Major Dick Winters Attitudes Towards World War II

A comparison between the attitudes of soldiers from USA, Russia and Germany towards World War II.
World War II was the biggest single event in terms of loss of life and property. This research focuses on the attitudes of soldiers who fought in this war. The objective of the research is to find out whether the ideology of the nation affects the attitude of a soldier in action towards the war. The sources of the research will be mainly 3 autobiographical memoirs, one from a soldier who fought in World War II from each country. The three ideologies under question will be Capitalism, Communism and Nazism. The research will focus on a formalistic approach reading just the text and removing all the media portrayals of any armies from the mind while
doing the analysis.

This research paper focuses on the attitude of a soldier towards war, enemy soldier and country. This is research is going to be carried out in context to the literature available on World War II. Mainly, three political ideologies were followed by the participants of the war, namely Capitalism, Communism and Nazism. The research tries to explore the thinking of soldiers of different countries, and try to compare and find similarities and differences among them depending on the political ideology of the nation.
The reason behind choosing this research topic lies simply in the fact that it is not a well explored field. Popular culture has always shown the side of the victor and always sidelined the country that was defeated. When this approach is used not only the ideology of the defeated nation is put down but also each of its citizen and soldier. The key research points here will be. 1) To find out whether the Nazi, Red and US soldier was affected by the ideology of the country in his approach to war. 2) To find out whether there is difference between the thinking of soldiers of the three nations about the value of human life and if any particular extreme view existed against the enemy soldier as an individual. 3) To compare it with the current public perception.
The literature type that is going to be primarily referred to for this research is autobiographical memoir. Three autobiographies are going to be used each of a soldier from the three nations. The three autobiographies 1) The Forgotten Soldier-Guy Sajer 2) Beyond Band of Brothers- Major Richard ‘Dick’ Winters 3) Notes of a Sniper- Vassili Zaitsev are the main sources of reference. The TV show Band of Brothers and semi-fictional movies like ‘Enemy at the Gates’ and ‘Saving Private Ryan’ will also be referred to make the argument stronger both in the favour of the problem and the conclusion.
The research methodology will derive from a formalistic approach where the pre-disposed ideas about the different soldiers will be blocked and the text will be analyzed with a broad mindset. The feelings of the soldiers towards the enemy will be analyzed keeping in mind the stress they have gone through. Hatred towards the enemy as a result of the death of a close friend in battle may not actually be hatred but a feeling of revenge that does not take into reference any ideology or larger cause.
The question that this research tries to answer is whether the ideology of a nation really affects a soldier to a level that he becomes a monster or whether all soldiers are more or less the same but just caught in different sides of the conflict. It will also try to deconstruct the myth popularized by media that the regular German soldier was cruel, monstrous and lacked humanity.
A study will first be done on the general depiction of the war heroes from the three nations through the review of fictional media available. The public perception of the soldiers will be taken into consideration and it will be determined whether the public favours a particular army or not.
The aforementioned literature will then be read and analyzed using a formalistic approach and the researcher will try to explore the psychological processing of each soldier. Literature that explores the three ideologies will also be given a critical reading. The findings from this analysis will be compared with the public opinion.
The study will try to prove the conclusion that the current public depiction is very faulty and that all soldiers are human at the basic level and that the different ideologies do not affect the attitude of the soldier towards war and the loss of life. The researcher will also try to contest the stereotype that the German soldier was a cruel machine lacking humane feelings.

World War 2 was the deadliest event in the history of mankind. With a death toll of over 60 million, it is matched by none in the statistics of destruction and devastation. It was mainly fought between 2 major blocs of power, The Axis and The Allies. The Axis forces combined Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan and Fascist Italy under its banner. The Allied forces included USA, England and Soviet Union. World War 2 was fought in different parts of the world with soldiers from almost all the countries fighting under one of the banners. Indian troops also fought in this war due to the occupation of India by England. The main theatres of war were Europe, Russia, Japan and Africa. The major reason behind the German aggression in this war was the Treaty of Versailles that was forced upon Germany in the aftermath of World War I. This treaty greatly reduced the military power of Germany and was a great blow to their prestige and honour. This led the German public to follow a leader who gave them hope of coming back to their original power, Adolf Hitler. In his process of revival of Germany Hitler invaded Poland and England retaliated to this with an attack on Germany, Thus marking the start of World War II. Soviet Union and Nazi Germany had signed a peace treaty initially but a fear of Communism led Germany to attack the USSR, thus bringing them into the war. The USA on the other hand was lured in by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Japan carried out this attack in the wake of the American support of Rival China and the embargo placed on Japan by America. Thus the whole world plunged into a war the devastated both the victor and the defeated alike and resulted in a gigantic number of casualties on both sides. The war also brought out the best and the worst in humankind. One of the most destructive parts of the war was not on the battlefield but off it, in the shape of the Holocaust. The extermination of 6 million Jews in Mass Killings at concentration camps, carried out by Nazi Germany.
Stalinism was an offshoot of Marxist-Lenin ideology which was deployed by Joseph Stalin during his reign of Russia or the USSR as it was then called. (Bottomore) It executed policies of Rapid Industrial Development, Socialism in one country, a centralized state, collectivization of agriculture and the one Soviet Party system. Stalin managed his regime with an iron fist and opposition was terminated. Russia went through a lot of industrial development under Stalin but also suffered a lot due to the extreme methods of Stalin. Labour camps were setup all around the country where anyone even minutely suspected of opposition was put in these camps. Even during the war Stalin gave extreme orders, most famous of which was the ‘Not a Step Back’ order given by Stalin to troops in Stalingrad. Anyone who retreated was shot or put in penal battalions.
Nazism was a branch of Fascism that relied upon the policies of anti-Semitism and racial superiority. Translated as “National Socialism” in English it used elements of far right racism and anti-communist culture. Hitler believed in the racial superiority of the Aryans and argued that the extermination of the racially inferior population was necessary for the survival of the Country. Nazism was anti-capitalism which considered capital superior to labour.
Capitalism is a system that is based on the private ownership of capital goods and creation of goods and services for profit. USA followed this ideology and it helped them in a way as the mass creation of weapons and military equipment was taken on by private company thus relieving some pressure off the shoulders of the Government. America was in a state of recovery when the war started and had to put in all its resources for the war. Although not following any extremist ideologies the treatment meted out to the blacks was not the same and they also had segregated units for blacks.

“Notes of a Russian Sniper” by Vassili Zaitsev is an account of his experiences when he was deployed as a sniper in the battle of Stalingrad. Mostly known for his contributions during the time period from 10th November to 17th December 1942 he was awarded the title of the ‘Hero of the USSR’ and the ‘Order of Lenin’ among many other distinguished honours. The autobiographical memoir mainly focuses on the experiences of the sniper in the Battle of Stalingrad, which was one of the harshest battles of World War II. Fighting under sub-zero temperatures in a city that was ravaged by frequent carpet bombing and frequent fighting; this battle exhausted and demoralised both the armies to the core. Vassili Zaitsev in such an environment was brought out to be a hero by the Russian political officers. He was portrayed as the saviour of the city and became a glimmer of hope for the thousands of Russians fighting in Stalingrad, thus finally leading to the victory in the Battle of Stalingrad. The autobiographical account serves as a first person look into the life of a sniper who has to wait for hours in the same position just for one shot and then relocate and find another spot as fast as possible. The whole book exhibits a sense of urgency where, the wait for the next target leads to the rush for a new spot. It also provides for a look into the how a sniper aside from a normal soldier does not shoot at a uniform, he shoots at a face a distinguished human which can come back to haunt the shooter. This memoir also talks about a duel with an elite sniper from the German Wehrmacht which spanned over 3 days and resulted in victory for Vassili. A major limitation of taking this memoir in the study is that it contains elements of Soviet propaganda. The memoir was written on account of an order by Stalin himself and although it does capture moments of the war, they can contain elements of fiction and sensationalisation.
Guy Sajer was a German Soldier of German and French descent. He was drafted in Wehrmacht (German Army) at the age of sixteen and later went on to serve in the ‘Gross Deutschland’ division, one of the most efficient divisions of the German army. In his autobiography ‘The Forgotten Soldier’ he gives an emotional account of the events that led him through the war on the eastern front. It outlines his experiences during the war and shows clearly the kind of misery and agony soldiers go through during the time of a war as huge and devastating as World War II. Sajer, half French, finds it hard to settle into an army that speaks a language he is not too familiar with. We see constant embarrassment on his part when he tries to converse in German. We also see a sudden excitement when he hears some soldiers conversing in French. The major limitation of this book is that it is an emotional account more than a factual and chronological account. Although the events mentioned in the book did happen, there are some discontinuities between the actual time and place and the ones mentioned in the book. Another problem with the book is that it is one of the few books published by the defeated German side and so there is very less other literature to compare the account with. This book also might contain altered elements which focus at gaining sympathy.
Major Dick Winters was the last surviving officer of the Easy Company, 502nd Parachute regiment, 101st Airborne division of the USA army, who passed away on January 2nd, 2011.
He was deployed in the Easy Company as an NCO and rapidly earned promotions to reach the post of Major by the end of the War. Winters’ Easy Company was a Parachute regiment that was dropped behind enemy lines during the Invasion of Normandy by the Allied forces at St. Mere-Eglise. His autobiography “Beyond the Band of Brothers” focuses on the experiences of Major winters through the entire war, starting at the Invasion of Normandy and ending in Germany. Major Winters an exceptional leader rises through the ranks not with the intention to earn medals but with the intention to lead Easy Company out of the Hell they were posted in without the least number of casualties. Major Winters was nonetheless awarded the ‘Purple heart’, ‘Parachutist badge’ among other honours. The book talks about how each of the members of the Easy Company helped each other during the War which took them through unforgiving conditions. This memoir is quite an accurate account of the War as has been confirmed by several other soldiers who were present at that time at the same place, but it has its limitations in the fact that it is the publication of the Victor nation and can afford
sensationalism.
“Band of Brothers”, 2001, is a ten part HBO mini-series that contains a detailed account of the experiences of Easy Company through the war. The Series is quite factual as it was produced taking into account the memoirs of many Soldiers that served under the Easy Company as well as their seniors. The Pacific, 2010 is another HBO ten part mini-series that follows three marines during America’s Battle with Japan in the pacific during World War II.
The Guadalcanal Diary by Richard Tregaskis is the best Journalistic first person account of World War II. This book contains chronological and factual data written in a diary format for the sole purpose of War reporting. Richard Tregaskis is one of the best renowned and one of earliest War reporters. Another book by the same author, Invasion Diary, paints a similar picture in the context of the war in Europe we he went after his return from the pacific.
Other major movies that were looked upon in framing this research include Saving Private Ryan, Enemy at the Gates, A bridge too far, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Saints and Soldiers and Inglorious Basterds.
Media projection of the soldiers of different countries who took part in World War II is varied. As seen in most fictional portrayal, the German soldier is portrayed as an emotionless killing machine. Their dressing and cleanliness, as shown by German soldiers in Enemy at the gates fully opposes the Russian soldier who always covered in dirt, even though they are fighting on the same terrain. (Annaud) Most of the movies that are based on World War II project the American soldier as being a hero, saviour of Europe and banisher of treachery. The Nazi Soldier is shown to be treacherous. Even if he is spared by the Americans he comes back and stabs them in the heart as portrayed in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan.
The Close reading of the three books leads to a number of observations. The Three different books talk about 3 soldiers from 3 different countries in a similar situation, during the same time period. This allows us to find the similarities and differences between them as they are going through a similar event. The three books concentrate on the life of these combat troops in face of war. These soldiers are constantly under fire and under a fear of death. With danger always lurking in the background all these soldiers are always under the impression that each breath is their last. Each of these soldiers shows grief and emotions at the death of a friend. Feelings of revenge are mutual among the soldiers from all the three countries and the political ideology of the country has no say in that. Bloodlust arises from vengeance and cannot be attributed to a single ideology or race. This statement is made taking into account that the Holocaust was not an act of warfare. The Holocaust according to the researcher was meticulously carried out social killing and had nothing to do with the war that was being waged at both fronts by the Germans. Even the part of the army, The SS, which was mainly responsible for the ‘Final Solution’, was not a fully war-operational unit of the German Army. The German, Soviet and American soldier although separated miles by ideology, acted in a very similar way in the hail of bullets. Similar reactions accompanied sights of gore and deaths. “Lieutenant Buck Compton was a good soldier but he could not bear to see two of his close friend being badly injured by a bomb” (Winters and Kingseed). Buck Compton here showed similar effects as shown by a young kid who was in the Foxhole with Guy Sajer at Belgorod. All the three authors respect the enemy on the other side, knowing that they are similar people, just caught on the other side. Hauptmann Wesreidau from Guy Sajer’s memoir sums up this argument when boosting the morale of his troops in his statement “Something Similar is happening on the other side”. This does not hold true for the leaders of the country as they are the ones who create the ideology and implement it. The soldiers although affected by this ideology show similar behaviours in the face of war. Another observation that comes out of this reading is the value given to human life, which is same for the soldiers of all the three countries. The horrors of war affect them equally during the interim between battles. As Major winter says in his memoir that the interim was the hardest part of the war as they had to fight their conscience on what they had just done (Winters and Kingseed). Guy Sajer also in his memoir states that his best friend Hals was haunted by the thoughts of the Russian soldiers who he had killed (Sajer). In a similar fashion Vassili Zaitsev talks about how the faces of the soldiers he had shot come back to haunt him every night. (Zaitsev, Okrent(editor) and Givens(translator))
The German soldier is popularly portrayed as cruel and inhumane. This argument is contested by Sajer himself in his book when he talks about how they were treated by their own army. “Throughout the war, one of the biggest German mistakes was to treat German soldiers even worse than prisoners, instead of allowing us to rape and steal – crimes which we were condemned for in the end, anyway.” (Sajer) These lines can be justified as the War trials of the victor nations are highly contested as just and rightful by a lot of scholars. Another excerpt that strengthens this argument reads “Only the victors have stories to tell. We, the vanquished, were all cowards and weaklings by then, whose memories, fears, and enthusiasms should not be remembered.” (Sajer)
Sajer remarks about one of his post battle surveys, “We thought we heard a groan from one of the Russian Gunners, and went to a man smeared with blood, who was leaning, gasping, against one of the wheels of the gun carriage. One of our men uncorked his drinking bottle and lifted the head of the dying man. The Russian stared at us through enormous eyes, widened by terror or shock. He cried out, and then his head fell back, thudding against the metal of the wheel. He was dead.” (Sajer) This excerpt focuses our attention at two points and makes the research argument a little stronger. One of the two points is the humanity within the German soldier who tries to give water to a dying man even though he is from the enemy nation. The other point is the fear seen in the eyes of the Russian which is not unusual as all these soldiers have experienced it.
Sajer also remarks, “Then there was War, and I married it because there was nothing else when I reached the age of falling in love.” (Sajer). This shows how these young men from this time period had nothing else to do as the War was a predominant part of the world around them.
Although not many differences were found the minds of these soldiers there were differences nonetheless. One of the biggest differences was the way these soldiers were motivated. While the Soviet soldiers were motivated initially by the fear of death from their own comrades’ bullets, the presence of the Hero Vassili Zaitsev later motivated them to fight for their motherland. For the Germans it was the Fuhrer, The pride of the fatherland and the redemption of the loss of World War I. For the American on the other hand war was the only occupation, Major Winters joined the Parachute Regiment because it gave more pay. (Winters and Kingseed) Another difference was in the orders given. The Americans were ordered to do what was best for the situation. The Germans were ordered to hold on until the very end, but the Soviets were given the ‘Not a step back order’. This is visible from the famous remark “For us there is no land beyond Volga” hinting how they could not turn back and neither they could go in front. They were not allowed to retreat at any costs. This showed in the number of casualties each country faced, with Soviet Union leading this statistic. The soldier’s treatment by their own army was also different. The Americans rarely fired at their own men, but this occurrence was more common in the Russian army.

The three findings that this study aimed at were:
(i) To find out whether the Nazi, Red and US soldier was affected by the ideology of the country in his approach to war.
(ii) To find out whether there is difference between the thinking of soldiers of the three nations about the value of human life and if any particular extreme view existed against the enemy soldier as an individual.
(iii) To compare it with the current media portrayal.
The study shows that there is not much difference in the thinking of a soldier at the battlefield due to the ideologies of the nation. The only difference is the source of motivation which also loses its meaning in the midst of the battle. The soldiers felt the same fear and all of them despised war as a whole. “War always reaches the depths of horror because of idiots who perpetuate terror from generation to generation under the pretext of vengeance.” (Sajer) They valued human life equally at the grass root level of the soldier. There were similar attitudes towards the enemy forces and the only personal hatred was fuelled by the death of a loved one. These soldiers encountered similar emotions when met with the horrors of war. A similar attitude can also be seen among the soldiers in the pacific theatre as Tregaskis reported (Tregaskis). For the comparison between the current media portrayal of these soldiers and the facts we have to look at certain aspects. The American soldier as portrayed does not hold true in all cases. War crimes were committed by the American side also, only that they were not tried because of the Victor status of the USA (National Archive / USHMM). German Soldiers lined up for unofficial execution by Allied troops in Dachau.

The German soldier on the other hand was not always the well equipped and emotionless killing machine as portrayed in movies.
A reading of The Forgotten Soldier shows us the human aspect of the German army. This army was also affected by the atrocities of war and it was fighting as all the other armies for the pride and interests of its fatherland.
Although this study specifically chooses a topic that is available within the 3 main books it has some limitations. (i) Absence of enough English literature from the Russian and German sides. (ii) Geographical distance of the researcher from the nations under study. (iii) Absence of any personal interview sources to the researcher. (iv) Possible bias in Autobiographical
accounts.

Works Cited
Bottomore, T.B. A dictionary of Marxist thought. 1991.
Enemy at the Gates. Dir. Jean-Jacques Annaud. 2001.
National Archive / USHMM. <http://inquery.ushmm.org/uia-cgi/uia_doc/query/86?uf=uia_aLQfYN>.
Overy, Richard. The Dictators: Hitler 's Germany and Stalin 's Russia. 2004.
Sajer, Guy. The Forgotten Soldier. Potomac Books, n.d.
Saving Private Ryan. Dir. Steven Spielberg. 1998.
Tregaskis, Richard. Guadalcanal Diary. Modern Library, 2000.
Winters, Dick and Cole C. Kingseed. Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters. Berkley Caliber, n.d.
Winters, Major Dick and Col. Cole C. Kingseed. Beyond Band of Brothers. Berkley publishing group, 2008.
Zaitsev, Vassili, Neil Okrent(editor) and David Givens(translator). Notes of a Russian Sniper: Vassili Zaitsev and the Battle of Stalingrad. Frontline Books, 2010.