just occasionally you come up with a piece of historical information and can find nowhere to poke it into the historical consciousness.
well I'm going to poke this bit here. make of it what you will.
in a previous vocation I had care of an elderly ukrainian gentleman who opened up over a cup of tea. he explained the reason for something to me.
harken back to the dam busters famous raid on the german reservoirs. this is the raid that used barnes wallace's rolling bombs to demolish the dam walls.
in the book is mention that they struck heavy flak on one dam but on one of the next dams, despite being heavily fortified, not a shot was fired.
my ukrainian gentleman was one of those silent flak gun crews.
he explained to me that the ukrainians came to be in the german army because of a kind offer made by the germans. you either serve as troops or you get shot now. needless to say they all served as troops but with an obdurate streak.
in the weeks preceeding the dam busters raid the germans found themselves with a minor supply hiccup to the flak batteries in the area. they ran short of shells.
so the germans issued an order to the ukrainians that until further orders they were not to expend ammunition unless specifically approved to do so.
well the raid was a surprise which caught the germans unawares and it was over almost before anyone was aware that it was on.
so to a man the ukrainians on that dam wall followed orders to the letter.
they watched the bombers roll in on the approach, watched the rolling bombs release and skip across the water. when they realised what may happen they ran like hell.
my friend said that that night they were incredibly proud to have followed german orders to the letter.
when I attended him he had just had a massive brain tumour removed and was given just weeks to live. I have no idea what has happened to him since then.
an interesting answer to a mystery I thought.