POWs

Many years ago when my brother and I were just kids we used to pester our Uncle, who was a WW II vet, to tell us "war stories". Generally he would stick to the humorous stories such as how the GIs would make hard liquor, "Grappo" out of Italian wine but occasionally would speak of more serious subjects.

One such time was when he was guarding German POW in North Africa. He said that quite a few Germans spoke reasonable English and he would pass the time of his guard duty having conversations with them. My brother and I were astonished at the thought of speaking to your enemies. He related how the Germans had told him that the U.S. and Germany being enemies was a huge mistake and how we should have been allies in the fight against communism. My brother an I, being astonished at the thought of speaking to Germans, were aghast at the notion that we should be fighting with the ever so eeevul Narzis for any reason.

Uncle B never voiced any opinion on whether we should be fighting with the Germans against the Soviets but he never had a bad word to say about the German soldiers even though he participated in many bloody battle with them such as the Volturno river crossing and the battle of Monte Cassino. With age and hindsight it's easy to see that Uncle B agreed with the Germans assessment of the hostilities between the U.S. and Germany. The "greatest generation" DID fight on the on the wrong side during WW II. The fact that the Jews and the great traitor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, had conned the American people into that was obvious even to a lowly combat soldier, my Uncle B.

Uncle B did have some bad words to say about some of the German equipment. Notably the 88mm field piece and the Focke-Wulf 190 airplane. As he said, "We had a different name" for the FW 190. Uncle B had a pretty good sense of humor.