http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/3354964/Pickering-murder-suspect-has-Nazi-past

Could make a few other tiny steps about the lives being lead that culminated in these horrific crimes, but I'll wait untill after the trial.

Memories of The Holocaust

"Don't be frightened,
Welcome to
BRIGHTON"

Apparently the skinheads have been rolling the pensioners on the way home from the Essy (Esplanade Tavern -as in lets get messy at the Essy) for their wallets.

And so…

as if there was only two possible outcomes, a thriving Weimar Republic or its overthrow by Nazism.

yeah, I agree Chris. Whilst something was going to blow or come to a head in the 1930s, given all that went before and the powerful strands in German political extremism post Bismark,…

So…

I have some difficulty erasing the image of you guys all gathered around your map with little toy soldiers and whatnot

Perhaps guilty as charged (and I did like an Airfix or two when I was much, much younger). But I do like to know, to state it in it's…

It's a readable, historiographically up-to-date chronicle of…

And with a subject as laden with appalling human suffering as WW2, it's hard sometimes not to shy away into details in refuge from the horror of it all.

Indeed — but also the details matter, because the Nazis didn't only destroy millions of lives and reduce so much of…

the study of history has become and end in itself, rather than a possible path to understanding.

And there has also been some quite fascinating discussion of abstract concepts, for example Simon's arguments that the seeds of fascism are present in every society and every individual, and must be guarded…

LOL, come on Joe, this entire thread was a Godwin right from the start. So people can indulge their desire to say everything they ever thought about WW2 and the Nazis.

Right you are Ben, and I'll fess up to having been a touch beady-eyed during the course of things.…

But I hear you on the fixation on details. Personally, I had to deal with an actual German who…

I have some difficulty erasing the image of you guys all gathered around your map with little toy soldiers and whatnot

Yeah. There's a rather droning sense of ownership, as if the study of history has become and end in itself, rather than a possible path to understanding. And it…

Although 'Axis and Allies' would probably be more appropriate for this thread.....

I have some difficulty erasing the image of you guys all gathered around your map with little toy soldiers and whatnot

Oi, whatever anyone says, Risk is a perfectly acceptable game for consenting adults.

And isn't Platoon also shown in official defence circles too?

Not, presumably, when conducting joint exercises with the Singaporean military. The last I heard it was banned there. Overly sympathetic portrayal of communists. Doesn't take much to get the thumbs down in the real nanny state. They once banned __The…

Saving Private Ryan is used to teach the rules of engagement in our NZDF.

And isn't Platoon also shown in official defence circles too?

the overwhelming bulk of that nation believes that Gallipoli was a substantial ANZAC victory

Since the Turks, Brits and French *must* have been on the other side, and since as Craig points out more of them got killed, then surely "we" did win?

From an old Aussie beer ad:

They…

Enough racism, anti-semitism, racketeering, profiteering, service-dodging to knock the shine off more than a few halos.

Simon, have you read his Pegasus Bridge book?

No, but to be fair, it would've been very difficult to have covered this pivotal battle without giving the correct credit to the non-GIs who pulled it off. I've yet to read a D-Day history that doesn't mark Major Howard's attack & defence…

Band of Brothers is used to teach the rules of engagement in our NZDF.

Oh, I hope you're going to update via the far superior Generation Kill at the first available opportunity.

Band of Brothers

Well, I wasn't relying on it as my primary source, just using it to illustrate a point.

Yeah, got that. It was the Band of Bs quote that triggered the truck thing with me.

Perhaps yes, but his D-Day book was an abomination and was only one step away from some Hollywood 'how we won the war' epic. I know he's harsh on the US military at times but he virtually ignores everyone else or is very token in his tribute.

Simon, have you…

Ahem, it was actually the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan who first popularised that very useful aphorism. Sorry for being pedantic :)

I'm sure you're right, Matthew — and someone else said before Danny. :)

Perhaps yes, but his D-Day book was an abomination and was only one step away from…

Band of Brothers

Well, I wasn't relying on it as my primary source, just using it to illustrate a point.

Antony Beevor, among others, is quite clear that in the Russian campaign, for example, the vast majority of the infantry were on foot, and a large proportion of the necessary…

. . . while Germany may have had the trucks, they didn't deploy them effectively.

You too, Rich:)

If they deployed them much like Band of Brothers deployed meaningful historical insight, no wonder they lost. Give me Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance With Death any day.

Typical loud-mouthed ignorant c*cks*cker.

I love you, too, Joe.

But my point was that while Germany may have had the trucks, they didn't deploy them effectively.

. . . Ford was bigger than Hitler or Stalin

In Huxley's Brave New World he's god. Over in the Windows 7 thread I think I spotted someone making similar claims for Bill Gates – single-handedly raising Africa from the primeval slime and all.

Ford was bigger than Hitler or Stalin, I never thought of that.

. . . but I take it the Fords & Holdens would have had slaves too?

Um, not exactly, though there are those who've voluntarily enslaved themselves to the cult of Holden. The wiki GM history page explains the strange mix of separation and complicity rather well.

As for old Henry,…

Nobody tell him about IBM and Bayer, or he'll be left computerless and sick.

or Leica, Agfa, BASF and Nivea...

Give the Russians some credit. It wasn't totalitarianism or Stalins evil ruthlessness.

Umm...nobody has taken any credit away from the Soviet Army, but the fact that you have to charge or be shot, or that every tenth member of your platoon is shot if you falter and so on, adds…

All this time I've avoided BMWs & Mercs because of the slave labour, but I take it the Fords & Holdens would have had slaves too?

Nobody tell him about IBM and Bayer, or he'll be left computerless and sick.

All this time I've avoided BMWs & Mercs because of the slave labour, but I take it the Fords & Holdens would have had slaves too?

Rich has at least highlighted how blitzkreig was an excercise in propoganda and not a cohesive…

A little harsh on Stephen Ambrose.

Perhaps yes, but his D-Day book was an abomination and was only one step away from some Hollywood 'how we won the war' epic. I know he's harsh on the US military at times but he virtually ignores everyone else or is very token…

the American troops on the Western front relied on massive firepower but were stymied by an ongoing unwillingness to physically confront the enemy closer than that (Stephen Ambrose's jingo-istic re-writings aside)

A little harsh on Stephen Ambrose. He's written several other excellent texts apart from 'band of brothers'. If I…

He was very much part of the Whermacht, and not the Nazi party.

The High Command was largely tamed after the 1938 scandal & clean out. One of the major criticisms of the military under Hitler was that they were not only subservient to but pro-active in the worst excesses of…

(Sorry. But pedantry is fun for all the family.)

Perhaps a distinction could be made between the state and the military.

Perhaps. I think the answer is both yes and no.

I read somewhere recently (can't remember reference) that one of the core principles of Nazism as applied in practice was that there should always be some internal conflict…

this sensational blogpost concerning the BBC appearence of mr. Griffin.

this sensational blogpost

There's still a reason for political correctness IMHO and…

Sorry for being pedantic :)

Go right ahead, Tom Stoppard is a fraud and it must be regularly acknowledged.

Much Daily Mail goodness in this sensational blogpost concerning the BBC appearence of mr. Griffin.

(Concerning which, K-Punk in top form also).

Here's something Finaly might care to think about, courtesy of Tom Stoppard: "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, nobody is entitled to their own facts."

Ahem, it was actually the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan who first popularised that very useful aphorism. Sorry for being pedantic :)

But I agree…

Are you saying Mr McDonald lives an equine lifestyle? :)

Hey, baby, I'm not going there. :) But I really doubt MacDonald would be quite so laid back about the "muckraking of a reactionary media trout" if she was using the tragic death of one of his children to do…

Moir and fellow hackettes apparently believe there's this thing called 'the gay lifestyle' that involves scandalous swinging from chandeliers and fatal orgies. And any facts will be bent to fit that story.

What do you think of Finlay MacDonald's opinion piece on the Museum Nazi prank?

I kind of agree with him — if I'd had anything to do with it, I'd have politely suggested that AGS would no longer be welcome at the Museum until they've got the whole proper supervision…

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2998598/Far-right-leader-Kyle-Chapman-returns

I really though his life was f&@ked up enough that he'ld leave this behind. I was wrong.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2998740/Blogger-takes-on-insurance-firm

I didn't know of his depression but it all makes sense now and I for one say his cheese still ain't on that cracker just yet.

Me, I just wonder what happens to people when they start to write columns for the SST.

He may have been a good editor, but it's not exactly as if McDonald's editorials for the Listener were any more substantial than this.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/opinion/2997856/Save-outrage-for-times-that-really-warrant-it

What do you think of Finlay MacDonald's opinion piece on the Museum Nazi prank?

Me, I just wonder what happens to people when they start…

My point is that Nazi Germany was not an effective military power.

Perhaps a distinction could be made between the state and the military.

Rommell was vastly superior in Africa than anyone on either side from a purely military angle. His loss there wasn't due to not being very effective,…

Nazi industrial misallocation, Allied industrial superiority, Allied planning superiority based on the habits and forms of democracy.

And myself, and others here, have already dealt with much of that.

it was luck' is pretty damn simplistic.

and taking 3 words out of about 3000 isn't?

About that s92.. :)

word.....

I have suggested causal factors that resulted in Britain and the Allies winning the war: Nazi industrial misallocation, Allied industrial superiority, Allied planning superiority based on the habits and…

I mean, suppose Britain folds in '40; so what? Britain didn't fold in '40. Britain kept fighting. That's what happened.

And there I was thinking that the study of our history was a little more complex, little more multi-layered, than "That's what happened" 'cos we were better. But there you…

Keir's point seemed to me to be that the Allies won because of some sort of national & regime superiority over the clusterfuck that was the Nazi leadership and philosophy.

My point is that Nazi Germany was not an effective military power. The reason I think this is because it lost…

To say Nazism was not a Regime defies all logic.

And yet I didn't say exactly that, if you read further, of course it was. But the idea that the "Nazi Regime" existed as just that...a boxed in parameter which existed from 1933-45 is utter nonsense. It was the culmination…

I'm with Keir, I think the idea that if it weren't for Churchill the Nazis would have won the war is far too simplistic. At the most…

To say Nazism was not a Regime defies all logic.

Had more to say but not sure it would help if we can't agree on this fundamental truth.

Less theoretically, Churchill did not exist in a vacuum; there were other politicians who shared his…

An early example of the all Hitler's fault trope.
Everything's ducky until the little moustachioed creep pokes his oar in.

troll farming

Ae. That's what I meant.

Well, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery..

So is shameless hypocrisy, it seems. As I've said many times before, both The Standard and Kiwiblog would rise significantly in my estimation if they retracted the index finger of righteous indignation and got serious about their own troll farming.

A quick squizz through British politicians of the day pretty quickly demolishes the idea that there was any other alternative to Churchill if Britain was going to hang in there.

But Churchill was there, and that was that. (And in fact of course there were alternatives, this kind of great-man…

a regime that fought one war and lost,

But much of the point of this thread is that it's a huge mistake, and very dangerous, to box Nazism in like that. It was not "a regime", it was the culmination of a century of all sorts of things. It didn't…

. . . one should never underestimate just how horrendously efficient the Nazi machine could be when it set its mind to it.

True. While the U.S. designed everything from locomotives to prefabricated buildings to be operated and assembled by a semi-skilled workforce in response to wartime conditions, the "Nazi…

for all the sneering at DPF that goes on in that quarter

Well, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery..

I stopped smoking because Marlboro were secretly backed by the KKK (that's true, right?) and now this ...

Nivea (Beiersdorf) was a company stripped from it's Jewish owners in 1938..they were sent East to resettle, and it was never returned. I repeatedly ask my wife not to use it.

As for Fanta, the ersatz orange drink developed by Coca-Cola's nationalised subsidy

Fanta's a Nazi drink? I stopped smoking because Marlboro were secretly backed by the KKK (that's true, right?) and now this ...

. Distaste for them and their activities didn't stop the rest of the world adopting many of their scientific and warfare advances.

Given Germany's population, and level of industrialisation at the time of Hitler's coming to power, is the technical legacy of the Third Reich really exceptional? As Craig correctly…

I fail to see how 'admiring' or in some other way thinking that some things that the Nazis did were good, is necessarily wrong.

Well, up to a point. I just find it rather hard to separate that when the Nazis were expanding the Autobahn system (which created jobs and…

I shouldn't have a problem with admiring Genghis Khan or Subotai as technically brilliant generals, without any particular feeling for…

If they hadn't been nazis, would they have been better athletes?

I suspect the Nazis probably provided more resources and time for them to become better athletes, than would have happened under a different German government, the Nazis being big on that sort of stuff.

I fail to see how…

Simon, I presume that you're familiar with Robert Harris's Fatherland. While I don't claim any expertise, the hypothetical sanitised postwar Nazi state he portrayed gave me the impression that he'd been down this particular path in some detail. What do you think?

The question that remains unanswered happily, is how…

To win those medals, the sporting ability of those athletes would unquestionably have had to be first-rate.

However, most, if not all, of those athletes would have also been ideologically committed Nazi's.

Do you not think…

Not unlike other states one could name, however.

Indeed, but this is one thread we've managed to keep the Candyman out of, so lets not push it....

It needed continuous conflict.

Not unlike other states one could name, however.

What do you think?

I thought of that book when I looked at these images.

The question that remains unanswered happily, is how the Nazi state would have existed if it had won and I'm not sure if that bland state was possible for any extended time. It needed continuous…

Standardistas similarly unamused at the distraction. Some whipping in order?

Sigh... for all the sneering at DPF that goes on in that quarter, there's something awfully familiar about the basically sensible initial post degenerating into wingnut butter in no time flat.

However, lets all talk about Chris Carter, if it saves you having to defend privatising ACC.

Standardistas similarly unamused at the distraction. Some whipping in order?

I should like to point out no has mentioned the big N word just yet in relation to ACC

That's because it's not.

If you're going to give it an emotional label, call it Thatcherite.

And anyway, we…

Because the right is totally above that sort of thing.

Sadly, Tom, not at all. And considering the amount of grief I've gotten from the usual suspects defending Helen Clark against thoroughly fuck-tarded Stalin and Mugabe comparisons you're not only trying to de-rail the thread but well out of order.…

And just for Friday morning fun, Chris Carter's terminal case of both feet in mouth disease takes a turn for the worse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E3Vizb1i4g&feature=player_embedded

Because the right is totally above that sort of thing.

However, lets all talk about Chris Carter, if it saves you having to defend privatising ACC.

The bright side is that Carter's post — and inept attempt to hide the evidence — is too LOL-somely dumb to really be offensive.

And yet, watch me be offended.

Plus I wouldn't underestimate the fact that another fascist, Franco, got to die in his bed. These forces don't just implode and defeat themselves.

Franco and Suharto, like many other tin-pot dictators, were Cold War allies of the West, so their atrocities were wilfully overlooked in the fight against Soviet…

BTW, finding this thread very informative.

'State slave labour' is closer to the truth. Mostly those who fought on the republican side in the civil war.

Franco's post-war purges were not on the same scale as Stalin's but were extremely vicious…

The bright side is that Carter's post — and inept attempt to hide the evidence — is too LOL-somely dumb to really be offensive.

I wouldn't underestimate the fact that another fascist, Franco, got to die in his bed. These forces don't just implode and defeat themselves.t

Another example of state slave labour, carried out in peacetime, and sanctified by the supposedly liberal Pope John XXIII.

After all, one of the victors of that war was the equally odious Stalin.

Plus I wouldn't underestimate the fact that another fascist, Franco, got to die in his bed. These forces don't just implode and defeat themselves.

I'm utterly confused by your 'series of foreseeable decisions made by an exceptionally transparent British leadership' line. Most of the battles as to whether to concede in the UK were made behind closed doors and were anything but transparent. The…

Elsewhere, I came this close to agreeing with John Minto, until he had a massive attack of poo in mouth disease:

Yes, thank you. I was going to comment on it earlier today but I lacked the fortitude.

What a piece of shit.

There’s no doubt what they did was silly, stupid and insensitive but that’s all it was. They weren’t expressing support for fascism or intentionally mocking the suffering of so…

Let's face it, if global warming is real, then it is GOING to happen. Like it or not, nothing on this earth…

But at least they are alive to talk about it sixty years later. Should we feel sorry for them? I prefer to feel sorry for the 25 million dead, innocent and defenceless most of them, victims of their aggresssion in the East.

I don't think it's an us or them…

Cultural essentialism doesn't get us too far down the path to tollerance & understanding.

Seven Crosses is a fave movie for the…

A screening of Night and Fog was briefly part of the programme but they ran out of time.

And it's only 30 mins long. Good thing they didn't schedule Shoah.

I suspect flag-kissing and goose-stepping would die out pretty damn quickly.

The Lincoln students came up to Wellington last week (on their own dime) and visited the holocaust museum, were talked to by some people. A screening of Night and Fog was briefly part of the programme but they ran…

If that doesn't work, hit them with the astounding Come and See about the brutal German invasion of…

Joe – I've no doubt you meant "Horrible as the Pinochet
regime was ...", sorry not spotted inside 15 mins.

Thanks Chris (embarassment emoticon).

And rather than clarifying your point, you undermined it by trivialising the deaths and suffering of millions of people.

I'm sorry if you read my comments in that light, and it was certainly not my intention to offend anyone.

But I also think you're reading into my words a meaning…

please reflect.

I will if you refrain from the patronising BS

Yeh well, sorry ScottY about the tone, and it may have blinded you to what I wrote, but I was only struggling to be succinct. I'm asking you to reflect not on the point you have repeated (it was clear…

I thought I was the only one who still made Yakov Smirnoff jokes.

If you make a Yakov Smirnoff joke about Yakov Smirnoff jokes (in Soviet Russia, Yakov Smirnoff joke make YOU!), does that cause some sort of rift or wormhole in the humourverse?

Perhaps a sidesplit....?
.
.
.…

In our rush to (rightly) vilify the Nazis we should never forget that. But mostly we have, and that is what scares the fuck out of me.

And with that, I think the thread has come full circle.

If I follow your gist, the threat is always there.

yes, you do, Joe. The most horrifying thing about totalitarianism is not how much of a social mutation it represents but it's roots in normalcy.

For all the evils of Fascism, National Socialism and such, most of its adherents and…

Allende's suicide and the other 9/11 (1973) another country the USA has "tinkered" in
no conspiracy there then...

Involvement – amply demonstrated by magistrates – in a number of bombings and subversive enterprises on Italian soil since at least 1969.

Which reminds me to urge those who live in the…

The point is that Nazi Germany was a world historical failure, and the `look at the German talent' misses the obvious fact they got royally owned, and that Nazism just didn't work.

which I think rather misses the point that it almost did work. It was a very close thing…

(Or, as Alex Harrowell puts it on the subject of Prussian military virtue, what do we call Prussia…

please reflect.

I will if you refrain from the patronising BS.

The point I was making is really not such a controversial one. And you seem to have misunderstood the point.

Something can be morally wrong while still being impressive from a technical perspective. Take the Nazi Blitzkrieg tactics. They…

the infamous Auschwitz arm tattoo began as an IBM number

see Edwin Black's Final Solutions in which he reveals that "During the Holocaust, IBM's New York headquarters and CEO Thomas J. Watson…

ScottY – Joe was trying to indicate how insensitive your sporting analogy was, but you dug in deeper. So, decent chap that he is, he generalised to the vulnerability of…

What a devastating piece.

It's amazing isn't it. As good a piece of performance (the technical skill to make such good art out of sand and a light box) mixed with expression of a topic as I've ever seen.

I understand it was an entry on "Ukraine's got talent" or…

Holy crap. That is amazing.

What a devastating piece.

This might be an appropriate thread to place this link.

Holy crap. That is amazing.

It is possible to admire someone's technical proficiency without admiring the person or what they stand for.

I think admiration is very much the wrong word but if you walk away from the scope of what was achieved, and the way it was achieved, you walk away from the very…

John Ralston Saul is also a philosopher, not a military historian.

He writes quite a lot of military history in all of his philosophical works. So I dispute this claim. OK, he's not exclusively a military historian.

His point regarding the Blitzkrieg is that the military will for it required…

If it came to light that the Australian cricket establishment had been methodically slaughtering aboriginal people and selling their organs to fund their operation perhaps your admiration might be a little tempered.

But I could still admire a good cover drive even if the person making the shot was a…

When you pay a little attention to just what it was that underlay Nazi Germany's economic performance, things don't appear quite so miraculous.

But blaming it all on Nazi Germany rather than stepping back and working out why scares the fuck out of me. The use of Slave Labour to…

something that was glossed over until the opening of Soviet archives in the 1990's led to a re-assessment of the Eastern front.

And we are, from this distance, able to reassess so much common wisdom about the Second World War, and the years leading up to it, not only from…

It's like watching the Australian cricketers. I can admire the way Ricky Ponting carves up our bowling attack almost every time we play Australia. But I'd sooner die than support the Aussie team.

If it came to light that the Australian cricket establishment had been methodically slaughtering aboriginal people and…

And from a military perspective the German tactics in WWII were truly impressive – in that they smashed their enemies to bits in ways that had not before been dreamed of.

John Ralston Saul suggested that Hitler was the driving force behind the use of tanks to smash through, instead…

I for one think that the Nazis were appalling people, and that those who escaped…

Haven't you ever heard of an evil genius?

Sure, their natural habitat is comic books and fantasy-themed movies. In real life the word genius is rather devalued through overuse. From what I've read of Speer he was talented and probably ambitious, but it strikes me as a little extravagant to…

I'd hope so, though I'm a little dismayed at his use of expressions such as "Speer's genius" and "economic miracle". The tawdry reality behind these political myths is that they were fuelled by industrialised ideologically-sanctioned theft and murder.

Haven't you ever heard of an evil genius?

I doubt Simon is making excuses for Hitler – he's more pointing out that we tend to focus far more on him and his purported amazing skills than on the much bigger picture of how Nazi Germany operated.

I'd hope so, though I'm a little dismayed at his use of…

The GDP of Germany rose under the bombing, so the impact on industry, which was mostly dispersed and/oe underground by 1944, from bombing, was negligible.

The German GDP rose about 11% over 1939 – 1944. USA GDP increased by about 50% over the same period. UK 20%. There's no way…

It's as if statistics were the final arbiter of history

In large scale coalition warfare between powerful industrialised states everyone and everything is a statistic.

The Americans could afford to lose 10% of their big four engined bombers (when the average tour for a bomber crew was 30 missions -…

While I doubt that's how it's intended

So do I. I doubt Simon is making excuses for Hitler – he's more pointing out that we tend to focus far more on him and his purported amazing skills than on the much bigger picture of how Nazi Germany operated.

I recall…

You've followed up with the old excuse that Hitler never knew.

While I doubt that's how it's intended, the very sinister implication is certainly there. Simon and Tom's analyses are a little bloodless (no twisted pun intended) for me. It's as if statistics were the final arbiter of history, and…

You've followed up with the old excuse that Hitler never knew.

And so the Hitler Cult contiunues...

but any history of German production is full of the delays and disruptions brought about by the need to repair, disperse and hide their industry.

As far as the Luftwaffe went, lack of production was never an issue. They produced more aircraft after the bombing began to hit in earnest,…

But anyway, I have little time for Douglas Bader.

Those old flying aces did tend to become raving reactionaries in their dotage. Bader's outspoken support for Rhodesia's Ian Smith was pretty on the nose, though not as risible as the barking Eddie Rickenbacker, who advocated using nuclear weapons against the…

The Allied bombers may not have achieved very much as a strategic force

I stopped debating area bombing years ago, but I believe the strategic bomber offensive was a HUGE contributor to Germanys defeat. The Soviets like to dismiss its impact, but any history of German production is full of…

1) the opportunity to make the triple pun was irresistable.

2) the discussion was purely focussed on his combat flying abilities, not his idiotic big-wing style strategic thinking.

You'll get no disagreement from me that the treatment of…

As a statement of intent, it is hard to beat that.

And it's light years ahead of the noxious mix of evil and buffoonery that was Bomber Harris. The Allied bombers may not have achieved very much as a strategic force but the waves of P-51s decimated the experienced pilot…

But anyway, I have little time for Douglas Bader. He lost his…

... colour me guilty in this respect, as I can only just remember seeing the USSR on globes at school and being told by teachers "um, well…

In Soviet Russia, student examine YOU!

Awww, Rich, dorky high five! I thought I was the only one who still made Yakov Smirnoff jokes.

But this:

During a dog fight in August 1943, he downed three German FW-190 fighters.

is impressive.

Surviving Soviet wartime military medical care is also pretty damn impressive, as is downing the FW-190, arguably the finest piston driven fighter aircraft of all time, let alone three in a one fight…

Wazzir in Cairo isn't a million miles away from Castle St in Dunners after the Undie 500.

Who knows about the Surafend massacre…

Don't forget Maresyev's PhD! Those aren't easy to get.

I think the examination could have been slightly less strenuous for a war hero and high up in the communist party.

Searching questions as part of the examination process might have been hazardous for the health of the examiner.

Not completely

Interesting. I'd never heard of him before. Cheers.

Still think Bader takes it, though, albeit on the nod. He had one leg amputed above the knee, and according to that wiki article, Maresyev had both off below the knee.

Retaining an original articulating joint (knee or elbow) is…

Minqar Qaim
Samoa
Aliens
Arrest & Detention without trial – Land Wars & War of Terror

I think that's a more or less unbeatable trump card.

Not completely

Douglas Bader had no legs. And yet still managed to kick arse in the battle of britain as a fighter pilot.

Also, he (possibly apocryphally) gave the prizegiving speech at a posh girls school in England, which included the following exchange:

__Bader: So we had four of the fuckers on…

I got to hear the 'other side' of accounts of Allied war heroes (Bader included), mostly focusing on how lame they were compared to the German ones.

Douglas…