Years ago I meant an older woman who as a little girl had lived next to an airfield in Great Britain in late 30's early 40's. She described to me how over the summer of 1940 she watched young men in their early 20's turn into old men and not return as they fought to win the Battle of Britain. In the end RAF was triumphant but the price was very high in equipment and lives.

I have met individuals who were in the Germany military during WWII and I have heard their stories. Still it is hard for me to imagine what it must have been like everyday throw oneself into combat against an enemy whose numbers never seem to diminish and who seems to a never-ending supply of aircraft and crews. To see despite your sacrifices and losses your own homeland slowly pounded into rubble! Whether you agreed with the current regime or not this was your own homeland being destroyed by a relentless onslaught. Yet in the face of all this you had to conduct yourself in professional fashion while your orders required you to make greater and greater sacrifices. This would have a terrible toll on even the hardiest of individuals.