His Glory, Your Blood

 You can’t read military history without sympathizing with the common soldier, whether it is the one on your side or the enemy.  War brings out the dark side of man; an example of man’s inhumanity to man.  All wars show the brutality and sheer insanity of the enterprise.  Let’s look at one example: The German invasion of Russia in World War II in 1941 (WW II).  The common theme was the madness of it all.  For the Russians, of course, there was a good reason:  defending themselves from a brutal oppressor.  For the Germans there could be no reason or logic, only depravity.  Let’s put it this way, you own a small house.  You want your neighbor’s house because its four times bigger; you hire a group of hit men (in the case of Germany, its Army) and you go to your neighbor, kill him, and take his property. 

The madness of Adolph Hitler had no bounds.  He wanted to be the master of the world by sacrificing his own people in the process.  All the glory would go to him.   In WW II they called America’s best commander, General George Patton, blood and guts because he used his soldiers to achieve success.  This is debatable, but for another discussion.  With Hitler, though, he invaded, conquered and occupied France, Poland, Austria, Czechoslovakia and many other European countries and did It with some ease.  This probably led him to think of himself as unbeatable. After occupying all these countries, he wanted more, he wanted Russia too.  Russia is the world’s largest country by land size.  To any reasonable person, this would be considered total madness.  A major reason he used for invading Russia was his racism.  Just like his psychosis about Jews, he considered the Russians as sub-human and stupid, uneducated trash.  He wanted to eliminate them like the Jews so he could have more room (lebensraum).  He thought that he and his fellow Germans were a superior race. Hitler's aim was to eliminate all Russians and Jews and  replace them with Germanic people.

 

Failure to learn from history is perhaps the best example of madness, doing the same thing over and over and  expecting a different result.  Napoleon Bonaparte tried to conquer Russia in 1812 and failed miserably.  In this era, France had one of the best militaries in the world.  Of the 500,000 plus army he sent to Russia, only 5,000 survived to return home.  He was crushed militarily and by the winter. Napoleon repeated the same mistakes with England and the rest of Europe, sending men to their deaths just like a football coach sends his players to play the game.  Napoleon met his end at Waterloo, Belgium after his defeat by British and Prussian forces.  In Russia, if you were not killed in battle, the brutal winter weather would kill you.

The German invasion was a sure bet to be a failure.  First for the size of the operation, second for the problems with supplying a three-million-man army for long distances with no adequate roads, rail or air possibilities.  Second, when you have a madman in charge like Hitler, reason, and good military strategy go out the window and good military men who know better were forced to follow commands that would prove to be fatal; and this is what happened.  In the first three months of Operation Barbarossa, the Germans lost more than 500,000 dead.  It is estimated that more than 3,000,000 German soldiers lost their lives in Russia whether by being killed in action or by the weather or by being captured and then either shot to death by the Russians or starved to death, or disease.   The Russians, although they were defending themselves, made some very bad military decisions, sending waves of men into battle against German machine guns where they were all slaughtered.  The Russians, like Hitler, had to follow the madness of their dictator, Josef Stalin.  Russian commanders were beholden to Stalin’s ignorance and sheer incompetence when it came to military matters.  The blind leading the blind.  The Russians, also, were brutal with their own soldiers.  If a Russian soldier was captured and managed to escape, he would be killed upon returning by order of Stalin; punishment for being captured.  If a Russian soldier refused a sure death command, by charging German guns in an open field, for instance, he would be killed by his own commander.

 

The Germans had help in Russia by allies such as Italy, Romania, Hungary and others. The Italians, Romanians and Hungarians each fielded 250,000 soldiers.  All failed measurably.  There was no hope of victory for any of these condemned soldiers.  All was against them.  They were sent there without proper weapons, equipment, clothing, training, officers, means of transportation and so on.  These soldiers were basically condemned to death from the moment they set foot in Russia.  The Russian front was huge, extending more than 1,000 miles wide.  German soldiers were marched into exhaustion, fighting day and night.  The roads were nonexistent and with the bad weather most vehicles were stuck in the mud and failed mechanically.  German soldiers marched to exhaustion.  Their boots were so worn by the march and the bad weather, that many soldiers had to walk bare foot.  They were on constant attack on the ground and by the air.  When all was lost, Hitler would even refuse to let them retreat. 

 

Operation Barbarossa was also significant for the atrocities committed by both sides.  Upon the conquest and occupation of Kiev, for example, the Germans rounded up about 30,000 Russian Jews and shot them to death in open pits.  The Russians where not outdone.  In one case they captured 100 German troops and hung them by their hands, tortured them by lighting a fire under their feet and burned them alive; a horrific way to kill.  As the Spanish philosopher, George Santayana said, those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.  Here are some good examples proving this proverb.

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 For more detailed reading on this subject see the following books:

1. Kiev-1941, Hitler's Battle for Supremacy in the East, David Stahel, Cambridge University Press, 2012

2. Leningrad, State of Siege, Michael Jones, John Murray Publishers, GB, 2008

3. Stalingrad, Antony Beevor, Penguin Books, 1998

 

 

Was the Sicilian Bandit Giuliano a Folk Hero?

 In 1970 I read Mario Puzo’s book “The Godfather.”  As I recall, it was a well written and told story about the Sicilian Mafia.  When it was made into a movie, I saw it.  That was the last gangster movie I’ve ever seen. Although it was well made, I found the story troubling.  This type of movie genre became the rage of its day.  I’ve never understood why people like such gruesome stories.  I do not enjoy watching criminals commit their deeds; it was offensive to me.  Personally, I’ve had to endure many slights about my heritage because of the Mafia.  Seems that most people only know one thing about Sicily, the mafia.  This is akin to saying that if you were to describe Los Angeles you would say that the MS-13 Gang is its most important feature. It is stupid beyond belief.  Sicily has a glorious and tortured history going back more than 3,000 years.

In my morning Kaffeeklatsch with three other men, I often hear from one of them how much he loves some Netflix shows like “Breaking Bad” about criminals doing their stuff.  Recently I joined a Facebook group about people who are of Sicilian heritage, since I am one. Most posts are just silly stuff about people promoting their heritage.  A few days ago, I saw a post on the Sicilian group that was tasteless and a bit troubling.  The post was a love-in about the 1940s Sicilian bandit, Salvatore Giuliano.  Most comments were from people telling how their grandmother, uncle or other family member told them of how much Giuliano was so admired and loved by his fellow Sicilians.  One person called Giuliano a great man. I posted a short comment stating that Giuliano was a bandit and no hero.  One person responded by asking if I knew history or was he not right because he heard it from his grandmother who lived at the time of Giuliano. Well, here we go again.  Most people have no clue of history.

 

It is true that Salvatore Giuliano was very popular in Sicily and had a large following, but if that is the measure of a man, we’re in trouble.  Giuliano was a vicious killer, thief and robber.  He was an anti-authority rebel. He and his gang murdered over 100 police officers during his seven-year reign of terror.  It is estimated that he had about 600 men join his gang: a small army.  Indeed, he kept the authorities at bay for seven years, until he was shot to death in 1950 by one of his own men.  Giuliano terrorized the community with kidnapping, extortion and murder.  He cooperated with the Sicilian Mafia in his misdeeds.  He was a charismatic figure who was adept at manipulating the population. He got his start in 1943 right at the time of the American invasion of Sicily in July 1943; three months before I was born in Sicily. In May of 1947, Giuliano and his gang attacked a group of people gathered for May Day festivities at Portella della Ginestra near the town of Piana degli Albanese, by opening fire on the crowd and killing 11 people and wounding 27 others.

 

His criminal activity was centered in black market food smuggling in the aftermath of the total breakdown of civil authority after Italy’s defeat in World War II, when the law was anyone with a gun. In situations such as these the local populace has no choice but to be very careful with such criminals. So, it is easy to understand why so many people followed him like a cult figure. For an excellent summary of Giuliano’s history click here.

 

As mentioned earlier, I find people’s fascination with criminals a puzzle.  Why are such shows as “Breaking Bad” and “The Sopranos” so popular?  Would you like these criminals if you were the victim of their crimes?  This question is, perhaps, the subject of a psychology book.

 

So, was Giuliano a folk hero?  Depends on how you define a folk hero.  Was Billy the Kid a folk hero?  John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde or Whitey Bulger?  How about the Night Stalker of Los Angeles?