Well, if you ask me, then I’ve seen something fair about those German boys in the Second Great War. What truly frightened them? The Eastern front – i.e., the war against the Russians, the Soviet Union.
It wasn’t just a war. It was a brutal battle to even remain breathing. All the rules of warfare were melted away over there.
The biggest fear that they carried with them were the simple words of being captured. Surrendering? That was bad business if any.
The Soviet troops had suffered terribly because of what the Germans have done. So when they captured a German soldier mercy was rarely extended. Many were shot on the spot. If you managed to survive that, you were sent to a prison camp. Those camps were horrible places. The cold and the hunger put them to work for the enemy. Most of those German boys never saw their homes again. The records prove it.
Then there was the Russian winter called “General Winter” and it was an enemy as much as any soldier.
The cold was so great that men would freeze even in their sleep and their rifles would seize up. They had to fight the dreadful cold with their blankets and coats as well as they had to fight the Soviet Army.
Finally, the sheer might of the Soviet attack was horrifying.
They brought down a massive volume of artillery fire. Occy riveting or do you remember the Katyusha rockets? As they flew they made a terrible screeching noise. When those shells came down, they obliterated everything. There was no more safe place to hide.
The Eastern Front was a nasty place and death waited for you, either by a rifle, or in the freezing wind or just because you were standing in the wrong field.
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