[Graf Paper]

Although Russia was nominally considered part of the Allied forces, both Churchill and Roosevelt privately considered Stalin as a "necessary evil" for winning the war.

I suppose the old Arab saying that goes, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend.", was what governed this decision but Russia was never trusted by the Allies and this was proven out by Stalin's conquest of Eastern Europe.

Stalin was a butcher that made Hitler look like Mary Poppins. He killed far more of his own people in the Purges than the entire Nazi regime ever managed with all their concentration camps. Being labeled as "disloyal" during the reign of Stalin was especially hazardous to your health and Beria's NKVD was more than happy to send men knocking on the doors of these "traitors". Entire families would simply disappear in the night, never to be seen again.

The only difference between a Nazi and Soviet Communist is mere semantics.

Russia had already made itself an enemy of Britain and the United States. The only thing that prevented WWII from continuing, with Russia as the new Axis, was the simple fact that all parties concerned were just too worn out and depleted from whipping Germany, not to mention the fact that Japan still remained to be defeated.

On the whole, Axis POWs were treated far better than their Allied counterparts, especially in the Pacific theater.

As for the machine gunning of u-boat crews, there was only one reported incident of a British commander ordering that surrendering u-bootsmen be fired upon and killed. Again, this was in violation of the law and not an act that was endorsed by the Crown as a standing order.

I suppose he felt he was getting payback for the civilians and fellow sailors that had been sunk by u-boats. The bloodlust of revenge is an overwhelming force for even the most sane man, in an insane time, to resist.

Men from both sides did shameful things but what seperated most of us from the Nazis and Imperial Japan is we did not endorse these things as a people or as a nation.

Uncle Goose, I can perfectly understand why you'd think being critical of the "good guys" would label you as being sympathetic to the Nazis.

Just try to remember that not everyone is so blindly patriotic they will lable anyone a "Nazi" for pointing out a very real fact of war... There is no such thing as innocence for anyone who has spilled another's blood.