No, of course they weren't stupid, Rap. But they had been conditioned by years of intense political propaganda to hate the regime in Poland (which was actually a rather unpleasant regime in some respects) and to think of Germany as surrounded by enemies. So they probably did believe much of the propaganda they were exposed to.

Forces can mass along a foreign border and still believe it's a defensive move. The Russians were in a forward stance, massed along their western borders when the German invasion started in June of '41...it didn't help the Russians, though, it just gave the Luftwaffe and the Panzer divisions a lot of really good targets. The Russians would have been better off with a defense in depth rather than a forward positioning of their forces, because the Germans had much greater exerpertise at breaking through such lines and exploited the Russian defense to their own great advantage, capturing hundreds of thousands of Russian troops and wiping their airforce almost off the map in a few days.

But you are dead right that soldiers "fight for their lives and the lives of their buddies. This is brought home the first time a bullet goes "CRACK!" by your ear or you see the guy next to you blown up, shot down, burned alive, bayoneted, or in other ways rendered dead, dead, dead or turned into a living wound with his or her jaw shot away, intestines hanging out in the dirt, stumps for legs."

Yup. That's what happens allright. The moment the first shot was fired, every German soldier who heard it did whatever he had to do from that point on...and so did every Polish or Russian soldier...same as any soldier in any army. There is no question that they were very patriotic and highly motivated, their effectiveness and courage in combat proved that, but war is something that simply takes its inevitable course and plays out to the end once the shooting starts, and then it becomes about survival, unit pride, and fighting for the guys who are next to you.

And, yeah, it is depressing.

Back to Chongo!

Amos, you ask, "Whose pay is Little Hawk in?"

Well...whoever it is...he ain't payin' nearly enough!!! ;-D