The Germans didn’t hold a candle to the Russians. Sure, there was an element of revenge but lots of the Russian troops were from non-European areas and were almost from a different time. Their standards of behavior were more like that of a medieval army. In addition to the atrocities they did things like rip plumbing and light fixtures out to take home and put them in their huts. They had no conception of modern things.
JoeBob;
Top of the morning to you sir, I hope the day's looking to be a good one in your part of the world and all who matter in it are well.
Your statement matches exactly with at least two German folks I knew well enough that they'd share childhood memories with me.
One chap who was one of my horse training mentors would talk about what he described as Asiatic looking soldiers coming in on small ponies, which he likened to Genghis Kahn's Mongol hordes invading Europe. He said the civilians were horribly mistreated, especially the women and that as mentioned the took everything that wasn't nailed down and some stuff that was.
The rumor the Germans heard and he repeated to me, was that these troops weren't paid by the Russians, that they were fighting for the spoils of war that they could carry off, more or less.
I also heard stories from a Dutch chap who was a truck driver moving food throughout the different Allied zones and the tension between the Americans, Canadians, Brits and the Russians was bad enough that sometimes shooting erupted. He recalled an American soldier who was doing traffic control shooting a pair of Russians in a US jeep. His understanding of that conflict was that the Russians had either stolen the jeep or at very least didn't belong in it. Anyways, he said "Out came the big pistol, und Bang, Bang - two dead Russians"...
It was, again as you said, more like medieval army behavior in many ways when it came to Germany's occupation.
All the best and good luck on your remaining hunts this fall.
Dwayne
