Gunther Rall has passed

[Shuffler]

I'm confident that any surviving Allied airman would salute Rall, and he them... and technically England and France started the world war. Germany only started the war with Poland.

Spin it hard.

[TwinEng]

Spin it hard.

There was a controversial lecture last year at our local university all about how the United States also forced Japan to attack us.

We basically left them with no other alternative, according to the speaker.   We forced the war upon them.


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[Vulcan]

There was a controversial lecture last year at our local university all about how the United States also forced Japan to attack us.

We basically left them with no other alternative, according to the speaker.   We forced the war upon them.
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Thats a load of rubbish, Japan had been beating up SE Asia, China, and the Pacific well before they attacked the USA.

The USA responded to Japans aggression in the Pacific with trade sanctions, much the same as the UN does today. Japan responded by attacking the USA.

[007Rusty]

 

[Die Hard]

Germany attacked, invaded and occupied Poland on Sept 1, 1939.  France and Britain had a defensive pact with Poland and declared war on Germany on Sept 3, 1939.  Germany was aware of the pact and understood clearly that they were inviting war with Britain and France by invading Poland.  

Germany declared war against the United States on Dec 11, 1941.

The World War started when the British and French Empires, world-spanning at the time, declared war on Germany in response to the German invasion of Poland. Many countries were already at war before this date, such as Ethiopia and Italy in the Second Italo-Abyssinian War and Nationalist China and Japan in the Second Sino-Japanese War, Finland and the Soviet Union in the Winter War, and Germany and Poland. However the World War started when the French and British decided to get involved.

[MORAY37]

The embarrassment in this country is types who roll over and are afraid to hurt someones feelings with the truth. I love my country and my family. Any threat to either is therefore at risk.

From your past posts I put little into anything you say or do. While your free to your opinion... your opinion of me is of no consequence. Stay under your rock.

Somehow you have grown up de-humanizing everyone that doesn't think or feel like you.  Everyone of a different nationality.  Hey, probably color too....once you start, it's a slippery slope.

When your country calls you and you are in uniform, you go.  Do you think it's any different for Germans?  Or Albanians?  Or English?  It matters not what the war is about, or whose politics are involved.  When the bell rings you go.  

So, you can either salute the man for his service and honor his death, or shut up and ignore the thread.  Your precious opinion be damned, this is the wrong place for it.  The man put his rear end out on the line not for Adolf Hitler, but for his country.  I guess you think Americans did it for Roosevelt....not the United States.  What a preciously small world you live in.  All your talk of country, and yet others fought and died for individual ideals for their countries, and Americans fought and died for America.  How pitifully small of you.

And if you want to go into causal relations on who started WW2..... simply look back to WW1.  The armistice the Allies (English) put on Germany made it virtually assured they'd go to war again.

And Skuzzy... I'm sorry.  I know you're gonna bat this one......

[BlauK]

This thread was about honoring the memory of an exceptional WW2 LW pilot's and a NATO general's memory.

Could you, please, take your political discussion to some other thread! Is this how you behave also in all other situation where some respect and decency is asked for? "... BUT MY OPINION, MY OPINION, MY FREEDOM OF OPINION!!!!!!". Have the decency to stay out of the thread if you do not agree!

[BlauK]

Here is a Virtualpilots' article about Mr Rall's visit to Finland in 2003:

http://www.virtualpilots.fi/hist/WW2History-GuntherRallEnglish.html

[zack1234]

The axis powers were all misunderstood they were fighting for equality and freedom for everyone.

 

My grandfather was in the RAF he was not to keen on Germans or their friends.
Japan the less we say about that place the better, if you feel sorry for them tough.

Was Hitlers dad his uncle? ( enough said)

Great Britain is the best country in the world   

[Anodizer]

Screw all of ya...  Rall was a great man..  He was doing his duty like any other soldier..
Went on to help reestablish the Luftwaffe after the war....

Guys like Chuck Yeager and Bud Anderson befriended the guy after the war..  It says something of his character..
Some of you make it sound like he was on par with the likes of people who ran the gas-chambers and ovens or
some other kind of war crime..  Please.......Look at this from a realistic perspective, not the typical "us vs. them" dogma
that says you must villainize anyone who doesn't sing the Star Spangled Banner....    

  Herr Rall
  

[zack1234]

  yes

Stanford Tuck and Adolf Galland were good friends after the war.

Britain is still the best country in the world.

[EskimoJoe]

But what about all of the relatives of all of the hundreds of British, Russian, and American airmen that he shot down?

Just think of all of the sweethearts and wives he must have devastated, as well as all of the fatherless children he must have created.

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I won't go to your funeral when you get hit by a train.

Gunther Rall. 

2009 has been a bad year 

[zack1234]

2009 has flew by for some unknown reason, October already.

[Plawranc]

Born on march 10th

My birthday -80 years or so.

 
 

he rests in his home, the clouds 

[Angus]

I just got the news.
I was lucky enough to meet him at his home in September and am still compiling the audio file from that. It was brief, but quite much fun. The guy was amazingly fit, the only trouble seemed to be the hearing. The time schedule was somewhat tight (he had his grand-daughter for a visit) but still well worth it. We had a chat, some red wine, and then he gave me a lift back to town (Bad Reichenhall). He definately had not suffered a stroke then, - I'll ask my wife which date it was.
Salute to the old guy and my condolences to his family.