Re: [WW] Story Mode

[PEGShane@aol.com]

In a message dated 8/17/2001 10:11:40 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
reuter@tse-online.de writes:

Here's another good one from "Panzer Commander," By Colonel Hans Von Luck. 
While out on a recon, the RAF caught Von Luck and his column without any air 
protection. Most of the Germans abandoned their vehicles and laid low in the 
desert, but a few stayed inside. The British pilot dropped down low and waved 
these men out before their vehicles.

In the same chapter, he talks about "lost patrols," and how he and the 
British would radio each other to see if they had taken any prisoners that 
day. The talks were always very cordial and pleasant.

Contrast that with the German treatment of Russians (uber-mensch). It reminds 
me very much of the way the Japanese conducted the war. Those they felt were 
equals were given some measure of respect (to a point--those who surrendered 
were rarely treated well), while they committed the most unspeakable 
atrocities on the Chinese, Phillipinos, and others without any pretense to 
good treatment.

To me, the war illustrates the racist and class anxieties of certain nations 
to their most extreme degree.

(And to save some of you some typing, yes, the Americans were bigoted towards 
blacks and put Japanese in internment camps, but they didn't torture, kill, 
or butcher them. Read the "Rape of Nanking" if you want to know what true 
racism/classism is. This to me, is one of the hardest things about writing 
Weird Wars. I can't responsibly write a WWII game and not condemn these acts, 
yet in the new world of today, I don't want to offend those friends/customers 
whose grandparents might have taken part in these heinous acts. I leave it to 
you to decide if we're doing a good job in this regard.)

Shane
 
> Northern Africa seems to be a good source of stories. One on
> www.afrikakorps.de tells of an incident, where a German assault force
> pretty much destroyed a British convoy. When they came close to mop
> up, they found only the British tending to their wounded. In pity they
> pitched in and helped out until suddenly another British force
> arrived. The British in turn, instead of taking the Germans prisoners
> just saluted when those guys left.
>
> So each went apart, to shoot each other at a later time.
>
> The moral of the story: Even in a gruesome war there are some stories
> that tell of humanity still being alive...
>
>
> Mit freundlichen Gruessen,
>
> Arne Reuter