The closing commentary separates the crew's sense of fighting for its country from any endorsement of Nazi Germany. It describes the country's conduct as heinous and its leader as atrocious, while noting Stalin's place on the Allied side to complicate a simple moral picture of the wartime coalition. The comparison is qualified by describing Stalin's repression as largely paranoid rather than directed at one ethnic group, though his treatment of the Cossacks is raised as a complication. The passage keeps individual combat experience and responsibility for the regime behind it in view together. It then returns to the practical recommendation that readers wanting a Tiger crew's first-hand account of Poznań will find this a strong book.
Notable Point · 14:34-16:00
Combat testimony and the regimes behind the war
The closing commentary separates the crew's sense of fighting for its country from approval of Nazi Germany, then places that testimony within the morally compromised wartime coalition.