Yes, all we can do is continue to discuss and wait
I’ve shadowed 90% of these thread types & it’s interesting to see this post locked yet reopened, I wonder if maybe the devs are thinking about it for once (or just a mod at that).
For the most part on axis personal I’m not one for majority second world war figures although I known a few but I’d rather see Great War figures.
Bleedinguranium already knows my thoughts on these as we’ve discussed this before & I’d too like some of their suggestions.
I would be excited if I could get a PFP of say Maximilian von Spee, Commanding officer of the German East Asiatic Squadron or even Karl von Müller captain of the cruiser SMS Emden a ship also originally part of spees squadron.
And for a WWII figure (well for this case as they served many of the German navies) Bernhard Rogge captain of the Auxiliary Merchant Cruiser Atlantis HSK-2 (fun fact this ship is in game as the SS Goldenfels, the German merchant ship).
It’s a very contentious subject.How many Western heroes do we have who are far from the perfect ideal? What about General George Patton ? We have him for sure on the pages of history yet you can hear his opinions on things in this video and look at some of his actions and intentions.
It may come as a surprise to many.It seems there is hardly anybody who does not have some form of controversy if you dig deep enough.
Takaoka Susumu would be interesting. He was a test pilot who was the first to accomplish three important things in Japan.
- He was the first to fly a Japanese jet plane (Kikka plane)
- He was the first to crash a Japanese jet plane (Kikka plane)
- He was the first to fly a 100% Japanese jet plane after the war (Fuji T-1 plane)
What did he do?
Hartenstein was proof that humanity did not necessarily fall by the wayside in an inhumane war.
His most spectacular action was the attack on the 19,695 GRT British troopship Laconia off West Africa on 12 September 1942. The ship was carrying around 2741 people at the time, including 1809 Italian prisoners of war. The sinking of the ship was followed by a dramatic rescue operation in which U 506 and U 507 were also involved. Hartenstein’s boat had numerous lifeboats with castaways in tow and others on board when it was bombed and badly damaged by American fighter planes on 16 September 1942. Although the boat had clearly visible Red Cross flags on board during the rescue operation, this did not constitute protection in the sense of the Hague Conventions. These stipulated that hospital ships had to be made known to the enemy and painted white with a red cross; beyond that, they could not be used for any other purpose. Nevertheless, the American reaction was characterised by great severity, whereby the proximity of the strategically important Ascension base may have played a role, as did the assumption that Hartenstein was primarily concerned with the recovery of Italian prisoners of war. Several castaways from the troop transport were killed by the bombardment.
Japan, huh?
One of the ones I was thinking of (during WW2 though so keep that in mind) was Warrant Officer Sakio Komatsu. He had just taken off from the carrier IJN Taihou and noticed torpedo wakes headed for the ship so he broke formation and dove directly into one of the torpedoes causing it to detonate prematurely.
Unfortunately, despite this heroic action, the ship would still be hit by one torpedo which caused an hours-long chain reaction of bad events that led to the carrier exploding.
Excerpt from an article about the ship.
I can’t find a picture of Saiko Komatsu himself, though, only this painting interpretation of the event. I don’t think there are many records of him. So a picture would need to be found first.
Minoru Genda (August 1904 – 15 August 1989)
He was officer in the IJN Air Service and JASDF, and was the one who formed the famous “Blue Impulse” acrobat team, a stock camouflage for the F-86F-40 in the game.
So we got already suggestions for Germans and Japanese pages of history, it’s time Gaijin have a look at it. @War_Crime probably it’s time to move into the suggestion section
Why would the war winning west want to celebrate the man who planned the
“underhanded” attack on Pearl harbour ?
He has literally received LOM from the United States.
If they actually hated him, he would never have received it.
BTW, there is footage of him flying F-5A that is actually same aircraft we current have in the game.
There are a large number of so called war criminals who the US took under their wing for financial gain it wont stop the controversy on here though will it? Getting America’s seal of approval means nothing.
Based on the fact that they locked and reopened the thread, it’s possible they might give it a chance… Guess I gotta prepare some suggestions, but not before finishing my bachelor thesis paper :P
If he were a war criminal, countries other than the United States would have prosecuted him, but they didn’t.
At best, all he did at his trial was to describe the basic policy of the bombing China and the planning of Pearl Harbor.
Reminder Japan was also fought with countries other than the United States in WW2.
Also, achievements and wartime should considered separately.
Well it’s off topic but the US didn’t hand everybody over to the USSR for oblivious reasons.
Staying on topic ,it may be that post war old axis service people may have a place in the pages of history ,it’s not about WW2.
They may well listen to suggestions as they need people to feature.
Maybe some guys from lesser wars more recent wars or operations.
They also said they will never add top tier premiums.
Imho this whole debate circles around the question what is a war criminal and who determines who is a war criminal.
I mean killing innocent civilians (mainly women & children and elderly people as males were conscripted) with area / firebombing of residential areas / cities disqualifies most of the arguments of people claiming that they would have the moral high ground.
If you are French - look up the civilian deaths caused by allied bombing raids, you will find out that allies killed more French civilians than the all German attacks on the UK; nobody talks about that.
You simply can’t justify doing evil things just because “the other side” did evil things first - as this kills your credibility. As the victors determine what is a war criminal either to justify own actions or to implant a certain narrative those classifications will stand forever, no matter what kind of points you might bring into a debate - you can’t change written (and ofc biased like all history) history.
So even if gaijin would try to implement axis pfps - the problem is that everybody has an opinion on everything but only a few have facts to back up those opinions. I mean 80 years of propaganda worked as intended - you have good guys & bad guys, that is helpful if you are unable to think outside the box and gives you always the opportunity to kill any debate with the classic “war criminal” / " Nazi" argument without the need to deal with arguments.
I have an idea:
Manfred von Richthofen. Legendary Ace Pilot, definitely no war criminal, no Na7i ties. Now we just need WW1 air vehicle and perhaps Land and Sea Also.
Or Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, who participated in one of the most famous assassination attempts on Hitler.
Adolf Hitler wasn’t a war criminal in the first world war either : ) nor Hermann Göring.
Maybe we could feature WW1 versions of WW2 Germans and get round the issue of wrongdoing.
Everybody is happy : )
I think the French are already aware of the atrocities the British caused the French during WW2 as many of them are raised with such tales.It’s family history.The sinking of the French fleet killed so many then buggering off at Dunkirk and not even telling the French we were going was another one.No wonder us Brits are so unpopular in Normandy.It’s rarely the warmest of receptions from many.
Same as many Germans are aware of the starvation of hundreds of thousands of German troops marked as disarmed enemy forces as opposed to prisoners of war to avoid them being treated under the Geneva convention.The Germans around the Rhine area certainly hadn’t forgotten that one when we were there in the early 90s.
I think overall they should leave the heroes and villains thing out of the game completely.