Stellan,
You are very objective man and in my opinion you feel very good national mentality of selected countries and various psychological aspects of the war. Look below at this pic. I think that both you and me are able to imagine how many jokes and sarcastic comments would be told and written around the world about this pic if the soldier in a cart would be the Pole, French, Russian or Italian but never German. For the German Wehrmacht it was not a shame to enter Paris in the carts towed by donkeys but Poland must be ashamed of the fact that had no time to prepare in 1939 better tanks, better air force, better navy, better artillery and whatever else when Poland existed as an independent State only 20 years between the wars.
Maybe this pic would be also proper for The Softskin Forum?
Best regards
C.
