One of the last from "The Great Escape" dies aged 92

No Tiger Pilot was active US military because the Tigers were replacing the Soviet Pilots before Pearl Harbor so they didn’t want to give Japan direct evidence of an act of war.

Has anyone read the book stalingrad by Michael Jones?

Sounds great.

@Redleg13A:

Or things to gripe about at least lol…sore backs and sore feet are timeless.

Or, in the case of enlisted men, griping about their NCOs.  In the 1943 movie Sahara, Humphrey Bogart plays a tough, no-nonsense (and occasionally sarcastic) US Army sergeant who’s in command of an American tank in North Africa.  Early in the movie, while proceeding alone across the desert following a hard-fought action, Bogie’s tank picks up an assorted handful of Allied soldiers from a bombed British field hospital: an Englishman, a South African, a British Sudanese, a Free Frenchman, and so forth.  A bit later, two of the enlisted men who are riding on the hull of the tank are having a shouted conversation (because of the noise of the tank engine), and if I recall correctly one of them grumbles, “Why is it that a sergeant is always the same no matter what army you’re in?”

I read the book about him. Very awesome story. Read the book, then watch the movie.  :-D

@rjpeters70:

Germany got a bastion of anti-communism in Spain who gave 40,000 “volunteers” in Barbarossa.  What more you want?

Taking Gibraltar from the British.

Not sure if I saw that one. Will look tomorrow. Tell me how far to look back.

@Adlertag:

@Captain:

The recreation of Poland as a state was welcomed by the people living there, and they fought pretty darned hard against the German occupation.

I dont want to be negative, and are just curious more than anything, butt since you are a history teacher from New Zealand, did the Maori’s fight hard against the British occupation, or did they welcome the brits as liberators ? And how about the Aborigins in Australia, or the Zulu’s in South Africa, or the Indians in North America, or the black slaves from Africa that was sailed on british ships to their new home in U$A’s cotton fields and mines. Did all this natives fight against British exploitement, or did they recognize the brits as great liberators ? As I said, just curious. And I wont pull the string and ask if the Polish was happy to be liberated by allies in 1945. My country too was liberated by the Red Army, so of course we all are very greatful to comrade Stalin, our belowed hero.

Ok?

What point are you trying to make here?

Race Relations in New Zealand, the Treaty of Waitangi, the Kingitangi movement, Musket Wars and New Zealand wars are very complex issues. Some Maori did fight against the Europeans, but NZ was never invaded as such. It was brought into the empire with a treaty that recognized the unique status of Maori as native peoples. There have been really bad moments in NZ’s history, but work is being done to redress some of the grievances the Tangita whenua have endured in an effort to restore things that were illegally seized from Iwi in NZ. Becuase the government here recognizes the Treaty of Waitangi, Maori goups (Iwi) have legal grounds to make claims against actions that went on.

NZ is not perfect, but i fail to see what this has to do with the invasion of Poland.

Comparing those other colonial incidents above to NZ history is misguided, comparing them to the invasion of Poland is just sad.