Napalm the bocage!

lljadw said:
Trying to kill a German pilot who was leaving his aircraft above Germany/France (btw :the order was given not by Churchill,but by Dowding )was perfectly legal .Some one who is saying it was a crime,is talking nonsense.
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Somehow I don't see Dowding giving such an order.

Yossarian said:
Were'nt flame thrower's deployed with the troups fighting there?

Even on vehicles and tanks?
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Yes there were, Churchill tanks were converted and called "Crocodiles," the fuel for the flame thrower was stored in a trailer towed behind the tank.
 
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All this talk of of the 1929 Geneva Convention really was totally ignored by both sides on the whole. The German troops killed British Troops after they surrendered because they had killed their mates and held them up for a while. Allied aircrew were often killed after they had landed safely as the population looked upon them them as terror flyer's and there are many reports just after the war of them being killed by hanging or just beaten to death by the mob. Russian prisoners were allowed to starve to death as the Germans could or not not feed them and these figures ran into millions.
While retreating from Russia any German found smelling of petrol was shot on the spot as they were thought to have been burning the Russian peasants out during the retreat. Any one from the any of the SS Regiments were shot on sight as they were all held responsible for actions of the other sections of the SS. I knew men that had been captured at Arnhem who were marched all over Europe, they marched to their boots feel apart then they tied sacks around their feet, and any one that fell out was shot. What every one is forgetting is this this was bloody war which was fought to the bitter end with very little thought given to the Geneva Convention.
When the school I was attending was shot up a lot of children killed, the four German aircraft were hunted down across the skies of southern England and if a German pilot bailed out he did not reach the ground alive.
Yes I will agree that at time the Geneva Convention did come in to play and helped a lot of men, but that was the ones the Swiss Commission knew about.
 
Del Boy said:
From Le - the realities of war by someone who knows it because he lived it.
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While true not every ones experiences are the same and as such experience of an event only gives you a very small window of fact on a specific incident.

For example I have no doubt that from his end of the spectrum 4 German pilots shot up a school and I am certainly not going to argue that the event happened but it does not tell you the whole story to get that you need to know what the 4 pilots were thinking at the time of the event.

Far too much of history is taken from the perspective of the last man standing and not does provide accuracy as Bertrand Russell once said... War does not determine who is right - only who is left.
 
:wink:Truer perhaps then the histories created by the authors of the books, usually at distance.
 
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Del Boy said:
:wink:Truer perhaps then the histories created by the authors of the books, usually at distance.
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Not necessarily as time allows us to look at all sides with the impartiality of no emotional attachment of course that can also lead to revisionism however to a large degree even that is no less inaccurate than half a story.
 
samneanderthal said:
What does a wildfire in the dry summer with continuous vegetation have in common with farmland separated by a few lines of trees in extremely wet weather?. The hedgerow trees represent less than 5% of the land or the farmers would starve.
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Well you see, when you drop napalm on a target the napalm has a tendency to spread out over the area, it does not focus on incinerating the personell or vehicles that you intended to target in the first place like some kind of smart-bomb.

The amount of trees between the fields is of little importance, contrary to popular belief a forest fire rarely consumes the trunks of the trees, but rather branches, leaves, foliage, grass.....and off course crops.
 
Didn't want to get involved in this one really, but all I want to say is that if anyone remebers the footage of the village in Vietnam that was napalmed, the one when the little girl is then filmed running up the road with all her clothes burnt off and her skin hanging off, you'll see what a random, uncontrolled weapon it is.
You can not have friendlies any where near the target area if you don't want to have casualies among your own.

When stocks of napalm were found durring the Falklands campaign, one member of the Parachute Regiment summed it up clearly;
" A bastard of a weapon!"
 
Der Alte said:
I will say to the English praise that I was fully processed after the Geneva Convention when I was captured by British troops in 1945.
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As I have mentioned Narvik here earlier, I've seen comments on the treatment of prisoners of war on some occations, mentioning German POW's having a rather rough time in the hands of Polish troops, and to some extent units from the French foreign legion on the Narvik front.
Several of the veterans have mentioned incidents where Norwegian soldiers, with little military experience and no authority at all, had to interfer with Polish troops in order to prevent mistreatment and even summary execution of German POW's in the field.

I suppose the difference here lays in the fact that while the British and French hadn't actually suffered the real trauma of war, the Polish had fresh experience from the German invasion of Poland, and thus bore a great deal of bitterness and hate towards their enemy.

But there was violations of the Geneva Convention to be found on both sides, the Germans did use both civilians and POW's as human shields during the campaign, and POW's was forced into the German supply chain as carriers.
 
BritinAfrica said:
Where were you captured Colonel if I may ask?
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Close to Oldendorf in Lower Saxony (Northern Germany)

The British combat troops, some of whom had seen D-Day, was very kind to us and gave us cigarettes and biscuits.

I was very rebellious and cheeky to the British officers until an older German Major came over to me and gave me a slap in the head with his hand. I remember it yet. I was asked to keep my mouth shut and show respect for the British officers. As he said, even though we were POWs I stood under his command and was still under German military penal code. It suited me not but I was bound by my oath as an officer. I had to swallow that camel.

It was only when we came in contact with troops who had never been in battle that we were treated like animals. Today I well understand but then I was ready to kill them all.

In German you are addressed as a Lieutenant colonel never as Colonel
It would be an insult to a full colonel

But I appreciate the respect you show.
 
MontyB said:
Not necessarily as time allows us to look at all sides with the impartiality of no emotional attachment of course that can also lead to revisionism however to a large degree even that is no less inaccurate than half a story.
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Personally, I like to look at things from both ends of the telescope. Happy Christmas BTW.
 
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Der Alte said:
Close to Oldendorf in Lower Saxony (Northern Germany)

The British combat troops, some of whom had seen D-Day, was very kind to us and gave us cigarettes and biscuits.

I was very rebellious and cheeky to the British officers until an older German Major came over to me and gave me a slap in the head with his hand. I remember it yet. I was asked to keep my mouth shut and show respect for the British officers. As he said, even though we were POWs I stood under his command and was still under German military penal code. It suited me not but I was bound by my oath as an officer. I had to swallow that camel.

It was only when we came in contact with troops who had never been in battle that we were treated like animals. Today I well understand but then I was ready to kill them all.

In German you are addressed as a Lieutenant colonel never as Colonel
It would be an insult to a full colonel

But I appreciate the respect you show.
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My apologies Lieutenant colonel, it was common practice in the British Army to address a Lieutenant colonel as Colonel. Old habits die hard, but I will gladly respect your views.

What rank were you when you were captured, and what camp were you sent to if I may ask Lieutenant colonel? I apologies for the questions, but its not often one gets to ask someone who were there.

I was on a number of exercises in Northern Germany when I was in the Royal Corps of Transport Territorial Army as a section commander. I ended up in the British Military Hospital in Hanover with a broken arm and ribs, after trying to jump a ditch with a 10 ton truck. But that's another story.

I developed a taste for Asbach while I were there, I still have a bottle unopened in my drinks cabinet, one day I will crack it open.
 
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Der Alte said:
.....until an older German Major came over to me and gave me a slap in the head with his hand. I remember it yet. I was asked to keep my mouth shut and show respect for the British officers. As he said, even though we were POWs I stood under his command and was still under German military penal code. It suited me not but I was bound by my oath as an officer. I had to swallow that camel.....
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A confusing situation (and period of time) that Siegfried Lenz managed to describe in his short story "Ein Kriegsende".
 
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