Comments by "" (@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684) on "CrocodileTear" channel.

I have my own story of WW2 detective work. My father was in the British Royal Navy during WW2. Amongst other ships, he served onboard the RN heavy cruiser HMS Dorsetshire, and took part in the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck. After the sinking, dad then assisted in the rescue of the Bismarck survivors, and one of the survivors he helped haul out of the stormy Atlantic that day was a German sailor named "Friedrich Junghans". The survivors were off loaded in Newcastle UK 4 days after the sinking and Friedrich gave my father his "erkennungsmarke" (dogtag) as thanks for saving his life. Eventually the Bismarck survivors ended up being sent to POW camps in Canada. I remember as a small child seeing this small oval aluminium disk in my father's desk at home and he explained to me what it was and how he came to own it. Dad's own ship had been sunk in 1942 in the Indian Ocean by Japanese dive bombers, and post war there was a "HMS Dorsetshire survivor's association" where once a year the old sailors would meet up to rekindle old friendships and recount their old experiences over many "tots" of navy rum. In 1973 the Bismarck survivor's association invited the HMS Dorsetshire survivor's association over to Hamburg to have a shared, joint reunion. Dad decided that he was going to reunite Friedrich Junghans with his "Erkennungsmarke" at the reunion, but inspite of spending several days in Germany creating new friendships with their former foes (again over much alcohol), it tragically came to light that Friedrich Junghans who had decided to stay in Canada after the war (due to his home town now being inside "east Germany") had died just a month before the reunion, and so he never again saw his "dogtag / Erkennungsmarke" from Bismarck ever again. In the 1990s Dad decided that he would donate Friedrich's "dogtag", together with the his own lifebelt that had saved his life when his own ship had been sunk in 1942 to the "Merseyside Maritime Museum" in Liverpool UK. They gratefully took possesion of these and several other items, and they are on display there to this day. After dad passed away in 2013, I decided that I would try to track down the decendents of Friedrich to let them know that their ancestor's dogtag was on display in a Liverpool Museum. I searched online for a number of years but various leads to his descendents always seemed to lead to dead ends. In 2019 one night I was surfing the net and ended up looking at an art website which displayed the artwork of people from around the world, when what did I spot? Some art work from a young American girl who in her "bio" mentioned that her great grandfather "Friedrich J" had been a Bismarck survivor who had elected to stay in Canada after WW2. I contacted her via email to ask if the "J" stood for "Junghans", and she was stunned, and obviously was also worried that I was some predatory "internet stalker", but I emailled her photos of her Great Grandfather's dogtag and some other evidence of my father's involvement with Friedrich's rescue. She confirmed that her great uncle (Friedrich's son) was still alive and to cut an already long story a bit shorter, he is now seeking to take possesion of his father's dogtag back from the Museum.... over 80 years after his father handed it to my father.
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Am I the only one who questions why an "American officer" would remove a soldier's helmet from his grave marker "for a war momento"? Can you imagine the Yankee anger if the reverse happened and someone pilfered a US Marine's grave goods from his final resting place to "take home and show the kids"? I know that the men had been brutalised by months of combat and combat stress, and that life was cheap during wartime, but I still cannot understand why he would STEAL this particular helmet and not one of the thousands that were abandoned and scattered across the battlefields of Northern Europe in 1944-45. P.S Great research work... I love this kind of research after constructing my own family tree and carrying out lots of detective work in following the various branches. Because of your work and dedication Obergefreiter Kurt Gunther now lives on in the memories of others at least for a short while longer.
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@CrocodileTear I forgot to mention that a couple of years back I was contacted out of the blue by a German naval researcher named Malte Gaake, who has compiled a series of books detailing the lives of Bismarck's crew. He'd read a post I'd made in a forum many years ago and sent a chance email to see if I was "still around". To cut a long story short, I sent him copies of all my father's paperwork and photos from WW2 together with a photo of Freidrich's dogtag, and he has included a potted history of my dad's war story adjacent to Friedrich's own potted life history... so dad's story has in some small way been preserved. Keep up your own great work, Its fascinating stuff.
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@CrocodileTear That still doesn't absolve him of grave theft. I'd have felt like a thief myself.... if someone else does it, then thats their problem.
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@hurdygurdyman1905 Are you seriously trying to suggest that the only German helmet available as a momento in Paris after the surrender of its entire garrison in August 1944 was on this soldier's grave? If it is a victimless crime, then why does the term "grave robbing" exist? I'd like to see you go to Arlington cemetery in Virginia USA and remove some "grave goods" from "one of the fallen" and then when apprehended attempt to defend yourself with the "victimless crime" defence. US servicemen are widely perceived to be the most sensitised to the loss of their own soldiers, sailors and airmen. But it seems that they don't extend the same degree of reverence and courtesy to those combattants from other nations. My own father was a crew member onboard the RN heavy cruiser HMS Dorsetshire that fired the final torpedoes into the German battleship Bismarck in 1941. She then picked up 86 survivors from the sea. That evening one of the survivors who had been picked up, a badly injured German sailor named Gerhard Lüttich, died on the operating table in Dorsetshire's sick bay. His body was then "committed to the deep" with FULL military honours provided by both his German comrades AND sailors from HMS Dorsetshire together with a Royal Marine bugler, inspite of those German sailors having been directly responsible for the deaths of 1415 RN sailors from HMS Hood 3 days earlier.
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@hurdygurdyman1905 I know it wouldn't have remained there "in perpetuity", but what happens to it after I've walked away is not my concern. It's not like there was a shortage of discarded German war materiel lying around. I'm not a fragile millenial... I know that bodies would be looted before being tossed into a grave, but when the grave is covered and a "momento mori" of the soldier is left on the grave marker its shit to rob the grave goods when helmets would have been lying around ten a penny. You obviously feel differently.
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@carolblair5514 Carol, I suggest you take the "Arlington cemetery grave goods test" I've detailed above to put your viewpoint to the test. Do you not have a mental moral checkpoint that makes you consider your comments before you make them? My guess is that you're American, and as such make an ill considered knee jerk defence of a morally questionable action simply because it was carried out by an American officer. I may be wrong on that point, but I wouldn't be surprised to find I'm right. As Hans correctly states above Do you go taking teddy bears from a child's grave home for your own kids? Or take a fancy to the lovely flowers left on an adult's grave and place them in a vase in your own home? I'm not saying this as a "nazi fanboi"... I'm from the UK and my father served in the Royal Navy fighting against Germans & Japanese during WW2... I'm commenting as a civilised decent human being, whether the German whose helmet it was was a decent individual or not, is immaterial.
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@DIVERBLOKE1 Good Grief, I bet he had some stories to tell, It would have been FASCINATING to hear his experiences through WW2, though I guess he would have been duty bound by the OSA to keep his tales private. I guess you miss your "old feller" as much as I miss mine. What a great bunch of men his and his shipmates were, god bless em all.
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@DIVERBLOKE1 Hello "Diver". Yes, Dorsetshire was on the "China Station" prior to WW2, and so Singapore in 1939 fits in well with that. My dad being an "hostilities only" only joined the ship at the start of June 1940 at "Guz" (Plymouth), but if he'd have still been with us, I'm sure he would have recognised at least some of the faces on your photo. He was a stoker, but most probably he'd had orders barked at him by some of those men that your father entertained at Singapore. Was your father RN himself? In what capacity did he entertain the ships's WOs? Best wishes from the UK.
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@carolblair5514 Oh don't be stupid, Carol. I suggest you take the "Arlington cemetery grave goods test" before you comment. My guess is you're American, and instead of being decent and moral, have chosen to defend a personal act that is morally questionable solely because it was an American who carried it out.
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@hurdygurdyman1905 Please detail how the "Arlington cemetery test" is "inappropriate"? Your own ludicrous hyperbole and exaggeration doesn't make me look stupid as much as it does yourself. You're as motivated to discuss the matter as I am, but without the same ability. Hence your need to conflate and deflect. Anything to defend crass US arrogance. What a silly little boy you are.
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@hurdygurdyman1905 Sorry if my "multi paragraph" responses stretch your apparently limited intellect beyond their limit. This "nothingburger" of an issue has been providing you with nutrition that you're still coming back for more.... desperate to try to defeat someone highlighting the attitude of American contempt for other nations. Do please detail how my suggested "Arlington Cemetery Test" (or indeed any other cemetery you care to mention) is "inapproriate"? Your "twentysomething" hyperbole and exaggeration does more to make you look an idiot that it does me. Remember if you've got utterly no debating ability, attempt to belittle your correspondent. If your's is the level of intellect that the US "ejukashun sistim" produces, no wonder your country is dying on its arse, just 80 years after it took the ascendency. Epilog. Pair of clueless yanks trying to tagteam a Brit and failing miserably.
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@hurdygurdyman1905 My word "multi paragraph" responses stretch your apparently limited intellect beyond their limit, do they? If your's is the level of intellect that the US "ejukashun sistim" produces, no wonder your country is dying on its arse, just 80 or so years after it took the ascendency. Do please detail how my suggested "Arlington Cemetery Test" (or indeed any other cemetery you care to mention) is "inapproriate"? I'm guessing you feel its "inappropriate" because in Arlington its an AMERICAN grave that's being ransacked, as if its somehow more important than anyone else's. This "nothingburger" of an issue has been providing you with enough nutrition that you're still coming back for more.... desperate to try to defeat someone highlighting the crass attitude of American contempt for other nations. Using your "morals" as a guide means there's nothing wrong with Arabs in North Africa now defacing and abusing US WW2 graves in Tunisia. Your "twentysomething" hyperbole and exaggeration does more to make you look an idiot that it does me. Remember if you've got utterly no debating ability, and have no knowledge or reasoning with which to debate, attempt to belittle your correspondent. Epilog. Pair of clueless yanks trying to tagteam a Brit and failing miserably.
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@hurdygurdyman1905 My word "multi paragraph" responses stretch your apparently limited intellect beyond their limit, do they? If your's is the level of intellect that the US "ejukashun sistim" produces, no wonder your country is dying on its arse, just 80 or so years after it took the ascendency. Do please detail how my suggested "Arlington Cemetery Test" (or indeed any other cemetery you care to mention) is "inapproriate"? I'm guessing you feel its "inappropriate" because in Arlington its an AMERICAN grave that's being ransacked, as if its somehow more important than anyone other nation's grave. Using your rationale that disrespecting the grave of a foreign soldier is "not worth worrying about" equally means that it's no great shakes if an Arab in Tunisia decides to take a dump on the grave of a fallen US serviceman there. I suppose in your view that WOULD be closer to a "crime of the century" This "nothingburger" of an issue has been providing you with enough nutrition that you're still coming back for more.... desperate trying to defeat someone highlighting the crass attitude of American contempt for other nations. Your "twentysomething" hyperbole and exaggeration does more to make you look an idiot that it does me. The brevity of your own responses is nothing to do with any succinctness on your behalf, but everything to do with their complete lack of content. Remember if you've got utterly no debating ability, and have no knowledge or reasoning with which to debate, attempt to belittle your correspondent. Epilog. Pair of clueless yanks trying to tagteam a Brit and failing miserably.
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@hurdygurdyman1905 This "nothingburgers" STILL providing you with nourishment isn't it? At least you've upper your game slightly by ATTEMPTING to sound intelligent. Pity you never achieved the desired effect. My mild usage of ad homs was made unavoidable by your repeated refusal to actual make any reasoned argument in the first place. Haven't you got some poor child's grave to be vandalising? You suggest that it's an acceptable American past time.
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@hurdygurdyman1905 P.S You've forgotten to tell me why the "Arlington grave test" is "inappropriate". Surely there's some form of reasoning behind your argument?
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@YoloSwagNinja Nowt to do with "the holocaust"..... just personal scruples... or lack thereof, As I say above if it happened at Arlington, the world would be expected to come to a halt.
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@hurdygurdyman1905 I see you have the same complete lack of Scruples... Of COURSE its different when its Americans, eh? Just yanks defending the indefensible because it was done by another Yank..... I must remember to take a shit on the grave of the unknown soldier in Arlington.
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@edwinholcombe2741 Don;t talk nonsense, trying to justify the theft of grave goods. Was the intention of the American thief to "commemorate" the fallen German soldier? Of course it wasn't. It was THEFT pure and simple. There's NO defence. If it was an American soldier the clueless yankee commenters would be SAVAGE in their condemnation. But the rest of the world is starting to understand the awful extent of American self regard.
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