When I Landed In America I Understood That We Never Had A Chance

This was interesting I hope to hear more of this solder's life

​@@Mike-wr7omI'm thinking the same thing. This thing is way too detailed and well written. A writer has to have written this .

@@Mike-wr7om Quote: "Horner, an enlisted man in Hitler's army, served on both the Eastern and Western fronts and was wounded four times before being captured in 1944. After a highly unpleasant stayok? in a French POW camp, he was turned over to American authorities and sent to the U.S., where he spent a comparatively comfortable 14 months in several POW camps--earning money working for sugar-beet farmers in Colorado and harvesting peaches in New Jersey. However, on the psychological level his sojourn in the States was an ordeal: Horner coped with homesickness, accepting or 'accepting'? aa Germany's defeat in the war, his growing shock over the revealed lies and brutality perpetrated by the Third Reich, and his seemingly dismal prospects in postwar Germany. The author's observations on Americans are his journal's least interesting feature, but he has noteworthy things to say about maintaining dignity, pride and hope as a prisoner of war. Repatriated in 1948, Horner worked as a dental technician until his death last year." Source: www.amazon.com/German-Odyssey-Journal-Prisoner-War/dp/1555910777

Quote: "Horner, an enlisted man in Hitler's army, served on both the Eastern and Western fronts and was wounded four times before being captured in 1944. After a highly unpleasant stayok? in a French POW camp, he was turned over to American authorities and sent to the U.S., where he spent a comparatively comfortable 14 months in several POW camps--earning money working for sugar-beet farmers in Colorado and harvesting peaches in New Jersey. However, on the psychological level his sojourn in the States was an ordeal: Horner coped with homesickness, accepting or 'accepting'? aa Germany's defeat in the war, his growing shock over the revealed lies and brutality perpetrated by the Third Reich, and his seemingly dismal prospects in postwar Germany. The author's observations on Americans are his journal's least interesting feature, but he has noteworthy things to say about maintaining dignity, pride and hope as a prisoner of war. Repatriated in 1948, Horner worked as a dental technician until his death last year." Source: www.amazon.com/German-Odyssey-Journal-Prisoner-War/dp/1555910777

His description of seasickness reminds me of when I came by ship from Bremerhaven Germany to New York New York. It was November 1965 I was 7 years old and we were returning to the United States from Nuremberg. The ship I was on was the General Maurice Rose. Not quite Mid-Atlantic we ran into a November Gale. Being 7 years old I was totally impressed by The towering seas and the ships and the distance disappearing in the troughs. I did not get seasick then and here I am at age 65 I've never been seasick. My mother and my worthless sister took turns commandeering the bathroom so that they could throw up everything that they hadn't eaten. Dad and I on the other hand didn't miss a meal. I love being in about whether it's rough or calm. At the same time I do respect to sea because if you don't it'll eat you.

thanks for your service-I loved going through Germany after both of my deployments.

I was also stationed in Germany in the early 80s , B Company 1/15 3rd Infantry in Harvey Barracks next to Kitzingen. The most meaningful things I remember was when on occasion an elderly German WW2 Veteran would come up to us and speak to us , they would thank us and were grateful that we are now friends and often would bring us a bottle of Wine and the Sgt's would always let us drink a cup even out in the field. It always made our day .

My father was stationed in Germany in 68. He said a number of Germans came up to him and apologized for WWII. He said he never quite knew what to say to them, because most of them weren't even 20 years old themselves (nor was my father). How could one man who wasn't even a year old during WWII apologize to another man who hadn't been born yet? It just goes to show you how deep some cultural scars can run. On a more happy note, my father said that there was a healthy trade between Germans and Americans while he was stationed there. He and the other Americans loved the German beer, and Germans loved their American smokes. Quite 'healthy' trade indeed, hah!

Americans treated Germen Pow really well, almost 100% according to geneva convention. but I think once the NAZI atrocity got out there were some resentment. overall unless you were a troublemaking hardcore nazi, you were fine being a pow in America.

grew up in the 80's also. Its so weird to me that WW2 vets are no longer around every corner

Kindness and decency repaid.

Im sure he would much rather be making rocking chairs and working a saw mill, even in louisiana, than being on the east front in russia.

Samiches are currency for hungry men.

There's an OLD saying about there being 2 ways to a man's heart... one being through his belly.

@@blueduck9409 He must have liked Louisiana because he was free to go anywhere in the US. I like Louisiana also.

The man was a piece of s*** but I tell you what he was smart cuz he knew America with would kill him if he didn't the man was a piece of garbage anybody that would fight for Adolf Hitler has 0-0 nothing more than sorry piece of s***

Well when you got Russians on the other front.

@@edgarbanuelos6472In that case it’s “Run back to Bavaria, and then surrender to the Americans.”

@@edgarbanuelos6472 Yea it was probably invented sometime during 1945 lol

During the bombing of Berlin, there was a joke passed among the citizens heading to bomb shelters: "You know what the pessimists are bringing into the shelters? Russian dictionaries. You know what the optimists are bringing? English dictionaries."

I actually live near Detroit!!! What a wonderful story!!!

WW1 and WW2 just destroyed Europe.

Interesting. How did mail from the US get to Germany? I hear you had to know someone from a neutral country in Europe and then they had to forward the letter from their place to Germany.

​@@nunyabeezaxe2030 He said the international Red Cross was able to deliver mail for German prisoners here in the US...not sure, but the Allied prisoners probably did not have that same courtesy allow them. It was a one time thing, and there was an actual for letter that was filled out by the prisoner here and then sent overseas and the RED Cross took it from there.

I'm alive today because my German grandfather came over after WW2 and ended up retiring from Ford motor company. He passed away a few years back and received a 21 gun salute at his funeral. He'd joined the American army after emigrating here and serving in the Korean War.

I think of this as the arrogance of plenty. Kindness is a luxury where you don't even need hate to keep you motivated. Like a potlatch, you show off your wealth by even throwing it away on your enemies. It is good to be able to afford not be vicious, but it sets us apart from those who had to be. The point of money is a gated community from troubling thoughts.

@@paulpinecone2464 What a perverse reading

@paulpinecone2464 you do realize there's no way the second pork chop was actually getting thrown away?

@@RocketPropelledGuy yeah... i believe paul pinecone's comment/reply was negative attention seeking behavior... it's a fairly common trait of a limited/broken socialization learning cycle during childhood/teen years

God bless Texas

Yes, back when the FBI were still good guys!

@@pegatheetoo1437 ...I suggest you look up some history of the FBI.

@@pegatheetoo1437 the fbi was started with the stated goals from many of the higher ups to be enemies to the rights of the people of the US in the name of protecting them

@@westrim I guess I should have said, 'when we all still thought they were good guys.' 😅

@@pegatheetoo1437 The FBI is a state apparatus. It is neither evil or good it simply plays a roll

The treatment of POWs in America is fascinating. They received the same rations as GIs which irritated the locals since civilians had less. They had unfettered access to radio broadcasts and most newspapers and magazines. Some completed college degrees from US universities by correspondence. I think this was a wise policy and created goodwill among returning prisoners for the US. A lot didn’t want to go home after the war or emigrated to the USA later. This was possible due to the wealth of America and lack of destruction from the war. As one anecdote says “We could have won the war with what the Americans threw away.

@@procopiusaugustus6231 Yeah I don't think they quite appreciated what America could do if pissed off. I wonder what history would have been like if Hitler had come to the United States for art school....

@@sid2112 ....Which brings us to the tail of Austrian Bob Ross. "Und now ve vill paint zee happy little trees und zee free und lovely clouds...."

@@unnaturalselection8330 😆

@@sid2112I often wonder what might have happened if Pearl Harbour hadn’t actively propelled the US into WW2. Anti-war sentiment was strong in the US and western Europe may well have fallen completely, no matter how many Liberty ships got through, letting the Nazis turn all their attention to the Eastern Front.

After the influenza pandemic in the early 20th century my grandfather walked from West Virginia to Chicago.

@@jadakowers590 Yup, it is definitely possibly, especially if your grandfather was willing to hitch a ride or ride the rails. Quite a few took this approach. The problem with this German, however, is I don't think he understood the difference in sizes of the central American states and the German states. Since Germany was already using the metric system and the US was non-metric, I am sure this played a role in trying to make the German understand the distances. Nevertheless, I don't think this would be an option for the German at the end of the war. I believe they had to be returned to Germany and then emigrate/visit the US afterward,

@@azjim2946 there is also the fact that in europe you can literally drive to another country within a reasonable amount of time. America is a little bit bigger, obviously...

@@selectionn I have found Europeans appreciate the idea of how big the US on a map, but until they get here, it really doesn't "register". Typically, when one European tells another that her/she is flying to the US, it is to the US East Coast. The West Coast is two thirds farther. Hawaii or Alaska? Forget it.

Theoretically, if that German POW served on the eastern front he might have had to walk a similar distance if he participated in Operation Barbarossa. Still, I would imagine the infrastructure in that part of the USA is even worse than the infrastructure of most of Western Russia.

Ya remember, at the end of the war, the Germans were mostly kids. It was a great story, thanks,

@@user-bl6ne3hc6nthere are some heartbreaking pictures of German teenagers in 1945 surrendering to the Western Allies, either looking broken, terrified, or relieved. What a horrible time that was

@michaelwilson4528 oh ya, I met one ,14 years old captured battle of the bulge, he became a millionaire in the states, nice guy, I got to hold his Hitler youth knife, he told me, he thanked God for the Americans because they all knew what the Russians were doing to the Germans,

​@michaelwilson4528 it's always young men who have to sacrifice themselves for old men in suits. Or cheating a** women. Usually, both.

Amazing!

Wow, there's a movie script here,

The feds didn't know Russia was getting won over by the US, when a wimpy Soviet leader came to power in th 80s!

Good Mother...

People everywhere are mostly good and want a happy life getting along with each other. It’s the power drunk leaders that force good people to kill each other.

@@madisonhasson8981 bad teacher, right?

@@tiredofallthis7716 BADASS Mom!!!

Old days! If it were today they would have already canceled you as a fascist😆😁😅

Now that's a good German soldier!

​@@FrommermanI drink to that!

Man won the American dream.

I’d say that too if I was a Nazi soldier taken prisoner

​@@danielkeenan1984 Idiotic statement.

Hahahahahaha. Very true. The British are the same way.

@@tzar9395Yep. As a Brit, I can confirm this. 😂

😂 Good wording! 👍🏻👍🏻

Yup. The US military caters to the current generations strengths for fighting. In WW2 it was Baseball which resulted in baseball grenades. These days it's drones.

The Japanese had a similar instance when they found out we had an entire ship in our fleet dedicated to making ice cream for the sailors.

@@VVeremooseDelivering, they didn't make it, but yup!

@i-v-l9335 These days it's familiar joysticks and game controllers

That's... incredible... I would like to know more.

@@sid2112 kzhead.info/sun/dcmcdsOGfImbhHA/bejne.html

I'm from Wales. There was only one escape from a German POW camp in the UK that I know of: - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_Farm. In North America only one German POW escaped and got back to Germany. A pilot. He died in action six months later: - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_von_Werra. kzhead.info/sun/it1mj9iprWeHnoE/bejne.html

That's wild, and it could definitely be done in German speaking Texas then.

That could happen all over the Midwest. It was settled by Germans. My grandparents lived in German-speaking communities in Oklahoma and spoke German at home and church. Their parents were German immigrants. The distinctive Texas German dialect still exists but it’s endangered. Regular German is spoken by about 5% of German immigrant descendants populations.

yeah, until stories of the concentration camps really started to come in german pow's in europe were often treated terribly, in some cases worse than the nazis treated (western) pow's in the US guards and civilians often soured towards the pow's as well and often the old nzi officers mannaged to take over the camps like gangs often do in prisons today without the guards intervening, but yes

As any european during WWII America was a better place lol

I think they get treated pretty well here Down Under too.

If they landed in Texas, they won the pow lotto. There was a well established large German community in Texas during WW2

@@Chuckles..haha funny story my grandfather served in ww2 from Texas but his first name was Adolphus which is my middle name but that’s besides the point but he started going by aj bc obvious reasons he was a tanker then became an infantryman he fought all the way from Italy to Germany

is that why there were so many starving in German prison camps?

@@andrewmclaughlin2701 I don't think he was implying it was the Germans that could give POWs three meals a day.

also meth supply ran low

“An army marches on its stomach.”

@@andrewmclaughlin2701I see what you did there Brother

and then everybody stood up and clapped...

That is an incredible insight into the mind of a non-Nazi, German soldier and from a primary source. Truly valuable to the historic record if I may say so. 🙏

@@aaronpetzel4645 This scene pretty much sums it up kzhead.info/sun/o8-Nd8ZugZufoKc/bejne.html

Loved that song!

You forgot to mention the biggest two vices out there, coffee and cigarettes.

I assume you meant "kicked" in the head. ;)

I've been licked by plenty of horses in my life, but NEVER hospitalized from it...

​@@dawnrogers58290K

I'm sure your parents probably thanked him profusely, I doubt he went without thanks for a service like that! 🙏

​@@dawnrogers5829😅 when I read 'licked' and run to a doctor, I immediately thought horses must have some kind of poison in their mouths. 😅😅

That is absolutely fantastic, I hope it really happened lol.

what a great story! Thanks for sharing!

It really depends on how familiar the guard was with them by then (language barrier aside) and if they were sane and rational. They're on another continent all enemy held with no plausible way to get home. The only likely outcome of turning the gun they'd been handed on the guard and making a break for it would be getting hunted down and likely ultimately shot. Given the circumstances a rational person isn't going to do that when they have every reason to expect repatriation one way or the other once the war was finally over .. so while mildly amusing it's only the expected outcome of the scenario. Still daft of the guard perhaps and certainly against whatever protocols he was supposed to be operating by 🙂

I loved the story. Also, with the Atlantic Ocean in the way, where would an escaped POW go? There is a story about a U-boat commander escaping from a prison in Texas, going to Mexico and somehow getting back to Germany. But that was probably a one off.

What a great story!! Regarding the guard handling his rifle to the nearest prisoner, it doesn't surprise me. When you're dealing with people, at some point intuition takes over. The American guard instinctively felt safe with the prisoners, so he did not hesitate when the rifle got in the way of his repair efforts. We are all able to sense danger, even when it's not visibility apparent, because our subconscious minds are continuously at work in this regard. For this guard, the opposite was true. He sensed no danger from the German prisoners and so didn't hesitate to hand one his rifle. And his instincts were correct. It wasn't until he stopped to think about what he did that the incongruity of the situation became apparent to him. The real danger for many people, especially today, is that we fight our instincts, particularly for reasons of political correctness. Don't do that!! Listen to what your instincts are telling you and act on them!! Immediately!! They just might save your life!!

Great story. I’m happy that your grandfather and platoon made it to American lines

This is beautiful. Its the warmongers that highjack the humanity of us all and turn it into hate and even worse, a blood thirsty desire to kill. Damn the Kaiser and Hitler and throw in Stalin too.

Someone should write all these stories into a mini series.

@@Gopniksquat Thank you. We are all thankful for his escape from Europe, for him only being lightly wounded, for him ending up here in the States. Thanks again. It sure would be nice to talk with him again.

It's a pity this isn't the prevailing tale of modern Americans.

OH! How amazing to find those connections!

Definitley take a trip to fort robinson! the old camps remains are still there!

Holstein makes me think of a breed of cattle.

Well...separated not by fate, but by governments/state, the most evil institution we humans ever created.

No. The problem is the leaders and other people who do wrong, not the organizations that are necessary to civilized living. @@samirSch

Who did the French capture anyway!?

@@Ira88881 Free French troops who landed at D-Day were notoriously rough on German POWs.

@@Ammo08Free Poles serving in the British Army and RAF were rougher on the Germans POW’s than even the Soviets.

​@@johnblasik9647...ever see the movie about the liner "Laconia"- the Italian POWS were guarded by Poles- and the Poles were BRUTAL-!!!

@@Ammo08 I can't imagine why the Poles and French would be "rough" on German POWs.

I always hear of southerners sympathizing with NAZIs..... how odd.

I don't blame them. Southern food is great.

My long passed Father and Mother married prior to the Depression. On their small farm they had two water springs, one of which they stored milk, butter and such for preservation. Often, their treat at late meal times was cold milk and corn bread right from the skillet. Supplies were limited but my Father trapped so they had wild meat, and traded furs for dry goods and flour. Such times......

My grandpa called the thing that water ran through the house made of rock and cement, a spring race and the made butter and cream and kept that and the milk in it, they killed a hog 1 time a year and salted and pepper cured the meat they only went to town to get the corn ground and get some sugar and that was In Todd NC 20 minutes from Boone the way the crow flies.

My Dad killed hogs about the 2nd week of November most years. Afew neighbors timed their killings around that, shifting help along to each butchering as needed. his tradition lasted till 1960. It would how things were done; you only bought from the store when needed in the true rural areas.

Everything in the us military has been built around logistics first for 100 years now. There are countries with better pilots, better special forces, better tank crews, whatever. The us logistic train and military industrial complex is unrivaled.

The Russians were amazed to enter Germany and find that Hitler had tried to maintain a both guns and butter economy, far different from Russia.

One other thing they realized is that the Americans used only trucks to move shit around. In WW2, Germany used a lot of horses, so that meant logistically the Americans can supply enough resources to use only trucks from an entire ocean away while the germans on the same continent had to use Horses.

The poor logistic capabilities of the Germans was a revelation to me only a couple years ago. Many debates are had over which and such point in the European theater was the turning point. The truth is there was no real battle that was the turning point, as once the Americans decided they were going to supply the soviets, the outcome was already determined. Between the British naval supremacy able to maintain an effective blockade of the continent, Germany had too few places to turn to for resources. Once the US threw its industrial capacity into the equation, there was never a hope for Germany of turning the tide. Considering their need to rely on horses for transport and the dwindling supply of oil throughout the war, it's honestly impressive the Germans were able to stay in the war as long as they did. They lacked the raw materials and production to win, but their technological prowess likely prolonged the war a good bit.

@@Typexviiib Is that still true, though? Most logistics is contracted out these days. Certainly we are better than the Russians! But then Zimbabwe is probably better than the Russians. We ran out of ammo in the Iraq war and are short now in Ukraine, as is NATO. Two years after the pandemic our civilian domestic supply lines are still crap.

Do you know where in Maine? I'm from there and I didn't know that was a thing.

I re

There was a lengthy article written about the German POWs in Houlton Maine. It was in a local magazine published in Houlton in the 90s I think. You may be able to get the information from the Houlton Library. They have a small town friendliest about them. I don't remember much detail except the POWs were well liked by the town.

@@virginiatozier9957 thanks! I'll look into that

@@virginiatozier9957 I believe there were camps on some of the islands off Boothbay and Wiscasset

Far better place to be than Stalingrad.

I bet they would have loved to stay forever. at least the ones who were still normal people and not all out nazi brainwashed.... wales is so pretty, if you look out of the bus at the wrong moment you'll just never want to return home anyway (been to keeston, newgale and up north)

😢🎉 4:06 😢🎉. N BB. N

BIG mistake you never bring such an enemy into your own backyard....BIG mistake

One of the POW's married a lass in Porthcawl (I think) and lived there after the war. They got on well with the locals too, while they helped to work the land.

Oh Yes,, some of the on,line and even "Professional " media scribbles would get you a resounding Fail when I was a Lad 😢

Many did. Their love of America they developed and gratitude they were brought here compelled them. Besides, much of their previous lives were but heaps of bricks.

@@ibeetellingya5683 A great many had very little to return to, back in Germany, I imagine. Towards the end, boys were being sent to the front, so you can imagine the average family unit must have been decimated, on top of Germany's economy being by and large decimated.

Turns out a lot of people liked the US better than their home land... Seeing as how almost none of us are natives.

I got to know several that returned to Southern Cook County, Illinois where their POW camp was located. Most had lost all of their family and friends along with homes and farms. They didn't feel like staying in Germany to have a family only to see their children or grandchildren fighting in another European war. Those had a bad habit of occurring every 20 to 40 years so felt the US would be a safer place to live.

@@kaufmanat1 True. But not my wife, her ancestors were already here. There were a numb er of reasons German prisoners looked at the US as a better place to live than Germany. One reason that hasn't stated yet is that both Germany and England pre WW II still held to laws that only allowed the eldest male child to be the heir to any family property or wealth. If you were boy #2 you didn't much going for you as far as prospects. Education was also stratified, so that your family's name is what qualified you for a good school and little else. The US wasn't that way, and a lot men that got to see that first hand decided that was the place for them.

There was also a camp at Fort Robinson which you can still visit to this day.

Where exactly in the Nebraska panhandle? I ask because I am from there. I know there was a small POW camp in my hometown, Ogallala, but I don't think much is known or said about it.

@@jasonx-ray3921 fort robinson

@@jasonx-ray3921 It was in the area of Scottsbluff, Nebraska.

I've read that only one in ten of the German POWs made it back to Germany from the USSR post war. Considering what the German army did to countless Russians (no Geneva Rights for them, especially the citizens of Leningrad), surprised that many survived.

The front-line soldiers only knew their own story.

@@gaoxiaen1 True. But this guy had served in the East in Russia and knew the conditions and behaviors there.

@@douglasturner6153 I must have missed that part. The episodes aren't numbered.

@@graceskerp A German commission headed by historian Erich Maschke found that about 3,060,000 German soldiers had been taken prisoner by the Soviets, and 1,094,250 died in captivity. By comparison, the death rate for Soviets in German custody was about 57%(over three million dead).

I heard similar stories from older german guys. They had a pretty big impression of the US from what It seems lmfao. Im Canadian. Honestly with the way our housing market going, Im abt to jump the gun and see if I can move to Texas or something. Honestly even though I was borna and raised here, I just dont really fit in. I like America more imo. I love the general outlook/philosophy yall have on life.

My Father learned German as a boy because my grandfather built POW camps throughout the Southwestern USA. The POWs all loved talking to him and making little handmade gifts for him, like model airplanes and ships. He and his family were always happy to be invited to eat in the prisoner's mess. The food was MUCH better than the US Army mess. The same ingredients were given to both kitchens. But, the German chefs were much better cooks than those created by the US Army.

I worked with a lady in the 70's in Alberta who's father was a German POW in Southern Alberta .After the war he went back and found nothing to come back to so he came back to live here .She grew up in Lethbridge.

I read the story of one German POW who was captured and sent to Canada. His first meal was Canadian bacon and he decided right there and then that he would not be going back to Germany. Lol

Quite true! Twenty-five years after his release, I met a former Wehrmacht soldier in his Lebensmittel store in northern Germany. He asked if I was American, "Nein, Ich bin Kanadier!". He asked what I was doing in Germany & I told him I was on vacation & practicing my German with "echte Deutsche". He was amused at this and told me in English that he learned English in Canada during the war as a POW in Ontario not too far from Toronto where I was born. I said in German, "Well, I hope you were well treated during your vacation in Canada!". He smiled & answered in English, "Yes, yes! I was very well treated. For me, those were the best years during that miserable war." He was just a nice small town guy in a bad situation then. The grey (no NAZIs) camp he stayed at didn't even have a barbed wire fence! Just a few guards & lots of wolves & bears in the sticks! 🇩🇪💪🇨🇦

@@lupusdeum3894 I love stories like this. My dad was too young for WWII. His dad was in the trenches but I only heard one story with a letter to back it up. I have a picture of him with some German POWs after a soccer game. When he got back in 1918 he bought himself an expensive pocket watch with a 10K gold case which I now have still in its original box.

Pretty common story. After the War of Independence a very large portion of Hessian (German) soldiers chose to remain in the US at the end of their service.

yep, America welcomed in all manner of NAZI. big ones, little ones, important leaders and nobodies. disgusting

That part of America has many people who came here from Germany back in the 1800s.

Well, to tell you the truth, since he was a doctor, he can't have been a "bad man" as it would have been against the Geneva Conventions. Dr. Mengele doesn't count.Of course,we now have a Dr. Mengele reincarnate...Dr. Fauci. We need to rename CoVid Fauci's Virus and Fauci needs to be thrown into Hess' old cell and his bathroom mirror needs to be exchanged for a picture of the real Dr. Mengele for that's what he is.

Inspector Kemp. Haha. Thank you, I know just how he sounded then.

I would love to have a doctor that sounded like that!

Similar story one of my father's doctor collegues had been a German POW and settled in the U.K. after the war, he was an absolute gentleman and a gentle giant. RIP Dr. Anton Wolff.

@@neilcorbett5353 Dear Sir, thank you.

A few pows would escape out of boredom. They would usually get tired and hungry after a few days and turn themselves in to the local police. As long as they did not commit a crime they were only given a minor punishment for escaping.

It was probably Georgia ham.

In Alabama at the POW camp they were given salt tablets and told to drink 2 quarts a day. They had work and dehydrated workers aren't efficient.

@@anthonyfuqua6988yes, clearly her story is pure bullshit.

Funny you should say that. My father was an officer running the salvage yard at Ft. Devens in Massachusetts during WW2. He had German and Italian POWs working under his command. He also said the Germans were hard working but the Italians were lazy.

I know people in the aviation industry that will tell you that opinion has not changed.

All the hard working Italians immigrated to the US before the War.

@@williamjohnson7963but the Italian prisoners made lovely ice cream 💯

I can vouch for the Italian POW's being lazy. My late Aunt lived near a big farm south of Glasgow, Scotland..she was in Land Girls Army..and Italian POW's were there and were lazy.

That U-Boat sailor was one of the lucky ones. Three out of Four U-Boat sailors died during WW2.

In my hometown in Iowa, we had a POW camp for Italian prisoners and they were very well behaved and practically unguarded. They could stroll through town alone during their leisure time. I was told they were hard working and well-mannered with great humility. It's a shame Italy was our enemy at all when we should have been fast friends.

I think that is a seaman's tale.

@@user-sm3xq5ob5d Rough seas made using the periscope much harder to use, as well as bouncing the sub around. It also made the snorkel almost useless as water would go down the pipe.

@@tomb7942 Snorkels were not necessary to do an attack. The periscope would be engulfed in spray and waves., ok. So the sub had to come out farther to see and aim. But it was also better disguised due to the waves. But I am not a U-Boot captain.

@@user-sm3xq5ob5d If the waves were rough, the sub had to adjust not to need to recharge. They would fire and then dive. If they are short on battery power, firing that torpedo in bad weather could be fatal. I've been in a small fishing boat in rough weather (2 foot white caps) on a lake (I'm in Michigan, lake Erie) and it made even fishing perilous. I can't even imagine the crew trying to do everything needed to hit a target while being bounced around in the north Atlantic. Its not just aiming and firing, its engine room and the torpedo room. Some guys had to get sea sick with all that. I'll bet Captains just waited it out and tried to follow the convoy until the weather was better rather than deal with all that and possibly wasting those very valuable torpedoes.

@@tomb7942 Torpedo attacks in heavy weather had considerably poorer odds of success. While a periscope was harder to detect in such conditions, so was getting an accurate course for the target for the sub. The ships speed through the water was a little easier to judge. After launch, most of the torpedoes of that time had to run at a pre-selected depth and a pre-set course. With high enough waves, come deep troughs between. A porpoising torpedo begins to leave it's course. More and more, each time it leaves the water crossing the trough between the waves. Upset the gyro and it might dive deep.

And the story about German unit driving past a miles long ammo dump, when they had to be mindful of their ammo usage

I once heard a saying that there's two types of Europeans one is German the other is those that want to be

American "foot" infantry divisions could move themselves entirely on wheels by piling everyone on top of their utility vehicles.

My Pappy was in the post-war occupation army in the early '50s, & we, as his family, were with him. The Germans were still using horse-drawn wagons during the time we were there.

Hermann Goring was reported to have said in a post-war interview "As soon as I saw Mustangs over Berlin, I knew the gig was up." I would imagine ADM Donitz had a similar reaction when he realized that the US was building merchant hulls far faster than his ever-more-harried U-boats could sink them.

That is funny

"Some say the Nazi tortoises are still out there..."

We must round up them turtles and imprison them

Our son was a Cav Scout stationed with the 1st ID in Schweinfurt for six years. We made changes on the train in Wurzburg. That was from 2004-20010. You would not that there had been a war because by that time everything had be rebuilt. Our grand kids when out trick or treating once and sadly the knocked on a door and were confronted by a woman who commented "why are you celebrating a tradition of our enemy. The kids were born on August 1 2004. That was about 2009 when they were so young.

Blitzkrieg Tortoise

Absolutely. The British, I believe, never recovered from their manpower losses in WW1. The same for the rest of Europe after WW2. So much energy and drive and intellect were lost in both world wars, and all that made Europe great before them seemingly vanished afterwards. I suspect a key reason why Europe lags so far behind the US in its NATO military capabilities is that the will to fight and defend one's country is simply not there anymore. Certainly not for the population as a whole. Much of that died between 1914 to 1945 and what now remains is a mere shadow of what once was.

Over 70 million died in WW2. All over the world. And, probably a few million more we’ll never know about.

All because of hatred.

@@Gala-yp8nx it's so sad... I sincerely hope we never see anything near that scale again.

Not just those millions, but the skills of their children and grandchildren too. Who knows what they may have brought to the world? What a waste.

There is a section in the book Band of Brothers where they discus the peoples and countries the had fought through. As I remember, North Africa was thieves and backstabbers, Belgium/Netherlands they liked and were liked, French sold themselves to the highest bidder and always looking for hand outs. They sat unwashed next to their rubble piles waiting for someone else to fix it. Then Germany was a shock, they were clean and worked together on the rubble piles, sorting good from bad bricks and stacked them neatly in piles. They began to rebuild as soon as they could without waiting for anything or anybody. They found of all the peoples, the Germans were the most like themselves, and the German solder was the only other solders they had met that felt like they did, that the most important personal item they had was toilet paper.

The French national mood was probably not the best, being overrun, occupied, overrun again, and add on all the collaborators and traitors, combined with wartime shortages.

I've heard the expression, ' the French don't like anybody, not even themselves.'

@@thejohnbeck You think the Germans, Dutch or Belgian civilians had it any better than the French. Well, minus the collaborators and traitors.

@@mike03a3 I was talking about the French

Why?

@@I_Have_The_Most_Japanese_Music They were probably the only young men around.

@@I_Have_The_Most_Japanese_Music If you don't know why I am at a loss as to explain what the women were looking for. Bit of a delicate subject, really.

One of the popular songs in the US during the war was the lament "They're Either Too Young Or Too Old" (refering to the fact that so many of the young men were in the military)

I used to live near Bastrop, Texas. I had heard similar stories from older residents. One minor correction, it's Camp Swift. And it's still used for training by the Texas National Guard.

Our friends have property that borders Camp Swift. Love hearing these stories!

What a mind boggling contradiction. US troops fighting the Germans in EU, feed by the work of German POW in US.

I had no idea the SS took American Jewish POWs to the death camps. Grim.

I didn't have a problem with the stories of GI's not taking prisoners of all the SS they captured.....even less now

@@Thor_Odinsonthe complexity of your mind is amazing. Can I move in your tiny world? Sounds like holiday for me.

I'm sorry that happened.

Was it a work or a death camp? Was the work like death related? Or did they put to death anyone who worked? I'm so confused. So many cookies, so little time.

Just like the people they suppressed n violently n blindly followed their “feuher” when their fellow Germans were going against Hitlers ideas, everybody’s got a choice.

Except for the camps in Europe, and especially the soldiers who were captured after the war. There they were starved to death on purpose.

@@wittkrieg BS. No German soldiers starved in US captivity. And none were kept after the war who weren't accused war criminals. The government wanted their conscripts back in the US ASAP, so they didn't have any to spare for long term POW storage.

@@wittkrieg During the war my father was a supply sergeant for an AAA AW Unit in the 3rd Army under Patton. After the war he was asked to put together a recreation area for military personnel and he was tasked to build baseball diamonds. He said it was on an island in a big river. I don't remember the name of the river. He had studied German in High School so he could speak some German and he understood it better. He used German war prisoners to do the work. The first time he went to the wire fence near the gate and asked if anyone spoke English. He said a man spoke up that spoke very clear English as he had taught English in Germany and had been to the US to study before the war. The man became my father's interpreter. My father asked for volunteers to come and help make the baseball fields. He said her got enough volunteers, but it took a while to get enough men. He drove them back to the area and started to put them to work, but he said all the POWs were very lethargic. They were weak from being underfed. He said they only got two meals a day. If they got less, he never said or knew. He said they were fed on low rations to keep them weak so they wouldn't have the strength to rebel. My dad could see that at the pace these men worked it would take him a long time to complete the work. So, while others watched the POWs work, he went to the local supply depot and filled the truck full of K-Rations and C-Rations. When he returned the supplies were off loaded and stored in the basement of a building nearby. Then he took all the POW's down into the basement and gave each man two rations which they hungrily ate. My dad was told not to feed them, that's why he had to do it secretly in the basement. After that the POW's had the energy, they needed to do the work. Each day my father had to return the prisoners to the camp after the work was done for the day. The next day when he went to pick up the workers, he had a lot of enthusiastic volunteers. When they all got to the rec area, he would feed them all for breakfast, for lunch and dinner. They finished the work on time. My dad would sit in the basement and listen to the Germans talk to each other. He said he knew what they were all saying but never let on he understood German. He always talked to the prisoners through his interpreter. He never talked about his war experiences until a few years before he passed away.

@@daverave3698 Interesting. I've seen hell in my own way, and it lends me to understand the horror before those. As small as it all maybe, Very interesting tho. God bless.

My Dad was from that area, and he and Grandpa both spoke Plautdietsch or Plattdeutch (low German).

Interesting story, but I'm afraid that had the Germans been blowing the sh*t out of the United States, like we were to Germany, I don't think we would have been quite so kind.

There was more incentive to go along and get along when you were separated from friendly forces by an ocean. Where would a German soldier escape to?

Quite a difference? Yeah, when you can barely afford to feed the guards of the prison camp because your prisoners' buddies keep bombing the railways it gets a little fucking difficult.

​@chazzyboi_7778 Noooooo, you're not allowed to talk about that. Crazy how many people in these comments talk about how kind and hard working German POWs were but still believe everything about the war Hollywood sells.

American POWs and POWs from Western European countries were treated well by the Germans until near the end of the war when transportation and logistics had completely broken down in the country. They may not have been as well fed as German POWs in the US but they got enough to eat and were treated respectfully. It was the Polish and Soviet soldiers who were basically sent to camps to die.

Sparta, Michigan? Aw shit i was gonna ask where it was to visit it, sad it got torn down

@@thedyingmeme6 The site is now a wastewater treatment plant. Years back I asked if there was anything left of the POW camp and was told there was nothing left.

A couple of cinder block buildings just up the road are said to be POW barracks during the war. In my lifetime they have only stored farm machinery.

@@thedyingmeme6inquire at your local libraries in the area your seeking information. Then contact the library of congress and military libraries. Almost everything is on line.

There's a similar story of a couple of German POWs at labor camp in Northern Minnesota who got a hold of a map and figured out it was an easy float down the Mississippi to Mexico and then back to Germany. They didn't even make it to the Mississippi, the guards were worried about them dying in the bush, escape was impossible without a ride the whole way.

God bless you also!

There's a terrific book called The Last Stand of The Tin-Can Sailors, about the experiences of the destroyers and destroyer escorts of Seventh Fleet at Leyte Gulf. It's full of interesting anecdotes about life aboard ship. You might enjoy it.

A majority of the miners in the Yoop were Finish, but there were also some Germans and Cornish folks as well.

@@oledahammer8393 Ah yeah the Cornish. The pasties!

In southern Indiana as well

@@oledahammer8393 Don't forget the Italians

That's the way it should be. Now they are shipped here by Biden and Soros from all over the world and don't have to work....just vote.

My Dad was conscripted into the German Army at 14, taken from school after Hitler closed Catholic schools.Catholics were next, according to my Oma for work camps( as she thought). Dad was taken POW by Americans in Cherbourg France. He was released in 1948 aged 18 and went home to Berlin .He said his America captors treated them well.Thanking.My Dad migrated to Melbourne Australia in in 1955 and met my Mum ( Irish ).Americans treated the POWs better than what I was at school.Some mean girls at secondary school called me Nazi.This upset me very much.I have family in Ireland, Germa y and the U.S. My beloved Dad past away in 2016 of Alzheimers .Too late to thank the American POW guards Many, many thanks.God Bless your families.xo

Your exactly correct. Intelligent people can be radicalized, It’s happening as you read this. With fear and distrust of the Gov. Hate groups have gained a foothold, with many followers on social media. Not good.

You only mention the danger of radicalisation itself, not the danger of the things that always precede it, such as Weimar Germany and the destruction of European nations over the past half century

Yes the evils perpetrated are inside all of us.

Yes, WW2 Japan was no different. Warlords twisted samurai behaviors and the stratified society to justify that even others who sort of looked like them (just like in Europe) were inferior and thus subject to exist only for their benefit. Chinese, Koreans, other asians were often looked at as being subhuman. You surrender instead of fighting to the death, well you deserve to be mistreated. I guess even "rational" or intelligent people can get swept up in this stuff. Or, more worrysome, we are all just lazy asses and would rather be led by the nose than think for ourselves. Now I'm depressed.

And yet in 1988 things like the STASI still existed in a place also called Germany.

Escanaba, Michigan had both a German and French Catholic church. My ancestors all spoke French.

Apple strudel.

@@Emanresuadeen As a German allow me to transform that to Apfelstrudel.

The book and movie "Summer of MY German Soldier" is great reading and watching

....difference... Than unit 731..

Wasn’t he lucky he was captured in North Africa, and not on the Eastern front.

@@davidpryle3935 Certain death from Russian forces.

@@bongdonkey Yes indeed. I’ve listened to the lectures of retired American colonel David Glantz, and others. The eastern front in WW2 was undoubtedly the most brutal, terrifying conflict in history, on a gigantic, almost incomprehensible scale.

@@davidpryle3935 Youre correct. And even U.S. forces did very bad things. Its just covered up or altered to make it look like U.S. does no wrong. The fact its a war should be looked at for what it really is. Otherwise humans are bound to repeat the mistake. Salut!

@@davidpryle3935 Was it worse than the Mongol invasions?

It's been said that for centuries Germany was a country that had two faces. The face that was faced west was kind and cultured while the eastern face was an angry snarl. Because the US is in the West the Germans were friendly while Poles, Soviets and Jews got to see the other face.

Im sure if the germans fire bombed your country, killed your family thru deprivation, starvation, and general lack, then you went to live in Germany post war, you might have somethings to complain about too.

There has been a long and persistent attitude in much of the world about German tourists. All of it generated post-war. Generated by the German tourists.

​@@jefftheriault3914 Well, they started it.

America is mostly German heritage.

You are not good at research.@@docvaliant721

Not even close.

That’s one of the many things that made the US and Britain better than the Axis.

They couldn't give even if they wanted to. They didn't had enough for themselves. To think they went to war on an empty stomach & no other supplies. That's what propaganda & cult mentality does to ppls.

Fort Rucker, late 68 - June 70, Above the Best

@@alparker8661 I was there 62 - 64, I still reside in the area, still have my Above the Beat patches!

That is so neat!! I would love to see that

During war time most soldiers are conscripted. All had jobs, trades or skills - many of which could possibly be traced back as a family business because of the long history of Europe. I guess what I'm getting at is the fact many of these people had amazing knowledge and skills compared to their industrialized American counterparts.

​@@alparker8661did everyone call it Fort Mother? (Mentioned in a book by a helicopter pilot)

For real though.

If Netflix doesn't mess it all up, I'd pay to watch it.

Your mentioning of Netflix actually confirms, without wanting, your total lack of imagination

As an American grandson of a Polish soldier, I absolutely agree. However Wokeflix is more interested in promoting p*do stuff an PoC propaganda.

@@jed-henrywitkowski6470 and remember kids, woke means BAD.

Happy slaves they were.

Man what a life this guy had.

Met a girlfriend's Dad that had guarded captured German troops and he told me they were just ordinary guys like us . There was no Master Race jive and he brought back an absolute mint k98 as a souvenir .

My father also was in the Afrika Corps. They marched into surrender. He was dark-haired and 5'4".

Wow!!!

Right. Because the Germans never did figure out locomotives. They hand-pushed the behemoth railroad guns (biggest guns ever built) down the tracks. But yeah, a single locomotive let him know they were screwed. I'm fully on board. When do we get to the part about the seven dwarves? Wait... is this the one with the bridge troll?

@@skipdreadman8765 Germany made and still makes very fine locomotives. But American steam locomotives at their zenith made their European counterparts look like teakettles on wheels. Germany had quality. America had quantity. And quantity is a quality all on its own.

I read or heard that late in the Japanese realized they sank or captured an ice cream barge and hid the fact from their populace. Imagine if it became widely know that the Americans had the ability to wage the war and provide treats to their armed forces at the front.

Some guys I worked with on the old Ski Train work/operate the UP Steam Shop in Cheyenne, WY. They rebuilt a Big Boy over a five year period and several millions of Union Pacific’s money. I followed progress over those years. The locomotive is massive. It’s the largest operating steam locomotive in the world. I loaded up a video of it pulling out of Greeley, CO headed to Cheyenne one cold winter day to this KZhead profile. It’s the only video uploaded if you want to see a Big Boy.

@@maestromecanico597 Okie dokie. Listen, I'm as patriotic as the next guy, veteran, parents both served in WWII. Completely understand about the industrial might being key. I still don't believe your POW fairy tale. Locomotives aren't everything, and Germany made plenty of big pieces of equipment. Like the railroad guns that we didn't have anything to match. Nice story, though. I think it's made up. But keep enjoying telling it, it seems to really please you.