When Some Liberators Were Criminals
 

Setting the record straight...

Richard

When Some Liberators Were Criminals
CBS, 2 June 2013

6 June 1944 - at stake was liberation from Nazi tyranny -- a heroic story, but one which had a dark underside.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3445_162...ere-criminals/

"The best behaved of the lot" and "12,000 out of several million"? Unfortunate, hardly unexpected, and largely dealt with. Setting the record straight? More like "let's see what we can tarnish with a little muckraking". Gotta love authors passing judgment without any personal grasp of context.

1. Maybe they would have preferred the Nazis remain, since they proved incapable of removing the Boche themselves.

2. The French military had "Bordels Mobiles de Campagne" (Mobile Field Brothels) of their own until just a few decades ago. I don't think they have any room to be complaining about anyone else's morals.

3. If they had waited long enough, the Red Army could have liberated them, and then they would have seen what real debauchery looked like.

I guess a hater's gotta hate. :rolleyes:

TR

EXACTLY!! Passing judgment from the perspective of the safety of one's living room arm-chair seven decades withdrawn and applying values and standards of conduct we expect from Boy Scouts parading through the town square? Well, that is just simply so far out of touch with the reality of the situation that it makes the whole argument irrelevant and moot.

But the author will sell books and collect a royalty check. So I guess it's OK. And Oh, BTW the generation that liberated Europe has mostly passed so who's to argue the point?.

Let's just spin History to fit the social and political agenda. Damn this is really pissing me off! :mad:

:eek: I better shut-up - rant off.

A human non story.....guys that anticipate death may want to get laid.
Part of the problem with the Army today, and General Order #1 is that it is STUPID and disregards human nature.
In RVN you could go to any major base that had a 'massage parlor' or locally called the 'steam and cream' on Cu Chi....but prior you went to the NCO club and drank as much as you liked...we regularly got 2 beers choppered in when in the field (wonderfully warm Black Label).
You could drink, get laid...a shower shave and back to the field.
You were allowed to be a man and a soldier.
Now we want to put men in combat, for a decade, and treat them like boy freakin scouts.
This is what I hated most about working at GO level...this non common sense approach to common sense issues.
Yes, I did say exactly that, often, formally and in non formal situations and no, I never was asked to participate at any higher level.
I watched GO's (not talking SF but conventional guys) that had storied pasts talking like freakin Monks and that still gives me the ass.
The more you deny basic common instinct the more issues you have. Face it and deal with it.

Now that's why SGMs are my favorite people! Practical, to the point, and no BS!
Well said CSM, well said. :lifter

More so now than before:

Pat

Interesting read, but BFD. Every large conquering army in history has behaived like that.

A lot of the article is inflammatory bullcrap. True. At the same time, are we 1) equating rape to visiting a whorehouse? and/or 2) suggesting that "don't rape," is behavior only expected of a boy scout?

Perhaps it's just me, but I tend to find actual criminal behavior unacceptable. Now...telling the troops they can't have a beer? Stupid. Expecting them not to rape the people they are supposed to liberate? Not so stupid, IMO.