Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Eric Braeden on playing a Nazi (German) on Rat Patrol...

I changed the title:

Arrogant azzole- - - - -but do you notice the interview is conducted in English?

He's not wrong. Hollywood absolutely was a huge contributor to the myth of American omnipotence. We're still sending our people all over the world to fight because of it.

I remember that show. I enjoyed it.

He's right about the propaganda. And the caricatures. I've had a couple of veterans who were front line soldiers tell me that a German soldier was a thinking adversary. Shoot the officers and they kept fighting and changing tactics to meet the situation. We beat them with logistics. And Audie Murphy.

Not at all, just speaking the truth.

The war would have most likely been won by the Allies without the Russians because of Economic Might and Logistics but without them it may have taken twice as long.

Pulling all of the resources to the Eastern Front and the willingness of Russia to win at any cost sacrificing their men like they did and do is the reason Allies won when they did.

Defeating Germany was completed but with us saving the Russians with Supplies those first years of the war gave us Stalin ultimately and killed millions all over Europe and Asia over the next three decades. The same could be said for China when they went Mao.

The truest thing he said was the caricatures and stories of “our” favorite movies for war bonds early and Military Industrial Complex flexing later is a disservice out of Hollyweird and the rest.

Honestly, I never knew that Eric was on Rat Patrol. His bread and butter has been Days of Our Lives for 40 plus years. Dude couldn’t even speak English when he first started acting yet another example of immigrants of the past vs present.

First of all, did you ever meet a German, who wasn't considered an arrogant a-hole, by an American?
Germans figure the exact same thing about Americans... as do a lot of Europeans. They think of us as pompous A Holes.

I lived in Europe from age 11 to 14, and traveled several times on vacation to 14 other countries total. I learn humility by watching many other Americans acting better than everyone else and look down upon the Europeans. Germans, Austrians, Swiss and the French, just mirrored that right back at Americans.

I learned to consider myself a guest and visitor in their countries. I acted respectful to them and they did the same in return... and that was pretty much where ever I went. I lived in England, where my dad was stationed.. but most of the British were no different toward Americans also. And Americans were no different toward them either.

I had Uncles who fought in Europe in WW 2. They had no use for the Nazis, but they had respect for the German soldiers. You sure didn't turn your back on one of them, the same way they didn't turn their back on an American soldier. Both sides were soldiers, and tough ones overall in the bigger picture.

Even Patton said " I'd rather have a German division in Front of me, than a French Division behind me". I had Uncles that also fought along side British, Canadian and Australian/New Zealand troops. Each highly respected the Canadian and Australian/ Kiwi guys, but no so much the British troops in combat.

Hollywood doesn't really do us any favors overseas. But it is kinda funny how respected and liked the Rambo movies were in the Muslim world. They just wish Stalone was Islamic instead of an American.

Russia lost 27 million plus soldiers and citizens in WW 2. While our country has over doubles in size of population since WW2, Russia's population was 240 Million in 1940. It did not recover to that number until the 1990s. Most Americans can't relate to this, but for every male who was between the age of 17 to 23 any time between 1939 to 1945 in Russia, 97% of them did not survive WW 2.

Russia would not have survived WW 2 itself, without the amount of equipment this country alone gave them, for which they never paid for. Most Americans don't realize how much equipment that was... much less the cost of it. They had more American made equipment than they had Russian made equipment... from guns to planes, to ammunition, to Tanks, to Aircraft.. to even food.

The mention of reversing which side was outnumbered is another one.

That's something that needs to get brought up anytime Ukraine/Russia interventionists pop up. Their predecessors and their mindset created the present situation. Without the foreign aid of their predecessors, Putin likely wouldn't exist at all.

My older sister married a German, a Naturalized American Citizen via Canada, however that worked, his parents came here as agricultural laborers, dunno how that worked either. He’s a quiet, soft spoken and hard-working man, served in the US Marines.

One of my nephews married a German girl, the nephew that moved to Utah. She’s here legal now but they had to jump through hoops. At their wedding a bunch of Germans came over. My mom, pushing 90 at the time, became fast friends with the similarly aged grandmother of the bride.

They had much in common, my mom remembers the sound of Luftwaffe engines and exploding bombs but that was minor compared to the wartime experiences of the German grandmother.

My nephews took the guys out shooting black rifles which seriously impressed them, and one of the ladies went skydiving with my mom.

As to the original topic, our whole traditional Western Culture is Germanic in origin, and on our American Frontier the Germans were often bastions of culture and civilization whereas many of our Scots-Irish were living like feuding Frontier riff-raff. My own Native Irish? We were dragged kicking and screaming out of tribalism by the Brits.

The German soldier wasn ‘t good because of genetics, they were so good because they altruistically gave it their all. Hitler took that selfless idealism and twisted it, which I suppose is the nature of evil.

JMHO

I like this post. My last name drips sauerkraut, our family came from Hanover in the 1860's via Port of New Orleans and are/were farmers ever since (many of the younger generation, me included, just dabble poorly). My Grandmother could speak Low German. Like all good Americans our family never shirked from the khaki. I'm proud to be Deutschamerikaner.

Should add my Brother in Law was an engineer at John Deere's Zweibrucken factory, and after visiting and talking to him, know that the German people are far more reserved than outgoing Americans, but that should not be mistaken for arrogance.

They got their start learning to hop up and sit down at the sound of a bell because some of their predecessors wouldn't run in to cannon fire.


https://irasocol.medium.com/the-prussian-model-and-the-failure-of-personal-ethics-83cf46602c92