1945 ...........Consider the hundreds of thousands stuck in Hitler's concentration camps. It was the Fuhrer's wish that none of them should survive germany's Gotterdammering and his loyal SS guards did their best to ensure they didn't. Sometimes, as in the case of the luxury liner Cap Arcona, they packed thousands of emaciated, terrified prisoners into the bowels of unmarked ships which they knew would be sunk by the Allies. Sometimes they machined -gunned them on the roads to create huge piles of dead to block the Allied advance.
Nor was it much fun to be an Allied soldier. In theory, all the decisive battles had been fought. In practice, the fighting was never nastier or dirtier. Diehard Nazis would pretend to surrender, then blow up their captors with concealed grenades; the SS massacred many of their prisoners, such as the 81 American captives, hands still tied behind their backs, who were notoriously slaughtered at Malmedy.................
Endgame 1945 (David Stafford)
Nor was it much fun to be an Allied soldier. In theory, all the decisive battles had been fought. In practice, the fighting was never nastier or dirtier. Diehard Nazis would pretend to surrender, then blow up their captors with concealed grenades; the SS massacred many of their prisoners, such as the 81 American captives, hands still tied behind their backs, who were notoriously slaughtered at Malmedy.................
Endgame 1945 (David Stafford)
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