The Nazi forces included a large number of tanks and motorized infantry. Under cover of night Major Laskin's battalion approached the enemy's outposts and entrenched itself in a hollow during the artillery barrage. By the time the barrage was over the Nazi infantry had climbed out of its transports and their tanks were moving off. The hidden Red Army men let the tanks pass and then made a bayonet charge on the infantry.
The Germans declined to fight. Some of them scrambled back into the transport lorries, but the fear-crazed drivers. The Nazis fled in all directions, some hiding in the tall rye, others taking refuge in ditches and on roof-tops. They were everywhere hunted out and dispatched with bayonets. Twenty-six nations contributed contingents to my command in Italy.
I feel, therefore, it will be agreed that I speak from first-hand experience of the varying fighting qualities of troops in battle when I affirm that there are no better soldiers than those of the British race, provided they have a cause worth fighting for - and dying for, if necessary. And what of the foe that our soldiers and those of our allies overcame and mastered? Having fought against the Germans in two world wars I cannot conceal my regard for their ability as fighting men. They are very brave and tough, and have a marked sense of duty and discipline.
Furthermore, they take pride in mastering their weapons and learning their job on the battlefield. If the Germans are a warrior race, they are certainly militarist also. I think they love the military pageant and the panoply of war; and the feeling of strength and power that a well-organized and disciplined unit gives to each and every individual member of that unit.
I am quite willing to admit that I myself share this curious attraction for the strength and elegance of beautifully trained and equipped formations, with all the art and subtlety of their movements in action against an enemy.
I can well understand the enthusiasm which the soldiers-from marshals to the private soldier - showed for Napoleon; and why they followed their leader without doubt or question in his victorious campaigns. Feeling thus, they shared the glory of his conquests. I can also understand the German soldier's high morale when Hitler seemed invincible; but I think it very remarkable that they fought their last battles just as toughly and bravely as when they were winning their first-although they must have realized that all was lost.
The last battles in Italy were just as bitter as any we had experienced in the Western Desert, or in the earlier stages of the Italian campaign. Like the boxer in the ring, the German soldier didn't give up until he was knocked out: and make no mistake about it, he was!
My failure to write earlier has not been due to being always on the move. Between our periods of movement and excitement we have been able to have short but very pleasant rests. These 'rests' are often my busiest times, and somehow I always just failed to write the fuller type of letter.
Often too, experiences crowded on one another so fast that there was too much to say in anything less than a small book. Now that another phase seems to have ended, it is possible to look back and see things in truer perspective. On that and on many other occasions we have felt that if the Germans were not such swines we could feel some pity for them. We feel not a shred of pity. I have talked with many German prisoners; do not do so now as they make me feel furious. They have a sort of mental leprosy which render parts of their minds and emotions entirely insensitive.
I know that when they are destroying and burning in their heyday they felt no pang or qualm for the suffering they caused. That they lack a sense of persona conscience is understandable, but it is baffling to find all their kinder emotions equally atrophied.
How you who have not come into close contact with the Germans can hope to understand them I do not know. It is difficult enough for us who meet them constantly.
I hope that those who control our post-war relations with Germany shall be men who know the German as the Soldier does. The Germans were very frightened of the Maquis, the armed civilians, in France and Belgium.
It was the fear of a guilty conscience. They were delighted to surrender to us and so be protected against the vengeance of the partisans. Never was protection given less willingly. There were many cases in which natural justice was speedily meted out by the civilians. We could not countenance this when we were present, but did not regret it when we could not prevent it.
The joy of the people is equalled only by their hatred of the Germans. This can almost be felt. Their great fear is that the mass of the English, so far away in detached England, will again be too lenient towards the Germans owing to a mistaken sense of fair play.
Most of them wish to see the Germans literally exterminated, and all say we must go right to Berlin and impose our will from there. We realise how fortunate we are that England is an island; it is hard for Englishmen to appreciate the feelings of these smaller countries who are on Germany's doorstep and who cannot stand up to Germany without strong support.
This recasting of the war from the German perspective has been largely based on individual memoirs, diaries and interviews, many of which emerged long after the war ended. However, it was generally assumed that, because of the totalitarian nature of the Nazi military, no comparable records existed that could reveal what those who were actually doing the fighting and killing, the German soldiers, thought and felt about the war and their role in it.
In Neitzel discovered a new source for researching the Third Reich and its military machine: secretly recorded conversations of German prisoners of war POWs in British and American captivity.
Unlike official documents or even private letters—which German soldiers knew would be reviewed and censored—the recorded chats of the German POWs represent candid, even casual, exchanges between comrades.
Neitzel discovered that the war created its own very specific frame of reference, one in which violence quickly became perceived as normal, even a necessity. Their worldviews, shaped by the violent exigencies of war, were largely shaped by the core group to which they belonged, their unit, their duty, the next battle, and their weapons of war.
That the Second World War was of a totally different character—emphasising ethnic cleansing, genocide and global conquest—was not reflected, even though many soldiers spoke casually, even gleefully, about raping and killing civilians and prisoners.
As many as 27 million Soviets lost their lives, with as many as Those totals do not include the more than 14 million Soviet soldiers who were wounded during the war. Among the Soviet Union's 15 republics , Russia withstood the highest number of casualties, with 6,, military deaths and 7,, civilian deaths.
Ukraine tallied the second-highest casualties, with 1,, military deaths and 5,, civilian deaths. China is estimated to have endured the second-highest number of total casualties in WWII. As many as 20 million people died in China, including up to 3. That said, because both China and the Soviet Union were wracked by famine and disease during the war, some experts believe the countries' civilian casualty numbers may be significantly underestimated.
Germany incurred the third-most casualties of World War II, with as many as 7.
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