Re: German ranks
Hi
I found some interesting stuff on the SS in this book, "World War II" by Orbis publishing.
As we are all aware the origional task of the SS was to administer state terror as directed by Hitler. This was done through the concentration camps. The SS was a stand alone and very powerful organisation in itself, as testified to by the fact that when manpower ran out in Germany and the camp inmates were put to work in the economy, the SS insisted that the inmates had to be worked to death, rather than the idustrialists prefered option of keeping them alive.
The Waffen "field" SS or "fighting" SS brought some of this terror with them especially the TotenKopf, 1st and 2nd SS divisions which were composed from concentration camp gaurds and the Polizei Division formed from the SS police force. All men no doubt used to brutality. Das Reich and Viking divisions were largely recruited from German volunteers. There were also SS divisions composed of volunteers from scandinavia and Holland etc. Men from the foreign volunteer units could end up with the death sentence as traitors if captured. Their status remained "undefined" throughout the war. A cynic would say that the various SS atrocities served the purpose of making the SS fight all that much harder as they could expect a similarily brutal end if captured. And the SS does seem to be famous for fighting with fanatical tenacity.
Why do I mention this?
Maybe it would be reasonable to remove the SS units dice roll for surendering and assume they are "fighting to the death"?
The Japs are another story they believed that there emporer was divine and that they couldnt lose the war. And they werent keen on surrendering either! One example is Tarawa, of 4500 japanese a total of 17 soldiers and 129 Korean labourers were captured/surrendered. For many years after the war ended an occasional japanese soldier would turn up in the southern pacific still dutifully manning his station.
Again I would suggest that the Japs arent subject to a dice roll for surrender.
A lot of people would say that WW2 was really fought and won by Russia on the eastern front. Russia had something like 20000000 men killed.
Best regards Chuck
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