The USGI of WW II felt the Arabs were despicable, liars, thieves, dirty, awful, without redeeming feature.

The Italians were liars, thieves, dirty, wonderful, with many redeeming features, but never trusted.

The rural French were sullen, slow, and ungrateful while the Parisians were rapacious, cunning, indiffernet to whether they were cheating Germans or Americans.

The British were brave , resourcefull, quaint, reserved, dull.

The Dutch were regarded simply as wonderful in every way. The most appreciative with the best underground network of the war. Cellars stocked with food and supplies hidden from the Germans.

But the average GI found that the people he liked best, identified with most closely, and enjoyed being with were the Germans. Clean, hard working, disciplined, educated, middle class in their tastes and lifestyles (many noted the Germans were the only people in the world who regarded a flush toilet and soft white toliet paper as a necessity of life like the Americans), the Germans seemed to many soldiers as "just like us."

The GIs noted that the Germans began picking up the rubble and filling in trenches immediately after a battle, and contrasted that with the French where nobody bothered to clean up the mess. And when billeted in the homes of Germans (which was quite often) they usually found hot and cold runing water, electric lights, a proper toilet and paper and coal for the fire.

And these were the views of the men of the 101st Airborne AFTER suffering through the Battle of the Bulge with a very determined and often brutal German army.

Good call.

I find it amazing how much actual history, as told by the people who were there, differs from what I learned in school.

Thank god Stephen Ambrose wrote these books and thank god Speilburg and Hanks produced the series.

Well, of course the Germans were 'just like us'!

Approximately 25% of all Americans can trace their heritage to Germany!

The only other nationality that beats Germans is British, at about 31%.

I am pleased that we have such ancestry!

Eric The(German/Anglo-Saxon)Hun[>]:)]

would that be the same "Clean, hard working, disciplined, educated" germans that just slaughtered 6 or 7 million innocent human beings and waylayed the world into its' second world war?

i hear they have some good beer, too.

i think the japanese were also described as "Clean, hard working, disciplined, educated".

Post from CAMPYBOB -

Yes, that would be one and the same!

They do, but they insist on drinking it at room temperature! Which is when I pitch my beer out!

Yep. They were/are indeed!

Well, their hands might not be too clean! There may be some blood on them, as well.

Eric The(Truthful)Hun[>]:)]

Alex you got it.

These were the opinions of the 101rst who suffered the seige of Bastogne. These were the guys who found out about the massacre at Malmady and saw first hand what the German army (and the previously mentioned brutal SS was more than capable of) and these are their expressed opinions of the Germans based upon all they had learned.

I don't think the average opinion of the pacific therater GIs would have been in any way comparable concerning the Japanese, especially after encountering the worst of them.

And while I am not going to try and denigrate them for it, we often conducted ourselves in pretty brutal ways towards the same German army in regards to shooting Germans who where attempting (or who already had) surrender and on a scale I had previously not believed possible. But this is what happens during war, when men are trying to kill you and have killed your buddies, it does not make you overly concerned about their welfare.

[b]Campybob, ask any Vet...[/b]

you mean...like my father? who did both the european theater and the pacific one?

of course, crossing the north atlantic and watching ships in your convoy that carried hundreds of souls slip under the waves after a u-boat attack has a tendancy to make one over look the cultural use of toilet paper.

edit:

kar, i will respectfully not include my father's opinion of both the german and the japanese people.

You know, Sir, that is incredibly strange!

I am an 11th generation [b]Teague[/b] in this country and the entire time that I was growing up, we all understood the 'Teagues' to have been from Ireland!

So did the Teague Family Association!

Then, just recently, it was conclusively learned that these Teagues came not from Ireland, but from [b]Cornwall[/b] in Southwestern England!

Hello, cousin! [:D]

[b]I am a Cornish Hun![/b]

Eric The(Corny,Maybe,Too)Hun[>]:)]