New York
Sometimes I wonder about Americans in general and Noo Yawkers in particular. Especially while watching war films. In Saving Private Ryan, GIs seem as cool under fire as the Wehrmacht troops look cowardly and ready to throw their hands up. In reality, of course, the Germans fought gallantly against overwhelming odds in men and materials. Some SS units kept counter-attacking when at only 10 per cent of their original strength. Total air superiority did the trick for the good guys. And von Rundstedt’s genius did not help. More than one million German front-line troops died on the Western front because old Gerd knew how to run rings around the Allies while retreating. He, Model and Kesselring were masters of defence.
As irony would have it, I was watching that particular war film when a New York Yankee baseball player and his flying instructor flew their small plane into a building on 72nd Street.
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