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I agree with Bot..
I think for the most part soldiers from all sides were relatively the same type of people, just simply being led by ciorrupted people.
German, Russian, American, Polish, British...all in varying degrees were given a job to do, and they did it. To defend their country, to invade another, to just follow orders. We cannot blame an entire nation of people, especially the Russians who lost over 20 million men stemming the German tide, for evil acts that were thought up by evil people, and perpetrated by those who were given orders.
You didn't follow orders in the Red Army, you were shot.
And the horrid acts perpetrated by the Soviet soldiers in Berlin do not hold a candle to the groups of German Einsatzgruppen who moved behind the front line soldiers and rounded up "Communists, Jews, and general Untermensche" to be shot and throw in graves they have dug themselves.
The Russian slaughter of Polish officers in Katyn forest also not something that was exactly warm and fuzzy either.
However...without the sacrifice, either to further their own "agenda" or simply following orders and defending the motherland, many more American troops would've died.
We fought 25% of the German forces in the Western Front. The other 75%, including most of the Crack Waffen SS units were in the East, getting steamrolled by the Soviets...if we had problems at the Bulge with 25%, I imagine 100% would be much more difficult.
My two cents.
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