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That had also occurred to me. They say great minds think alike.

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I agree, they were all fighting for what they believed in. Maybe now might be the time to tell that story, if financial backing could be raised to make a proper job of it. Das Boot is a real classic &, although sub-titled, one of my favourite war films.

Ozzy likes Kellys Heros!!! Its one of my favorite films EVER!!!

Gotta love 3 shermans comming out of a railway tunnel with that music playing from the loud speaker! 

I need to watch it again sometime...

Oh and the Dambusters. Special effects nothing to fall out of your seat about but its the best casted movie ever. Every character looks like the real life person.

Indeed we shoud see more films from the axis perspective in WWII.  It is important to remember that it is the victor who writes the history and the vanquished who is portrayed as evil, stupid or both.  I honestly believe that the Nazi empire was one of the worst expressions of evil that the world has ever seen along side the USSR under uncle joe but the majority of the people living in these countries had no choice whatsoever but to try and live their lives within the frame work of these regiemes.

Let us not forget that the Nazi's took a weak Germany that was despised and penniless and in just six years turned her into the most powerful nation in the world.  If you give an un-employed man a job you give him pride in himself.  If you then return to him pride in his nation he will support you and if necessary fight and die for you.  This is what Hitler managed, it is no surprise really that the German nation stood behind him when he went to war.  Also we shouldn't forget that the Nazi propaganda machine was brilliant and that the secret police were ruthlessly effective.  I believe that a Battle of Britain film told from the German perspective would be brilliant, as would the fall of France in 1940.  Unfortunately we live in a politically correct world that says that a Nazi, or someone who by accident of birth fights for the Nazi's, cannot be portrayed heroically because this would encourage me to become a Nazi.

I watched a Film over Christmas with Kenneth Brannagh playing Heydrich, it was the top level meeting in which the destruction of the Jews was arranged (Wannasea?).  It was truely terrifying as the men involved were not portrayed as mindless idiots but as thinking intellectuals who were discussing what they perceived as a "problem" and the (final) solution to the problem.  This was much more effective than the usual portrayel of high level nazi's as idiots and left a very bad taste in my mouth.

A final point I would like to make is about the spectre of Communism that many of us grew up with.  I was taking my GCSE's in 1990 and therefore clearly remember the momentous events in the eastern bloc.

I was brought up during the eighties and was taught that Communism was evil, bad etc. etc. etc.  I recently worked with a staff nurse from Poland who had come over about a year before I spoke to her.  She is three years older than me and grew up under a communist government.  She cannot understand why we feel the way we do about communism.  To her it was normal, everyone had a job.  Everyone was a valued member of society.  Everyone had a house.  She was taught that capitalsm was bad and that democracy was hollow as whilst everyone has a vote at the best only just over half of the people have the government that they want at any given moment.  When the communist government fell in Poland there was instant huge unemployment and people started losing everything.

I have put this in very simplistic terms but what I am trying to say is that we are as much victims of propaganda as any other race/nation in history.

Will

Ps if I have offended anyone it is not intentional, I'm knackered and not typing straight.

Thanks for the correction Bjorn.  I find this period of history utterly fascinating but in this country if you express an interest in the Third Reich you are instantly viewed with suspicion.  A great German war film that I've seen was Stalingrad.  I love the way that German film makers do not think you have to have a happy ending for the film to be great.  Lets face it but the end of that film and that battle was pretty terrible.

Will

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I seem to remember seeing a film once about a german pilot who escaped from capture while on a POW train while travelling through Canada by jumping free and going to America... I'm sure it was a true story cause they said at the end that he was shot down and killed a couple of years later. It was black and white so fairly old and i didn't get the name but i'm sure someone here will know it.

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yeah,this was terrible. at the end of the war ,the nazi government even forced old men and teenagers (16 years and up) to carry weapons and fight the allies(ardennes offensive) or they had to operate AA-guns.
fortunately,my grandparents weren't involved...