Canadians being nicknamed "Red Devils" by Germans...

stona said:

It did. It's something that was done by all sides. Solid information? there are many first hand accounts. For example I have read some recently, by the perpetrators, of the killing of captured and wounded German paratroopers on Crete.
A man surrendering is giving himself up to the very people he has likely just been trying to kill. The first few minutes are critical. If the prisoner survives these his chances of longer term survival increase exponentially.
Cheers
Steve

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Could you please let me know where you read this about Crete? it is not that I doubt you it is only that I have a particularly strong interest in Crete.
I have more often heard of the killing of captured and wounded German troops by Cretan civilians and later the Andartes SOE than by regular Commonwealth troops. I am aware that in places when the German paras first landed the Commonwealth troops went through the olive groves and orchards as quickly as they could killing German paras suspended from trees and not taking prisoners because there was nobody to take them back behind the lines. I did see a documentary where a veteran talked of this and I was disgusted by his proud and gloating attitude, the harsh reality may have been that there was no other option than to do this but there is no need to be proud of it.

razor1uk said:

The nickname 'Storm Troopers' isn't Hitlers, he reused/borrowed it; it relates to the Canadians or some of there forces who fourght hard in trenches of WW1, at Paschendael I think amongst other locations, where they excelling in trench clearences, fighting hand to hand in improvised close combat with tenacity and vigour to a man, driving off over whelming enemy attacks, and for operating in a slightly different manner to the British .

I'm sure some of the Canadian forum members will know better and correct me here

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I don't know that much about the First World War or the part played in it by the Canadians but I think it was the Canadians that first introduced the method of sending forward in attack blobs of troops supported by their own machine guns etc under a creeping barrage rather than ranks of slowly moving soldiers shoulder to shoulder. There was also an infamous story of a Canadian soldier being crucified by Germans, it is generally accepted now that this unfortunate Canadian soldier was blown into that position by a artillery shell.

In Anthony Beevor's book on Crete.

Crete: The Battle And The Resistance by Antony Beevor - Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists

I remember one account from a British officer and one from a Maori soldier off the top of my head.

Cheers

Steve

Thanks, I have read that one but not for a few years.

pattle said:

Thanks, I have read that one but not for a few years.

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I re-read it recently. My copy is on the way back from Spain.....it's a long story

Cheers

Steve