WW2 politics, and leading up to the War and beyond...

[huckelberry]

Markk, I can understand how this thread might catch many points of curiosity. For me I am not much interested in determining what Cooper thinks, perhaps future explanation from him will clarify.

How political control worked out in Eastern Europe is much more interesting and complicated.

My father was a son of Swedish Finnish parents. He was in American army fighting in Germany when he became on the wrong side of a German machine gun. He recovered. Many years later he stayed in Sweden for a year and got to know relatives. They visited a relative in Finland and during the visit my father discovered the German army uniform from the war kept in the closet. Emotionally disturbing enough there was nearly fisticuffs. Of course from the Finish side there is an important story of why not just Nazi sympathy.

[Markk]

Markk, I can understand how this thread might catch many points of curiosity. For me I am not much interested in determining what Cooper thinks, perhaps future explanation from him will clarify.

How political control worked out in Eastern Europe is much more interesting and complicated.

My father was a son of Swedish Finnish parents. He was in American army fighting in Germany when he became on the wrong side of a German machine gun. He recovered. Many years later he stayed in Sweden for a year and got to know relatives. They visited a relative in Finland and during the visit my father discovered the German army uniform from the war kept in the closet. Emotionally disturbing enough there was nearly fisticuffs. Of course from the Finish side there is an important story of why not just Nazi sympathy.

That is interesting for sure. I know Finland fought hard against Russia in I believe 39. They did not lose their war with Russia, but had to concede territory North of Leningrad. They fought with the Nazis, but I believe it was more of a we had the Russians worse type of thing, they shared a common enemy for different reasons. They did not join the Axis nations, but with a quick google search they committed to being "co-belligerent." That is a new term for me so I need to search that and do a little reading on it.

There was a lot of that going on with Europe's borders changing over the years before the war. I was reading the other days that some groups of Ukrainian partisans side with the Russians, only because their reasoning was something to the affect that if we have to pick between two enemies, they chose the one that spoke their language, Russian.

One thing I think we often look over about the Russian/German war, I know I do, is that while German fascism was a horrible thing to align with, Russian communism and what occurred in the purges and starving and torturing of peasants, farmers, and Christians in the late 20's and 30's....they felt it was a better option.

Your father is certainly a hero, as were all those boys. What battle was he wounded in, if you are comfortable to discuss?

[Marcus]

...One thing I think we often look over about the Russian/German war, I know I do, is that while German fascism was a horrible thing to align with, Russian communism and what occurred in the purges and starving and torturing of peasants, farmers, and Christians in the late 20's and 30's....they felt it was a better option...

"We"? It's really irritating to see you use 'we' when you express opinions like this. Stick with 'I' please.

[Markk]

...One thing I think we often look over about the Russian/German war, I know I do, is that while German fascism was a horrible thing to align with, Russian communism and what occurred in the purges and starving and torturing of peasants, farmers, and Christians in the late 20's and 30's....they felt it was a better option...

"We"? It's really irritating to see you use 'we' when you express opinions like this. Stick with 'I' please.

Love ya Marcus

[huckelberry]

Markk, my father was wounded in assault on the town of Lindern.i have a history book of the divisions campaign which has more detail than my father cared to dewel on. My father supplied a few details like the fellow beside him getting the machine gun bullet through the forehead.