Old boy with a sense of humour

Or Italians, who were on both sides, but... fought?

During the Spanish civil war 36-39 the Italians were defeated by the
loyal Republican army in Guadalajara, with some speed records running
away from the battle no sooner some large bombs started to fall.

Franco's rebel nationalists were actually so fed up of the spaghetti
that eventually they sang these words to the tune of "Facetta nera":
"Guadalajara no es Abisinia
aquí los rojos tiran bombas como piñas...
sino es por el Tercio y....
no queda un italiano en toda Guadalajara"

EMFDYSI translation service -powered by Google-:
Guadalajara not is Africa, Reds -not Liverpool, not wino- bombs big,
Scorccio! Spics cobardes Butros Butros Gali.

 

As do the British, the Americans, the `Israelis', ...

Face it: the Germans are probably the only country who have honestly
faced up to what they did in a (any) war.

In fairness, the partisans, once they got started, were a fairly
serious outfit. When the Allies rolled into Genova, the city had
already been liberated and the local police were directing the
traffic.

 

"National behaviour"

Jesus wept. It's a different generation. Most of them are dead. The rest
soon will be.

The world's changed quite a bit in the last 70 years, though it's
probably hard to tell when your main source of information on the world
is a seemingly never-ending stack of WW2 history books.

 

An easy mistake to make. Iron ore was commonly transported long
distances by multi-mast 19th century sailing ships. Everyone knows that.

 

If you state things in terms of `national behaviour', other people's
crimes are genetically determined outrages, while `our' `errors' need
not affect our sense of our essential nobility.

 

http://www.clevelandmemory.org/glihc/oretrade.html

 

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=whatever

 

That's nice and all, but you appear to be making an unrelated point.

 

The French like to sweep it under the carpet. always have done. Like
the popular myth of the Resistance - it hides an inconvenient truth,
which was that there was no such thing until they were prodded to
'resist' by the Brits.

How many French actually realise that their forefathers
enthusiastically helped load the cattle wagons bound for Auschwitz,
and fought the Brits and Yanks with a vim and zeal that they
conspicuously failed to muster against the Germans?

Very difficult for a country to look anyone in the eye and criticise,
when it refuses to acknowledge the skeletons in its own cupboard.

It's all true....

 

I thought the Japanese had apologised for their actions and the French
are just cunts.

 

Omigod it's another apologist crawling out of the woodwork.

I suppose you think that bombing the **** out of Germany was a crime
and they should have been allowed to live peacefully in their occupied
territories?

 

Sheesh. Are you still pissed off about 1776? We won already. Get over
it!

 

No, it was an act of war. However it could have been done more
effectively, such as targeting more war industries and fewer cities.

SQ

 

Doubtful, with the techology available. The argument has raged for
decades.

Hammering the oil industry earlier might have been a good idea.

 

How courteous is the Japanese;
He always says, "Excuse it, please."
He climbs into his neighbor's garden,
And smiles, and says, "I beg your pardon";

He bows and grins a friendly grin,
And calls his hungry family in;
He grins, and bows a friendly bow;
"So sorry, this my garden now."
--Ogden Nash

"Vive le Quebec libre!" --Terrorist slogan uttered in public
by Charles de Gaulle; Montreal, July 1967

SQ

 

Check your copy of Speer's _Inside the Third Reich_. He sez
Allied bombing of the dams and ball bearing factories
was the right idea but not pursued vigorously enough.

Meanwhile the destruction of Hamburg in July, 1943 actually freed up
labour for the German war effort that was previous committed to
urban infrastructure, so it was really counterproductive in a way
(apart from 'paying back the fucking Jerries for London and Coventry').

SQ

 

That's true. he also said theey were able to disperse the ball-bearing
industry with amazing sped after they realised that having it all in one
big facility wasn't a good idea.

 

It isn't easy to forget the two worst wars in history,
both fought against Germany. Or maybe it was one big war
with a 20-year intermission.

SQ

 

Sheesh in 1775 when the fighting started your ancestors were British.
It was just another civil war.

 

I didn't say forget, I said let it go.

All of the main protagonists have been dead for 30 years or more. Almost
everyone else involved has died since. Almost nobody on UKRM is old
enough to have lived through rationing, let alone the war, let alone
been involved in it.

It's history. Interesting, sure, but to obsess over it is just daft.