And when they ask us
And they're certainly going to ask us
The reason why we didn't win the Croix de Guerre
Oh we'll never tell them
No we'll never tell them.
There was a front, but damned if we knew where.
[WWI soldier's song, based on a popular song of the time]
I suspect he shared that with us younger folks to illustrate that war is not glamorous, even if you win. Yes they won, but it was a disgustingly ugly affair for all parties involved.
I'm glad he shared that, because I have a very healthy aversion to unnecessary conflict, in part due to a few stories shared by him.
I think he had liberated a concentration camp. I wish I had remembered it better.
I think that this informed a lot of the fury towards the ordinary German population, that they could allow something like that to happen, or that they would ever just get used to it and go on with their lives. I'm probably conflating that with a scene from Band of Brothers, or some other written work.