Valhalla's Warriors -Waffen-SS Eastern Front

[Marc Rikmenspoel]

Thanks for the notice about my being mentioned. That was back in the last millenium, when I was helping create "the Myth of the Eastern Front." I used the introduction to my Soldiers of the Waffen-SS book to explain my case for being confused over what I consider double standards in history (Germany invading Poland was a crime of aggression, the USA invading most of Central America apparently was not; the Waffen-SS shooting prisoners here and there was always a warcrime, but the various shootings of German prisoners that gets mentioned in numerous Allied memoirs was always a case of understandable battlefield incidents, and so on). This isn't the place to discuss these double standards, but a new thread can be opened for anyone who does want to go into detail. I only mention this here to put the quote of mine from the thesis in context.

[Paddy Keating]

Oh well, Marc, you're in good company in Dr Detective Senior Sergeant Valhalla's thesis in terms of being quoted or referenced out of context! You're up there with Ronald Reagan...

PK

[phylo_roadking]

Marc, thanks for that; having read the comments elsewhere from other reviewers of you work I was more than sure of your being quoted out of context, and in my own reading coming across several such incidents in France and North Africa. When I posted there I was more concerned at the broad brush being applied across you and others in the context of my earlier remarks earlier about the reputation of the W-SS being something that can't even raise it's head above the parapet to counter-argue nowadays without automatically encountering the A-word or the D-word.

Some day someone is going to coin a similarly-"useful" shorthand term for the other side of the argument....and no that's NOT an invitation to anyone interested LOL

[sid guttridge]

Hi Paddy,

I don't think one can reasonably say that the German Army was "quite badly mauled" in 1940. Certainly at points of breakthrough casualties could be high, but
casualties are the currency armies necessarily pay for tactical and strategic advantage. The tactical and strategic advantages gained by the German Army in return for its 1940 casualties were spectacular, and far lower than the losses of their opponents, who lost five national armies totalling several million men - a return of perhaps thirty or forty to one for every German casualty. If this is being "mauled", all armies should have being "mauled" as their goal!

Little time today.

Cheers,

Sid

[phylo_roadking]

Moderator's Note;

After some debate among the Moderators, it has been decided to close this thread temporarily; thanks go to all who participated in it.

As a unique step - for some of the concerns of Forum management may not be readily apparent to users - we have decided to set down the reasons for the temporary closure.

1/ Terry's appearance on the forum involved spamming many sections of the site. We do not condone commercial spamming in ANY form or form any source - business or private. However, we decided to allow debate to continue in just one location.

2/ Terry asked for feedback and discussion; however, in return he has failed on numerous occasions to engage in the resultant discussion, including avoiding several questions raised as a matter of urgency by Moderators, shown on several notable occasions an unawareness of what the website dedicated to his book actually said, hasn't supported opinion posts with anything in the way of substantiation or confirmation, has made several unfounded accusations of anti-Semitism and other accusations - and on one worrying occasion seems to have very little grasp of his chosen profession.

3/ The course of the thread itself has allowed a selection of posters to contribute with off-topic views despite - in THIS case - specific notification that such would not be viewed favourably by Forum management.

4/ the Forum management decided ahead of any posts after Terry's initial opening of the thread to apply VERY strict monitoring and standards to this thread because of the nature of the topic, the manner in which it was presented, the areas it was likely to stray into - and it has failed significantly to come UP to those.

5/ For several very specific reasons Forum management sees a very large "credibility gap" looming over this thread - with very little attempt by the member who opened the thread to fill it - despite being offered MANY opportunities to do so over the last five days.

6/ Forum management is very concerned at why discussion of this book should have been brought here AND NOWHERE ELSE - when the stated policy of the site would preclude discussion of considerable areas of the book...while Terry has not chosen to open discussion on other equally reputable sites elsewhere that specifically accomodate discussion of ALL areas of his book and thesis.

7/ The thread will be closed for a MONTH. At the end of this it will be reopened pending INFORMED discussion by ALL parties. In the meantime, Forum management would like to offer Terry the opportunity to contact us directly via the site to establish his bonafides.

[phylo_roadking]

Moderator's Note

This is being transferred back to public view - but not for open discussion as the subject of the book is outside the stated parameters of this Forum. Two weeks ago Terry was PM'd by Moderators asking him to answer a number of queries urgently, and provide bonafides - but he has not returned to pick it up. Four days ago the contents of this PM were emailed to him DIRECTLY on the email address he provided on registering on the forum - and he has not replied. Nor has Terry appeared yet on ANY other forum to advertise his book and invite discussion - nor has he returned to Amazon to discuss it.

The absence of ANY bonafides - and Terry's apparent refusal to provide any - calls Valhalla's identity as being related to the author of "Valhalla's Warriors" into severe doubt. As a result of that - the Moderators have decided that account cannot be permitted to remain open on Feldgrau.