the pics

Are you using TinyPic or another pic hosting service?

no I'm just copying the direct link from the website the images are posted on and putting it into the IMG tag here. it was working for all the pics initially.

scumdevils86 wrote:no I'm just copying the direct link from the website the images are posted on and putting it into the IMG tag here. it was working for all the pics initially.

As I understand it (from what others have told me in the past) the issue isn't with the board, but with the website hosting the images. They can do something to not allow you to link directly to their pics from an off-website source (such as this board).

Just upload the link to tinypic, and link the tinypic link. It's what I do.

fixed some of them for ya

imgur.com is better than tinypic.

Merkin wrote:imgur.com is better than tinypic.

I've used tinypic for a long time, so it's a habit for me by now, but I'm interested, what makes imgur better?

PieceOfMeat wrote:

Merkin wrote:imgur.com is better than tinypic.

I've used tinypic for a long time, so it's a habit for me by now, but I'm interested, what makes imgur better?

You don't have to enter any verification codes with imgur, and you can paste both image links or files from your computer.

Some sites don't allow hotlinking as above, so if you just get the image url from your browser you just paste it in. Just a few clicks for the entire process.

scumdevils86 wrote:fixed some of them for ya

Thx

Merkin wrote:

PieceOfMeat wrote:

Merkin wrote:imgur.com is better than tinypic.

I've used tinypic for a long time, so it's a habit for me by now, but I'm interested, what makes imgur better?

You don't have to enter any verification codes with imgur, and you can paste both image links or files from your computer.

Some sites don't allow hotlinking as above, so if you just get the image url from your browser you just paste it in. Just a few clicks for the entire process.

Ah, no verification codes is cool. Although tiny pic doesn't bug me every time for that, it can be annoying when it does. It does allow me to paste links though, so I guess they're the same in that regard. Still, no codes is enough to give them a whirl! thanks for the info

scumdevils86 wrote:

Low level aerial reconnaissance photo of beach defenses in Normandy in May 1944. Note the workers on the beach setting up obstacles running away.

This one wasn't showing up for me.

So right click to get the image url.
go to imgur
paste
click on upload
click on bbcode copy
paste

Also I forgot the reasoning before by why does it cut off pictures on this forum?

Ww2 is by far my most knowledgable subject and I would be using this thread constantly

scumdevils86 wrote:Also I forgot the reasoning before by why does it cut off pictures on this forum?

Ww2 is by far my most knowledgable subject and I would be using this thread constantly

Why didn't Hitler take out the British radar stations instead of bombing London giving the RAF plenty of notice? You would have thought they would have done that first.

Well they did sorts bomb those initially but hitler got distracted with exacting revenge for a bombing of Berlin that summer. The cities were never part of the big Luftwaffe bombing plan.

Some pics in color;

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That Russian with machine gun is a hottie!

I wonder who this sailor knew to get plush duty?

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the battle of the bulge, the largest single battle the United State's army has ever fought.

scumdevils86 wrote:Today marks the 70th anniversary of the battle of the bulge, the largest single battle the United State's army has ever fought.

My father-in-law was a medic during the Battle of the Bulge. He got a Purple Heart for taking shrapnel at the Battle of Remagen and a Bronze Star as well.
He passed in 2008 and is buried in the Veteran's Cemetery in North Phoenix.

I can't imagine having to face the Nazi's and not being allowed to carry a weapon!

if anyone is interested in a remarkable, honest and brutal account of what it was like to fight in the European theater of operations starting at the Battle of the Bulge in 1944 through the end of the war I would highly recommend this book:


http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005D0EAE ... 8&sr=&qid=

Been on a WWII kick lately. Reading "No Less Than Victory" and watching "The Pacific".