tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1537213245172078183.post2867347794902973285..comments2023-09-28T13:28:52.243+01:00Comments on Raedwald: Austrian election - Post 1Raedwaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11699610899843349594noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1537213245172078183.post-12698864772569894712017-10-16T10:22:14.857+01:002017-10-16T10:22:14.857+01:00A good post Raedwald, a human side. many will disa...A good post Raedwald, a human side. many will disagree and shout 'NAZI' anyway but war has always thrown normal people into unbelievably difficult situations. Admittedly some take to it with new found relish but a massive majority were as you say conscripted and just doing their bit. Many of the allied troops too, caught up in the rage, would do unspeakable things. Span Owshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10144861546996033462noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1537213245172078183.post-2394684759893941732017-10-16T03:33:57.555+01:002017-10-16T03:33:57.555+01:00Reminds me of a World War 2 R.A.F.veteran I worked...Reminds me of a World War 2 R.A.F.veteran I worked with in my first job, on asking him if he had ever been to Germany, he replied, 'Only at night!'Balanchinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14573950817350830375noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1537213245172078183.post-29302494834983435132017-10-16T01:12:46.263+01:002017-10-16T01:12:46.263+01:00Back in the early '60s I worked at BOAC with p...Back in the early '60s I worked at BOAC with pilots who were ex-WWII RAF. The gist of what they told me is: "We didn't like what we had to do. We knew that the people down below were people just like us, and they suffered from the air war just as our own did. We knew what it was like to be on the receiving end. However, we also knew we must help to stop the war, and so we did what we had to do."<br /><br />Thus I understood that our men respected the enemy, hated hurting them, and were glad when the battle was over. Part of that mindset would include the recognition that 'Germans are not our natural enemy' - they share the ancestral 'Viking-part' of our heritage. So it wasn't a case of beating individuals, or a race, into submission, but of forging a situation from which peace, freedom, and identity, could be salvaged for both sides.<br /><br />I needs must add that, during the same decade, Germans I met in Germany were not necessarily appreciative of the aforesaid view. They were quite unpleasant with l'il English me when I had to stay a couple of days on my own . . . . Perhaps they may have later realized that they were free to do so? anon 2noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1537213245172078183.post-82928376871612181112017-10-15T20:31:22.347+01:002017-10-15T20:31:22.347+01:00I am proud of our history and of our armed forces ...I am proud of our history and of our armed forces and happy for Austrians to feel likewise about theirs....all of theirs.Thudhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18320037763190473684noreply@blogger.com