Today's triple feature is focused on the Deutsches Heer of 1914-1918, the Imperial German Army. Although they were not anywhere near the same league as their World War II successors in terms of brutality, they were not choirboys, either. Ask any Belgian about the 6,000 civilians murdered under false charges of being partisans or the 12-15,000 who died as the result of forced relocation. Otherwise, they generally behaved much better than the later Wehrmacht. Part One has some non-combat troops, starting with two cooks, one of whose straining tunic buttons indicate that he has been sampling the output of the field kitchen to some excess.
Very sad memories for the Belgians and all Europeans.
ReplyDeleteIn Ww1 Belgium, Northern France, the borderlands along Italy and Austria, the frontier of Greece and Turkey and Western Russia (what’s now Poland, Belarus and Ukraine) suffered the highest casualties and the worst wartime destruction. :(
ReplyDeleteThe scars on the land are still visitlbe today, and they are still finding live ammunition.
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