East German Army in action

[+Gepard 11,307]

The red prussians.

Edited February 13, 2021 by Gepard

[+russouk2004 6,958]

wonder if most of em wondered,what the fuck am I doing for the commies?...why am I here ?..

[+daddyairplanes 10,244]

what was the context? i watched it thinking of the "be all you can be " US Army recruiting commercials in the 1980s, but i dont think thats the case here

[+whiteknight06604 934]

1 hour ago, russouk2004 said:

wonder if most of em wondered,what the fuck am I doing for the commies?...why am I here ?..

I think for a few they were zealous communists but most probably were just like the North Koreans who had to fake tears for Kim Jong Ill's funeral. they are doing what they have to to not get noticed and sent for "reeducation" As time went on the younger ones were basically brain washed into Marxism by the communist cradle to grave education system.

[+Gepard 11,307]

I think you are wrong. Military in germany (east and west) was duty, not volunteer. It was compulsory military service. And in all armies with compulsory military service the recruts think "What the fuck we are doing here!" This has nothing to do with east or west.

In east germany the military education started already in the school. The aim was not to learn "how to bring the glorious communism to the poor and suppressed crowds in the west". The aim was to learn how to defend the country. It was easy to believe to be on the right side. They had only to show us the pictures of the devastations in Vietnam. Then they had shown us the ruins of Dresden (some where still there in the 1980th). And they told us, that american bomber planes and missiles are aiming on us.

During my military time i have seen a education film with the title "Das ist der Feind!" (Thats the enemy!) It was a film which showed the drill of recruits of the US Marines Corps. No comment, no word. Only the sequences how the recruits were drilled, brainwashed, humilated. Then the film showed what the Marines had done in Vietnam. They showed the war crimes made by USA. And only short before the movie ended the words came: "This is the enemy! A bunch of merciless killers!"

This film is not available at YOUTUBE or any other platform.

 

 

[+whiteknight06604 934]

"During my military time i have seen a education film with the title "Das ist der Feind!" (Thats the enemy!) It was a film which showed the drill of recruits of the US Marines Corps. No comment, no word. Only the sequences how the recruits were drilled, brainwashed, humilated. Then the film showed what the Marines had done in Vietnam"

 

sounds like the usual propaganda we've seen from the communists. they certainly liked to project their actions onto others. 

Edited February 13, 2021 by whiteknight06604

[Mike Dora 171]

Very interesting film. What always bothered me about the DDR Army, is that if you changed the helmet “back”, with their legacy uniform style they would look just like the Wehrmacht.

With a group of fellow trainee RAF officers, visited the Inner German Border in the mid-Seventies. A chilling sight. Glad (very) that is all old history now.

[+paulopanz 2,876]

In Italy the P.C.I. (the Italian Communist Party, the largest in so called free word) had a proper school (le Frattocchie) and trained young people to be future leaders. The best of the couses, even it's not official, went in Hungary or other Warsaw Pact countries, to have a sort of a "communist master" (a friend of mine was in Budapest). They had a full indoctrination and worked all time against N.A.T.O. and U.S.A.

In fact they were by Soviet side in 1956 during Hungary revolt, in 1968 for the Praga spring and for the Vietnam war.

At the cold war climax they lead a strike against U.S. Pershing and Cruise  missiles, too, but they didn't the same against the Soviet SS-20 missiles, that were pointed aginst us. Even if the Pershing and Cruise missiles were placed to balance SS-20 missiles. As I remember in my classroom only another student and I didn' t strike ...

They enlisted  judges (there were dedicated schools for them), journalists, teachers, artist and so on to seize power, but luckly they never succeded.

After the Berin wall fall,  they changed their skins and survived.

They had lost Stalin and Breznev, but learned to love Clinton and mostly Obama (Obbbama they say), called Democrats themselves, but they aren't.

They are still there and at last rule the country: no more communist ideas, only power struggle.

Maybe I'm getting old, but as I prefer old true communists than those new fake democrats,  I liked so much the Gepard film (even the modern soundtrack) to remember.

in fact russian television proudly broadcasted parades and exercises all time like that in the 80s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[+Gepard 11,307]

9 hours ago, Mike Dora said:

Very interesting film. What always bothered me about the DDR Army, is that if you changed the helmet “back”, with their legacy uniform style they would look just like the Wehrmacht.

 

The "Wehrmacht-Style" of the uniforms was an invention of the soviets. When the first military organisation was build up in the early 1950th in East Germany, the uniforms were influenced by the Red Army Style. When the NVA was foundet in 1956 the soviet advisers prefered a more german style of the uniforms. So the uniforms got the typical german style. Only the color was changed from green to stone grey. The new helmet was the Wehrmachtshelm Typ 1944. It was simply renamed to Stahlhelm 1956.

The reason for it was, that the soviets had the so called Stalinplan. Their intention it was to create a independend and united Germany which had to be neutral and mostly disarmed. (The same what happend with Austria in 1955.) So a belt of neutral stated would be between the soviet sphere of influence in Europe and the american sphere of influence, starting with Finnland and Sweden, then Germany and Austria and in the south Yugoslavia. so a direct confrontation would have been avoided.

BTW. topic: steel helmet. When i visited the museum Wehrtechnische Sammlungen Koblenz (the Bundeswehrmuseum) they had had a collection of all steel helmets which were used in Europe. Interestingly only two helmest got good grades. It were the swedish helmet and the Stahlhelm 1956. The soviet helmet, the british helmet and the US helmet got very bad grading, and this by westgermans. The swedish and east german helmets were light and gave the best protection for the soldiers. Of course the new generation of Keflar helmets are even better. But if you look to the american helmet of today: the shape of this helmet is Wehrmacht-Style.

[+Muesli 2,161]

5 hours ago, Gepard said:

The "Wehrmacht-Style" of the uniforms was an invention of the soviets. When the first military organisation was build up in the early 1950th in East Germany, the uniforms were influenced by the Red Army Style. When the NVA was foundet in 1956 the soviet advisers prefered a more german style of the uniforms. So the uniforms got the typical german style. Only the color was changed from green to stone grey. The new helmet was the Wehrmachtshelm Typ 1944. It was simply renamed to Stahlhelm 1956.

The reason for it was, that the soviets had the so called Stalinplan. Their intention it was to create a independend and united Germany which had to be neutral and mostly disarmed. (The same what happend with Austria in 1955.) So a belt of neutral stated would be between the soviet sphere of influence in Europe and the american sphere of influence, starting with Finnland and Sweden, then Germany and Austria and in the south Yugoslavia. so a direct confrontation would have been avoided.

BTW. topic: steel helmet. When i visited the museum Wehrtechnische Sammlungen Koblenz (the Bundeswehrmuseum) they had had a collection of all steel helmets which were used in Europe. Interestingly only two helmest got good grades. It were the swedish helmet and the Stahlhelm 1956. The soviet helmet, the british helmet and the US helmet got very bad grading, and this by westgermans. The swedish and east german helmets were light and gave the best protection for the soldiers. Of course the new generation of Keflar helmets are even better. But if you look to the american helmet of today: the shape of this helmet is Wehrmacht-Style.

I have a former NVA hemet which was used by one of the parties  in the Bosnian Civil War. The former Yugoslavian Ne-44 helmet (which I too have) bares a resemblance to it, probably because it too is styled after the German style Stahlhelm.
It is logical, in a sense... The helmet has better protection for the sides of the head and neck, compared to the US M1 and the English 'soup plate'... 

[+whiteknight06604 934]

I have one in my collection. I wish I had kept my helmet and headgear collection intact. i didn't have the space in the past so gave about 3/4 of the stuff away. I had a ton of East German military gear. a few uniforms and all sorts of pouched and web gear. i have to say it was some of the most poorly made military equipment I have seen. I used a lot of it in my paintball days and it just didn't last long at all. 

[Mike Dora 171]

I see the conversation has moved on to helmet styles?

The British "soup-plate" (Brodie) helmet maligned above, was actually very good for its purpose, which was to minimize head wounds for the troops in the trenches in WW1. It was also pretty good at keeping a chap's head and shoulders dry..  I'm rather familiar with it, both from wearing it in an amateur production of RC Sherriff's "Journey's End" in 1970 (see first pic, I'm the Tommy on the left - the scene is set on 20 March 1918 on the Fifth Army front, rather not a good place and time to be..  ), and also because back in 1979, my warrant officer at RAF Lyneham insisted on still wearing his old 1916-style helmet whenever we had a Station tactical evaluation/exercise - "this is what I was issued with in 1944 Sir!". Not even the Station Commander would contradict him :)

For most of my RAF career though we used the 1944 pattern "turtle" helmet (second pic). Also very good in the rain. However sometimes some of the less experienced would  put it on back-to-front, we thought it made them look like East Germans..

Finally, in the mid-Eighties I was issued with the then-new Mk 6 Kevlar helmet. When I left the Service in 1997 - by then with UN Peacekeeping, after 3 years' Loan Service with UNHQ here in New York ;) - a minor "accounting error" meant that I was left in possession of this helmet. The stores corporal back in Britain was most understanding, when he realized that my helmet wasn't showing on his records, he asked "so do you want all the different covers for it sir?"

This came in very useful a few years later, when I was in Bunia, NE DR Congo at a particularly unpleasant time, see third pic. Felt much (much!) happier with a combat-proven British Army helmet*, than with a cheap UN blue Kevlar helmet procured from the lowest bidder on an international contract**.   Besides my British helmet had the advantage that if things got really really bad, one could always lie down, pull off the blue cover to reveal the camo cover underneath, and "make a noise like a bush".

Cheers

Stay Well

Mike

*..and with a US Army flak jacket, for same reasons.

** not saying where those came from, except - mes excuses mes amis…