Which I suppose takes us back to the initial point that fascism was defeated
by an allied effort. One should not be surprised that Hollywood concentrates
on the American role in WWII as did Sergeant Ryan - which I unlike Simon
Thurley found acceptable. But many people in Europe (whose families suffered
and lost relatives) do find it offensive that Hollywood is increasingly
rewriting it as if American won WWII on its own- grateful as most sensible
Europeans including myself still are for US help. Nevertheless, I refused to
go and see both the film U571 (or whatever the number was) which had the US
navy nicking an Enigma machine off a German sub or the film Enigma (which I
think was British). The latter because of the bad deal the Poles got- they
stole the first Enigma machine and did some vital maths towards solving the
code which was not mentioned while a Pole was portrayed as a traitor
(entirely fictiously). A German civil servant working for the the French
secret service also helped the code cracking by providing key German
documents. As for a good realistic sub film, the German Das Boot is among
the
best.

paul



----- Original Message -----
From: "Alasdair Brooks" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 04, 2004 1:03 AM
Subject: Re: HISTARCH Digest - 1 Aug 2004 to 2 Aug 2004 (#2004-197)


> Paul Courtney wrote:
>
> > As we are allowed to discuss WWII- I have heard Russians
> say in TV
> > interviews say they weren't too keen on receiving the
> Shermans as part of
> > the arms shipments.
>
> While Ron May wrote:
> > Ian,
> >
> > More than paid for all those Russian arms, we also shipped
> hundreds of
> > tons of material to Russia. A late friend's husband was in
> the merchant
> > marine and got a medal from Russia for surviving the
> Murmansk Run, in which
> > a great many American ships were sunk by Nazi u-boats.
>
> Without for a second meaning to downplay the important
> contribution of the United States towards supplying the
> Soviet Union (and Britain, for that matter) during WWII,
> it's worth noting that Britain was also heavily involved in
> the Arctic convoy system, both in terms of shipping and
> supplies.  Churchill's war memoirs feature some typically
> pungent comments about Stalin's apparent underappreciation
> of Britain's efforts and losses in the Arctic convoys.
>
>       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Dr.  Alasdair Brooks
> Material Culture Specialist / Lab Archaeologist
> SHA  Newsletter Current Research Editor for Australia/NZ
>  1/62 Gooch Street
> Thornbury, Vic  3071
> Australia
>  03 9416 8484
> 0429 198  532
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~