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ANZAC Day: Two-Up School


Bar4

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FDR was as just bad. Neither one could see past the end of the war with Hitler. Some suggest that Churchie was already senile, while FDR was clearly on his death bed. I remember reading how one British general told Churchill that the support they were giving to Tito would mean communism taking over Yugoslavia. Churchie asked him if he planned to live in Yugoslavia after the war. He naturally replied he didn't. Churchie told him, "Neither do I. So shut up and keep on helping him."

 

Ironic that Hitler and Stalin carved up Poland between them. The French and Brits declared war on Adolf, but not "Uncle Joe". Germany ended up losing it eastern provinces, but Stalin got to keep all he had seized - and take even more. And the Russians still have it.

 

The "great generation" had some farked up leaders.

 

 

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In Ireland we called that toss penny.

 

A group of men would gather, normally in a quiet spot, and spend hours tossing as it was normally called.

 

This wasn't a 'fun game' as such. Money would be won and lost on the toss of a coin.

 

Sometimes a large gathering could be seen especially on a Sunday after religious services.

 

Don't know if its still done anymore.

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FDR was as just bad. Neither one could see past the end of the war with Hitler. Some suggest that Churchie was already senile, while FDR was clearly on his death bed. I remember reading how one British general told Churchill that the support they were giving to Tito would mean communism taking over Yugoslavia. Churchie asked him if he planned to live in Yugoslavia after the war. He naturally replied he didn't. Churchie told him, "Neither do I. So shut up and keep on helping him."

 

Ironic that Hitler and Stalin carved up Poland between them. The French and Brits declared war on Adolf, but not "Uncle Joe". Germany ended up losing it eastern provinces, but Stalin got to keep all he had seized - and take even more. And the Russians still have it.

 

The "great generation" had some farked up leaders.

 

 

I guess its easy for us to pontificate from afar, but the realisation that they could finally stomp the Nazis would have been strong motivation to both leaders of the 'Free World'.

 

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But they stomped a lot of other people as well. I consider this probably the greatest case of "collateral damage" in history, sort of "We had to destroy the village" on a massive scale. :(

 

 

As one of the Poles interviewed in the doco recently said 'The West views Churchill as a hero - to us, he is a war criminal'. No argument from me - prior to the Battle of Britain, he had a less-than-glorious record as a strategist. I've said it before, but ANZAC Day is very French - we celebrate a glorious defeat at the hands of our enemies. Churchill must have had an interesting map of the Dardanelles, or maybe he just didnt care about the colonial troops he marooned on those beaches.

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My mother told me one of the first things my father said after he got home from WWII was : "We stopped too soon. We should have forced the Russians to go back to their own borders."

 

I asked him about that, and he told he he had seen the Red Army first hand. They were carrying supplies in horse drawn wagons and even pushing prams filled with artillery shells. Primitive was the word for it - and undisciplined. (He met them on the Elbe.) When the Yanks were ordered to pull back, they'd withdraw from a town and see the Red Army rush in and begin looting - that happened in both Germany and Czechoslovakia. The Red Army crushed Germany by sheer numbers, but the US had the air power and THE BOMB to encourage Stalin to cooperate. But Churchy and Roosie were not willing do it. Instead, Stalin was allowed to treat Eastern Europe as his own private playground.

 

My parents had a Polish friend who'd been an army major. He escaped captured in 1939 and joined the Polish forces in England. He went home after the war - only to be thrown in prison by the communists as a "reactionary". He managed to escape once again and came to the US alone. I remember he was still trying 15 years later to convince the communists to let his wife and children join him in America.

 

 

 

 

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