Not specifically about armor, but Rommel is mentioned:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/hitlers-all-conquering-stormtroopers-felt-invincible-because-of-crystal-meth-style-drug-pervitin/ar-AAefoCP?li=AA59G3

I'm in no way a fanboy of the WW II German military; but, it gets pretty tiresome to keep seeing references to "Nazi soldiers" when mentioning the Wehrmacht. Surprisingly, a very small percentage of Wehrmacht personnel were members of the NSDAP.

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I'm in no way a fanboy of the WW II German military; but, it gets pretty tiresome to keep seeing references to "Nazi soldiers" when mentioning the Wehrmacht. Surprisingly, a very small percentage of Wehrmacht personnel were members of the NSDAP.

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"Nazi soldiers" is just a convenient shorthand for "The armed forces of the Third Reich who embraced the Nazi ideology and political aims and willingly acted as their physical agent of aggression and oppression despite the fact that only a small percentage of its personnel were actual NSDAP members."

"Nazi soldiers" rolls off the tongue or keyboard far more easily but everyone still knows what it means.

KL

"Nazi soldiers" is just a convenient shorthand for "The armed forces of the Third Reich who embraced the Nazi ideology and political aims and willingly acted as their physical agent of aggression and oppression despite the fact that only a small percentage of its personnel were actual NSDAP members."

"Nazi soldiers" rolls off the tongue or keyboard far more easily but everyone still knows what it means.

KL

Willingly? Hmmm, so no conscripts in the German Army then? Hmmmm.

Not all American Soldiers are Repulican or Democrats, not all Canadian Soldiers are Liberal or Conservative, but soldiers do what is asked for from there government regardless.

While the article is neither new or that shocking as has been mentioned(although it is interesting), the resulting discussion about Nazism is surprising. A German soldier did not have to be in the Nazi party to commit murder, rape, looting, destruction of property and participate in the Final Solution so arguing about who was and wasn't a Nazi misses the point. The Wehrmacht (all branches) participated in a war of aggression in support of European domination along with the destruction of Bolshevisim and Judaism, and the mass deportation of millions and enslavement of millions more. This, dare I say it, is not in dispute. I hope, at the very least, not on this site.

That the Wehrmacht was co-opted by the Nazi party was made easier by the willingness of the German population at large to go along. While I don't subscribe to Goldhagen's extreme view that all Germans harbored an 'eliminationist antisemitism' deep in their hearts, the works of Browning and Bartov among many clearly show the ideological framework within which Germany conducted the war. It's views on Poles, Slavs, Jews, and generally all Eastern Europeans was clear and unequivocal.

I think we, as modelers, sometimes get caught up in how cool this or that tank is and allow the vile and genocidal underpinnings of the war to fade into the background.

Cheers!

Chris