| 80. "The French cleaned out Stuttgart, we saw lots of stuff going back to France - machinery, goods, cattle, supplies, horses, - long convoys of stuff looted from the Germans." Where had the Germans gotten the stuff ? From France. The long convoys you saw were not "loot": they were authorized reparations, approved by the United States, Great Britain and Russia. The French had a right, under international law, to take back some of the commodities the Germans had stolen from them. Here are sample figures on what the Germans took out of France: Wheat 2,340,000 metric tons Oats 2,360,000 Hay 1,539,000 Straw 1,870,000 Potatoes 600,000 Fresh fruits 290,000 Cider apples 210,000 Sugar 180,000 Horses 650,000 Eggs 150,000,000 dozen Wine 190,000,000 gals Beer 83,000,000 Champagne 16,000,000 Cognac 3,458,000 (1 metric ton equals 2,205 pounds, approximately equal to 1 long ton of 2,240 lbs.)The Germans also "requisitioned" or damaged: 668,253,000,000 Francs worth of agricultural products ; 448,474,000,000 Francs worth of industrial and commercial products; 246,361,000,000 Francs worth of war material. (See also question # 106.) |