Soldaten VIII.

This is coolbert:

Continuing with extracts and comments from the book: "Life of a Nazi Soldier".

"The Smell of Death"

"My first sight of a dead soldier was an unexpected shock. We had been trained to deliver death quickly and efficiently, and we knew that in war people get killed. But 'knowing' it  intellectually was entirely different from seeing and experiencing it . . . the word 'killed still had a clinical connotation about it compare to its meaning when you saw lying on the ground before you a bloodied, mutilated, foul-smelling corpse that had previously been a vital, living human being."

Inexperienced and "green" troops, individuals and units collectively both developing a paralysis when confronting dead bodies on the battlefield for the first time?

The smell of decomposing human remains quite intense and foul. And if a human body having also been subjected to fire and flame the odor even far worse. A person at any given moment possessing in his internal system two to six pounds [one to three kilograms] of solid waste. Expelled or being burned that solid waste most putrid in the extreme.

1. The Israeli subjecting troops during maneuvers and anti-terrorist exercises to the "smell of death". A canister opened that emits an odor resembling the smell of a decaying human body. So that troops subsequently not so shocked when first encountering the smell.

2. American soldiers in preparation for deployment overseas to a combat zone having to witness an autopsy and handle human organs as removed from the cadaver. At this time such a methodology of training restricted to officers and NCO's [sergeants] of the 101st Airmobile.

HEY, nobody ever said this was going to be easy!!

coolbert.