World War II Question (1 Viewer)

[Cees Alons]

Not many ended up in German uniforms.

Those that survived the actual fights, were unarmed (although many destroyed or concealed their weapons) and either (1) tried to live a modest life, (2) went underground, (3) fled the country, e.g. to England, Canada or the US, or (4) were detained by the occupying German authorities (against earlier promises) and/or sent to POW- or other camps in Germany. Some escaped or evaded that again, etc. Often a complicated combination of the above (also see Soldier of Orange).

Several of them where caught because of underground activities and killed. Some even were killed as acts of retaliation (repressaille, e.g. when an important German official was hurt or other important damage was achieved): several on their very doorsteps or in front of their homes where they lived quietly in accordance with the formal surrender.


Cees

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Sadly, I had to work in Warsaw and could not travel to Krakcow. I hear it is beautiful and would have liked to see Auschwitz and the ruins of Birkenau; from a historical and human perspective, I find things like that gripping.

 

[Joe Szott]

As mentioned above, what happened at Dunkirk likely saved England from being invaded by German gorund forces. 300,000 Allied troops made it back to England to provide defense and prepare for D-Day due to the "miracle" of Dunkirk:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/765004.stm

They still are unsure why Hitler didn't invade the port earlier and stop the evacuation. Some think he believed the Allied troops to be in better shape than they were, some think he believed German armor had overextended itself already. Had he gone in and taken the harbor, WWII might have been a much longer and more grisly war.

 

[Cees Alons]

And some believe he tried to keep an option to close a deal with the English at one point, and tried to keep them out of the war for then.

Didn't work, though...


Cees

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

There are a lot of good reasons why the Germans didn't press Dunkirk. The treads of their tanks were wearing down and they wanted to save them for the upcoming swing south through Paris. Goering promised Hitler that his planes all by themselves could finish off the Brits at Dunkirk, and at that time of the war his stock was pretty high.