A lot of those German fighter pilots were fearless. I was told about that back in the 70's by an old guy who's no longer with us. Once upon a time he was a young kid less than two years out of high school who just happened to be a ball turret gunner on a B-17. He was also from a German-American family; and the thing I recall the best was his tale of shooting at German aircraft and suddenly thinking that he might be shooting at someone related to him.
He pales in comparison to Hans Ulrich Rudel. These guys were tougher than the back wall of a shooting gallery. Good interview and proof positive we need to keep the Germans busy, lest they get that wanderlust again
Tim Allen in an old stand-up said the Germans got their wanderlust because their food was chit. Said they were standing on the border of France and said, "Hey, what are they cooking over there?". I thought that one was pretty funny.
I have to call BS on that one, gently...
Having spent 15 years in heavily ethnically German Wisconsin, I've had opportunity to sample traditional German cuisine, and it is excellent.
Nonetheless, my own cooking is heavily influenced by Julia Childs, which is of course French... but I must give my German friends the courtesy of saying their food is not chit, although not up to the standards of La Belle France...
"I'm gonna have to science the schit out of this." Mark Watney, Sol 59, Mars
Tim Allen in an old stand-up said the Germans got their wanderlust because their food was chit. Said they were standing on the border of France and said, "Hey, what are they coking over there?". I thought that one was pretty funny.
Must be why the Brits invaded 3/4 of the world before the Krauts ever thought about it.
I never had a bad meal in Germany. English food is abysmal in contrast.
The pilot in those YouTube clips is an evil bastard.
Agreed, his arrogance and contempt still shine through, and the respect in his voice is evident when he mentions listening to broadcasts by Joseph Goebbels on a secret radio while in a Canadian POW camp.
A brave evil bastard though and a good pilot, and by his own account he spared Red Cross-marked ships on two separate occasions even when they were suspected of carrying munitions. Might have been karma in play when his own life was spared by the "Britisher" fighter pilot who allowed him to make that final dead-stick landing in the desert.
Birdwatcher
"...if the gentlemen of Virginia shall send us a dozen of their sons, we would take great care in their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them." Canasatego 1744
All they can do is prove over and over that they don't even know how to win a war.
Your Nazi's.
I was going to post earlier that this thread would draw your sorry worthless carcass out but I didn't see the purpose in detracting from the thread then you sorry ass loser.
Liberalism is a mental disorder that leads to social disease.
Must be why the Brits invaded 3/4 of the world before the Krauts ever thought about it.
I never had a bad meal in Germany. English food is abysmal in contrast.
A real oldie, but always funny.....
Heaven is where the police are British, the cooks French, the mechanics German, the lovers Italian, and it is all organized and run by the Swiss.
Hell is where the police are German, the cooks British, the mechanics French, the lovers Swiss, and it is all organized and run by the Italians.
Birdwatcher
"...if the gentlemen of Virginia shall send us a dozen of their sons, we would take great care in their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them." Canasatego 1744
I note in the opening discussion where he mentions the help the French gave him and his wounded gunner after being shot down. All this while the Germans are invading france.
Nonetheless, my own cooking is heavily influenced by Julia Childs, which is of course French...
Tipsy cooks unite!
I grew up loving 'The French Chef' from an early age. Like 4 or so. Seriously. My mom was a religious watcher. Probably two important influences/reasons I grew up enjoying cooking and loving trying to make anything.
It was kind of sad watching her in the waning years of her career and life, in the late Jacques Pepin/JC show days, I thought. Ha. My mom used to feign wave and cheerily say, 'hullo, Julia old gal!' when we'd drive by her house off of Fresh Pond Pkwy in Cambridge. JC lived there for 40 years.
And now back to our regularly scheduled programming: Stuka: Love or Hate Them Flyin' Nazi Fellers? You make the call.
He pales in comparison to Hans Ulrich Rudel. These guys were tougher than the back wall of a shooting gallery. Good interview and proof positive we need to keep the Germans busy, lest they get that wanderlust again
Tim Allen in an old stand-up said the Germans got their wanderlust because their food was chit. Said they were standing on the border of France and said, "Hey, what are they coking over there?". I thought that one was pretty funny.
Agree completely, but at least it qualifies as "food", English cooking on the other hand should be placed in the "feed" category....
A good principle to guide me through life: “This is all I have come to expect, standard lackluster performance. Trust nothing, believe no one and realize it will only get worse…”
a huge percentage of those Stuka JU87 pilots were killed in action. Not enough of 'em though. I hate Nazis.
I agree with you Sam. The pilot in those YouTube clips is an evil bastard.
Why?
A good principle to guide me through life: “This is all I have come to expect, standard lackluster performance. Trust nothing, believe no one and realize it will only get worse…”
I can't open up the You Tube stuff and get it to run-problems with my computer. My dad frequently told me the German weapon he feared the most was the Stuka, and he faced them many times. He said the dive sirens they used were very scary to the guys, and he had many nightmares about the Stukas diving on his positions. Dad was infantry, and his unit was badly mauled at Kasserine Pass by Rommel's tanks and from overhead by the ever present Stukas. They shot one down near Dad one time-no idea who hit it. He said you could have walked across the AA fire they put up at those bombers. When the schidt died down, dad went to the wreck and salvaged a tail light beacon and a piece of tubular aluminum off the frame which he fashioned into a crude ring. We still own these two momentos to this day.
What outfit was your dad in? My old 500 partner (who passed last year) was with the 34th. He and two others (Signal Corps) burned their jeep and walked out of Kasserine.
All I know for sure is he served under Patton, but I don't know his unit number. He was assigned to a machine gun squad guarding a choke point on the pass somewhere. His squad was overrun by tanks and he barely got out. He scooped a a bazooka from his dead bazookaman and said he got very lucky in that it was loaded and actually worked. They'd had a lot of trouble getting killing hits with the rounds they had on the German tanks. He said the tank was so close when he shot it that the concussion of the round going off knocked him over in the hole he was in. He hit the track and stopped the tank long enough to take cover. I will see if I can find out what unit he was assigned to.
I note in the opening discussion where he mentions the help the French gave him and his wounded gunner after being shot down. All this while the Germans are invading france.
You can tell a lot about a guy by what he assumes the motives of others to be. He assumes the French "peasants" acted out of fear, because the German Army was coming. Maybe, but I was getting a sense of people reacting to the tragedy of a young man dying, that still before dying was to become general.
I figure in a just world this guy's still-evident smirking contempt for the Poles oughtta have cost him at least a few teeth at some point in the years since.
More'n anything though, while he sneers at his Brit and Canadian captors he doesn't reflect upon the fact of what would have happened to him if he had been in the custody of the Germans during that time.
They can't all have been that bad though; the close ties that developed between German POW's in England and the surrounding communities are well known, and my saintly Irish grandma on my dad's side was reportedly revered by her charges when she looked after German POW's at Camp Shanks, NJ.
Worth reflecting too that my mom, who was actually bombed out of her home as a child by the Germans in WWII, has nothing but good things to say about Rommel. At the time he was respected by the British public as a gentleman and worthy adversary. Of course, the fact that he ultimately lost in North Africa doubtless has a lot to do with this benevolence on the part of the Brits.
Birdwatcher
"...if the gentlemen of Virginia shall send us a dozen of their sons, we would take great care in their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them." Canasatego 1744
As the loser, Germany was forced to pay for the war. In 1921 these "reparations" were set at 269 billion Marks, or roughly 32 billion dollars--a staggering sum. Some economists argued against such a big bill, and predicted that it would take Germany until 1988 to pay it. Later that year the sum was reduced to 226 billion Marks, still considered an astronomical amount by many observers. Reparations came in a variety of forms, including coal, steel, intellectual property (eg. the trademark for Aspirin) and agricultural products. In 1923 Germany defaulted on its ability to deliver further amounts of coal and steel. In response, French and Belgian troops occupied the Ruhr River valley inside the western border of Germany, the center of the German coal and steel industries.
Worth reflecting too that my mom, who was actually bombed out of her home as a child by the Germans in WWII, has nothing but good things to say about Rommel. At the time he was respected by the British public as a gentleman and worthy adversary.
Birdwatcher
I don't know about all that, Mike. My family had the [bleep] bombed out of them as well, during the 'Blitz' during WWII. Wee Muther references them being known as 'filthy bloody Huns'. Of course, since I have family who fought them in WWI and were gassed by the Germans, well, there wasn't really any love for them to begin with. Both my Scottish G-grandfathers fought the Germans in the Great War. I never heard it personally, but Wee Muther tells of one of them describing the Germans lobbing mustard gas across the lines at the Scottish/Brit troops, and in a twist of fate, having the wind pick up and blow hard 180 degrees. The Germans ended up wiping out large numbers of *themselves* with the gas. Apparently, the faces and expressions on those killed in gas attacks is something very much not pretty. But then not much in war is, one would think...
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