Unluckily, imho, we have a bit of a degeneration of all major newspaers into Bild style reporting. Stern, Spiegel, Focus, especially in regards to Greece went the opinionated emotional route. We can only hope this is not a long living trend.

I wasn't disputing the man's evident 'charm', more the statement that he 'wasn't anti-semitic or dogmatic'.

Although I saw one documentary about his brother who apparently assisted thousands of Jewish people to flee.

AFAIK Göring wasn't particularly anti semitic, he was pragmatic about not going the party line though.

IIRC there is a story about when Erhard Milch was being put under the magnifying glass for his - allaged - Jewish ancestry. Göring stepped in told Himmler along the lines that 'Dear Heinrich, it is I who decide who is jewish in the Luftwaffe and who is not'. As for dogmatic... I don't know, he strikes me as a rather pragmatic, and opportunistic character, rather than the fanatic nazis like Hess, Hitler or Himmler. Politics probably only interested him as long as it was practical. At least this is my take on him.

Personally, after the war I think many LW commanders simply pointed fingers to the 'fat man' and blamed their own failures on him, much like the infallible Wehrmacht generals did after the war when saying: '...it was all Hitler's fault'. I mean Galland especially. I like Galland a lot a man and a fighter pilot, but I am realistic about that he only tells his side of the story, and there were plenty of people who did not like his leadership, and whom Galland did not like either. But Galland got to wrote his memoir and others did not. IMHO he probably wasn't as good as a staff officer as he was a Gruppe or Geschwader commander. His failure in Italy and the naivity of his 'big blow' plan are striking examples imho, but he always had Fat Hermann as an excuse. IMHO Molders was classes better for that role.

In reality, Göring was interfering very little with the Luftwaffe during the war, he was more of a political connection to the nazi party, rather than a real actor; Milch was the actual man who was behind organisation and such, Göring did little more than preside over GL meetings.

Sternjaeger wants to have his cake and eat it too, if you give him facts he says that they're misinterpreted. If you give him logically sound and well thought out interperatations he wants facts.

There is an old saying, 'you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink the water, even if it is the sweetest water'.

Maybe that's because GB was the only European country on the "good" side who fought from the beginning to end, without changing sides, and actually landed up on the winning side. Also, maybe you should look up some of the celebrations in Poland sometime!

Who else would celebrate their performance/actions during WW2; Germany? Italy? France? Belgium? Netherlands? Romania? Finland? Russia? Hungary? Austria? etc.

As for the importance of the BOB, compare the losses in the BOF to BOB...you will really get enlightened:)

I reckon Russia, and they do don't they?

No there's no sarcasm in that at all, Germany must be forgiven WWII, but Britain can never be forgiven for once being the worlds largest empire.

They very much do......it's just apparently less offensive than The way Brits celebrate.

There is a difference. Germans themselves (at least most of them) are aware that ww2 was a terrible thing and German guilt is recognized. Go to Berlin and look at the HUGE memorial in plain town centre to the memory of the dead of the Holocaust. A picture for you (On the top left corner you see the Reichstag-building):

http://ais.badische-zeitung.de/piece...6293-w-600.jpg

Another perspective:
http://www.attraktionen.info/images/...st-mahnmal.jpg

Where are your memorials on the dark spots in British history?

Remember: one can only be forgiven when one recognizes one's guilt.