talking about the smell:
they brushed their teeth evereyday
showers were onboard, but usable only every 10 days, because they had not enough water which they gained from evaporation.
the disussion about the role of soldiers in world war 2 shows that its impossible to sort them by country and ideology. of course there were a lot of soldiers in the german army who were also Nazis. I donīt want to apologize anyones behavior, i can only tell you about my grandpa, who wanted to become forest ranger when he was young. it would have lasted 4 or 5 years or he could serve in the army for one year. he served and before his year was over, the second world war began. i guess, there were many whoose possibilities were raised only by serving in the army or even joining the Nazi party. These, for me, were poor pigs. Those who identified themselves with the Nazi party, their programm and their ideology, were barbarous men. Its a sad part of the german history. But it developed something good in the german population: we try to avoid wars as good as possible and we are very aware of the government. in so far, i think no one would be able to install a new dictatorship in germany, even not an official "elected" like an other big country has.
a government sending their people into a war, is ruthless and worthless.
i had a lot of discussions with a friend from britain about 9.11 and afghanistan. my education is to solve a problem political, find its sources to achieve a solution. for him, it was only possible to sent troops. long nights of discussions and we were unable to figure out whats right or wrong. finally iīm glad germany didnīt join, as everyhing is only a big "make-me-and-my-pals-rich-war" lead by some greedy governments.
in so far, van Clausewitz is not right any more....
as its said: "war is the terror of the rich, terror is the war of the poor" - wo donīt need either