It has definitely been mentioned here before but The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer is an absorbing read of the life of a German soldier on the Eastern Front.
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Read this on your recommendation. Miraculous how the chap survived. Savage and unflinching account of life on the Eastern Front. We have very little idea today of how little value was put on young conscripts lives by army officers only a couple of generations ago. Though we can see some evidence of it in Ukraine. Army officer training must have been savage at the time to dehumanise the officers so thoroughly. Sending a platoon of teenagers out over a minefield so that the tanks coming after them have a clear run.
Designed by an Italian fashionista
Doc and film about same soldier
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Excellent book, read it about 10 years ago I think. How many turns at the front did he have, three?
Three.
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Any link?
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It got even worse after. Listened to a podcast once about a book called ‘The Anti-Humans: Student Re-education in Romanian Prisons’ by Bacu Dumitru based on Soviet state backed Dehumanization in Romania after the war. Most fucked up shit I’ve ever heard, humanity at its most depraved
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I’m about to google it
Know definitely there’s a movie and book
Visited several nazi cemeteries in Romania
Also knew a Baptist now living in Derry who was sent to a Romanian reeducation jail
His crime- crossing the Danube and smuggling in bibles
The last line is (unintentionally) hilarious 
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Was surprised to read recently that Germany had over 1,000 subs during WW2.
They had a single sub sinking multiple ships a day in Irish waters.
They were mostly relatively small and complete death traps. 75% mortality rate for German sub crews.
Constantly hunted from mid 1942, started taking appalling losses from 1943 once the allies tech matured.
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The two eldest Clancy brothers, Paddy and Tom, of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem fame, served in the RAF during the War
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This is the lad who bought the Irish farm and later became a Mossad agent.
Wasn’t I listening to a podcast this morning on how he rescued Mussolini. I thought he might have been the same fella who spent time in Ireland but they didn’t mention it at the end when they spoke on his later life.
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