Were any Russians at Normandy?

Now how likely is such a thing ever happening.. As you yourself have said these 'Germans' had lived in Kazakstan for 250 years and had integrated well with the population. So I would be surprised if any of them still stuck with German after 250 years of Russian life. It would be even surpising if any of the born-in-Russia guys would have long-enough memories to remember that they were from Germany some dozen generations earlier. After all their ancestors had come to live in Russia on their own will and had chose to live in Kazakstan.

Moreover it was Stalin and the communists who were sitting in Moscow at the time and I am sure that neither he nor Dzerzhinsky would have allowed any such acts of treason to go on unchecked on Soviet soil for long. Maybe some of these immigrants disliked the communists like millions of other Russians but I do not think that it would have been posible for these groups to have acted for long agaisnt the Soviet state in any effective way.

Dudley Hound

Oh Yes.. these guys living in Russia would have been classified as rank racists today in any Western Society. They regarded their Russian neighbours and other Slavs as inferior people than themselves. These Germans never integrated with the indigenous population and tended to live in communities of their own and kept themselves aloof from the habits and languages of the locals - a sort of a superiority show-off.

Now it is possible in such closed communities and faced with cultural starvation people can let their minds go astray and maybe someone thought of well, their German origins and cooked up the idea of helping the ole' kin out in the yonder by stirring up a rebellion in the Caucasus or the Volga basin..

So what.. that doesnt mean that their allegiences changed a bit. Sort of saying that the Spanish became Aztec servants after landing in Mexico.. after all they came on their own will...

But it was wartime Russia and the Soviet Army was losing. Stalin and his honchos would have had enough to think about saving the Soviet Union from the Germans than think of some obscure German trying to blow up some place in Kazakstan. I would say it still wasnt the iron state which it turned out to be in the 50's.

Maybe they did. But do not discount the actions of guerrillas in a war especially when they are acting behind your own lines, they can be more than just a minor irritant.

HMS Ramilles. Diego Suarez,

Earlier in this thread there were comments about possible Japanese Wehrmacht members serving in France in June 1944. I found a photo at the NARA's NAIL search engine of such a person.

Go to the NAIL site at <http://www.nara.gov/nara/searchnail.html> and navigate to the 'Digital Copies' page. After selecting photos from the media list, eneter 'japanese nazi' in the keyword search.

I must say though, that man looks more Korean than Japanese to my eyes. Maybe it's just that he looks like a Korean guy I know...

Yes.. this very isolation would have prevented any effective organisation of a rebellion of any significant proportions. Its all very easy to be huffing and puffing about kicking up a rebellion in neighbourhood bars and nightclubs. But the actual logistical operation of procuring weapons, explosives and men with tight lips is altogether a different matter. The presence of the OGPU, Dzherzhinsky's men all around wouldnt have helped at all. Nor would have been the remoteness of these places from the sea for any arms shipment from Germany which would have been the only effective means for a quick uprising. Airdrops would have been hazardous and a sure giveaway of things to the Soviets.

Oh.. yes maybe to sit in ones bathtub and dream of marching to the Kremlin in perfect isolation... but to do it in the midst of an actively hostile population would have been impossible.

Culturally.. maybe. But today ask any fellow from Latin America for whom would he fight for - his own home country would be the answer 100/100 and not for Spain or whatever.

Haha.. maybe spending the rest of their lives digging salt in Siberia would have been a great 'incentive' for any such people..

But you forget the basic tenet of a guerilla's war - the backing of the local population - which I doubt would have been available in Kazakstan.

Dudley Hound.

' Who let the dogs out.. Woof!!Woof!!'.. Watchout I am after you.....