Just a wee addition that may be interest….from the other side.
My German Grandfather was conscripted into the army in both 1 and 2 as were most of the cannon fodder.
It was his only option, failure to comply meant deepshit!
My German mother’s first Husband, a German officer, was sent to the Russian front, he never returned.
My mother worked in what was the equivalent of the local council offices at the beginning of the conflict and as such was aware of the ‘movement’ ( as in cattle trucks) of some of the locals that were believed to be less than appreciative of AH and his shenanigans.
At quite a risk to herself, she tried get information to those that she felt she could trust, for them to take an unannounced holiday.
Clearly, we’re not talking Schindlers List numbers but nonetheless, had she been caught, I doubt I'd be sat here in the guise I am.
Her house was destroyed when an American Bomber came down into it, sadly, she watched some of the crew burn to death, not that she could have done anything to help
After that together with my Grandmother, they scraped a living off then land and lived in various less than salubrious and sheds/shacks…. It was shit for the general populace of both side.
At the end of WW11 my Opa didn’t return to what was left of the town, until TWO years after the war finished, he’d been a POW of the French post war, it wasn’t a good time apparently… as with a lot of returning soldiers, he rarely talked about those times but everytime AH popped up on the telly for whatever reason, he went off on one....
I feel that whilst we have had family and friends that were alive in our lifetime, that suffered, on either side, that they are remember at the appropriate times, not just the 11.11
As for the negative vibes on this thread, Hey-Ho. It is a tad disrespectful but the Planet keeps spinning!
Thanks posting and the photos Auwyn, very intersting and for starting the thread in the first place Steve…