Historical Topics
Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 5:15 pm
Until playing this game, I had not fully appreciated just what happened at the Battle of the Bulge. But reading Wiki and other online stuff, I've learned some fascinating things. For example, it is interesting that the very title of the German offensive Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein (translated as Operation The Guard on the Rhine or Operation "Watch on the Rhine") is a reference to an evidently incredibly popular German patriotic song that originated in 1840 but remained very popular up through 1945.
To quote some of the stanzas of that song Die Wacht Am Rhein.
The other thing that I learned is the nature of the Volksgrenadier: basically organizations built out of the remnants of smashed armies and less than ideal recruits (young, wounded, old).
It is fascinating that a nation that was so severely strained by onslaught from multiple directions by multiple powerful enemies would conceive of a last-ditch offensive as an effort to achieve more favorable peace terms. Indeed, it seems Hitler had in mind a veritable reversal of German fortunes!?
It is just amazing to me the high state of nationalistic delusion at that point in time, and not merely in Germany. All the more paradoxical and sad when you consider how good of buddies France and Germany are today.
To quote some of the stanzas of that song Die Wacht Am Rhein.
Dear fatherland, put your mind at rest,
dear fatherland, put your mind at rest,
fast stands, and true, the Watch, the Watch at the Rhine!
Fast stands, and true, the Watch, the Watch at the Rhine!
Through hundreds of thousands it quickly twitches,
and everybody's eyes brightly flash;
the German, respectable[2], pious, and strong,
protects the sacred county border
He looks up to the meadows of heaven,
where ancient heroes glance down,
and swears with proud pugnacity:
You Rhine will remain German like my chest!
As long as a drop of blood still glows,
a fist still draws the dagger,
and one arm still holds the rifle,
no enemy will here enter your shore!
And even if my heart breaks in death,
You'll never ever become foreign territory.
As rich in water is your flood,
is Germany in heroes' blood.
The other thing that I learned is the nature of the Volksgrenadier: basically organizations built out of the remnants of smashed armies and less than ideal recruits (young, wounded, old).
It is fascinating that a nation that was so severely strained by onslaught from multiple directions by multiple powerful enemies would conceive of a last-ditch offensive as an effort to achieve more favorable peace terms. Indeed, it seems Hitler had in mind a veritable reversal of German fortunes!?
It is just amazing to me the high state of nationalistic delusion at that point in time, and not merely in Germany. All the more paradoxical and sad when you consider how good of buddies France and Germany are today.