"The Nazis Exploited Sherman’s March to the Sea" Topic

"In the months before the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe, the Wehrmacht's propagandists warned those living under German occupation that America's armies would not be as forgiving.

In the pages of Signal, a bi-weekly magazine funded by the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht and intended for foreign audiences, the Nazis invoked William Tecumseh Sherman's march across the Confederacy during the American Civil War as a sign of what to expect.

Sherman was, according to the Nazis, the quintessential American general. "The cruelties of the Marquis de Sade and the atrocities perpetrated by Jack the Ripper have never led to mass suggestion," Signal editor Walther Kiaulehn wrote. "Sherman's strategy, however, has been acclaimed as classical."…"
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Amicalement
Armand

It is kind of ironic that the NAZIS were defeated by "Sherman's March FROM The Sea". That is, Sherman's Stuart's, Churchill's, Cromwell's, etc.

I see what you did there, ZOC!

Well, I'm feeling cynical enough today that it actually makes me smile to think of the Nazis warning people that the US would be an unpleasant occupying force.

"You should be *thankful* for Gestapo reprisals!"

There are no limits to what people will say.

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

Maj. Heinrich Strasser: Are you one of those people who can not imagine the Germans in their beloved Paris?
Rick Blaine: It's not particularly my beloved Paris.
Maj. Heinrich Strasser: Can you image us in London?
Rick Blaine: When you get there ask me!
Capt. Louis Renault: Hmmmh! Diplomats!
Maj. Heinrich Strasser: How about New York?
Rick Blaine: Well there are certain sections of New York, Major, that I wouldn't advise you to invade.

^ Definitely stay out of the darker alleys at night!

Yeah, they'd wake up to find all their vehicles up on blocks, tires and wheels gone, radios missing, etc.

Ha-Ha-Ha….

Amicalement
Armand

Well, I'm feeling cynical enough today that it actually makes me smile to think of the Nazis warning people that the US would be an unpleasant occupying force.

I have a long-time business acquaintance (friend, really) who is German. I've known him, and stayed in touch, since we worked together in the early 1990s.

In about 2006 I was working at a new company, and during a catch-up discussion with my German friend he mentioned that he knew my new boss. The CEO of the new company was French, but not just French -- rather, he was French-Algerian (a "pied noir" in the French vernacular).

My friend told me he never liked my new boss, and didn't like French-Algerians in general. He (my friend) was born just after WW2, and his home town and region were in the French occupation zone in the post-war era. As a youngster growing up he learned not to like the French-Algerian soldiers, and considered them harsh and almost barbaric occupiers.

I never mentioned it to him explicitly, but it did always seem a bit ironic to have a German lecturing me, someone of Ukrainian Jewish descent, on how harsh the French occupation was.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)