This is what “America will fight Russia to the last Ukrainian” looks like

  • emizeko [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    4 months ago

    one of the things that is never shown in movies about D-Day is how most of the troops defending the beaches were the dregs of the army, I remember reading Beevor’s book about D-Day and he talked about how it was predominantly conscripted 15 year old and 60 year old guys in those pillboxes. I should dig up the quotes

    anyway in the movies like Saving Private Ryan it’s always a hulking Teutonic guy in his twenties with blue eyes, not guys who look like this

    • Alaskaball [comrade/them]@hexbear.netOPM
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      4 months ago

      The western allies were quite literally fighting against conscripted reservists that wouldn’t be normally fit for service or broken units from the eastern front that were sent to garrison the western occupied zones to replenish their ranks and train for redeployment eastward. A lot of cinema really don’t portray the fact that that our soldiers were fighting and struggling against the occupation forces.

  • quarrk [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    4 months ago

    Tragic. They should be spending their golden years relaxing in cafes or seeing their grandkids. Instead they’re fighting an unwinnable war for a ruling class that doesn’t care about them. A tale as old as time, but no less sad.

    Whenever I see a photo like this, I try to assume that they are not true believers, just conscripts who were otherwise going on with their lives or maybe even oppose the war but forced to fight. I don’t know what I would do in that situation.