Fresh meat into the fray

[Turner]

FLG thanks for the quick and helpful reply.

HirooOnoda, my grandfather was not SS, I'm pretty sure he served as schützmannschaft in Estonia, when that tour was over he went to Finland together with his wife to volunteer for the Finnish Army. They slept in a barn together with a few hundred other refugees just outside of Helsinki. One night a bomb fell on the barn and half the barn with all the refugees in that end blew up, painting the snow black and red with burnt dismembered corpses. At that point his wife had enough of war and they went on to Sweden.
His brother was SS and considering the 20. SS Estnische freiw. Division was encircled by the Red Army at the end of the war, it has to be the 5. SS Div. Wiking. Most likely in the Estnisches SS-Freiwilligen-Panzer-Grenadier-Batallion Narwa. He escaped Soviet captivity altogether (I'm sure that had he been sent to the gulag again, he would not have survived) and with his wife, a nurse whom he met at a field hospital when he was wounded, came to live in Canada for the rest of his life. They never had any children.

The estonians fought for their homeland, most of the estonians hated the russians and particularly those who volunteered to serve. Since all estonian officers had been shot during the Soviet occupation, no military organization existed. The SS were keen on taking on these volunteers and the officer ranks were filled by Germans. We all know that from '43 onwards the germans were in dire need of replacements and volunteers.

Personally I don't hold any grudges over what happened. I mean what happened has happened, we have a future to work for. At the same time, it's unlikely that I'll play any games commanding the Red Army. I'm a believer in the rule of "two wrongs doesn't make one right". In the end, the "liberating" Red Army turned out to be as bad as the worst SS units. I can forgive, but I will never forget. It was very convenient to lay all the blame on the Germans after the war but there is more to the story than that. It's also a well known fact that it is the victor who writes the history.

This is my truth, you may not agree but I am always open to discuss. I've met several russians who served on the eastern front and have nothing but respect for them. They only did what was required of them. War is hell, the eastern front 1941-45 was the largest and ugliest war mankind has ever seen. Let us all hope it will stay that way.

Salute!