Long lost DUer BrentWil, whoever you are, wherever you are, you nailed it back in 2014.

[DFW]

91. It has a particular meaning to my family, of course.

My father-in-law was a 17 year old German farmer in 1941, when he was drafted. He returned to his farm in 1943 minus a leg that he left in Stalingrad. He literally WAS Göring's "slob on a farm."

Useless as a farmer after the war, he took dourses in banking, and joined a small rural bank that made loans to farms. He stayed there for the rest of his life. When he died, I went with his daughter (by then, my wife) to his funeral. I was blown away by how many people came. There were FOUR HUNDRED or more people, ninety per cent of which were other farmers he had helped stay afloat after the war.

Germany had compulsory military service for men during his lifetime. His most fervent wish was for all his grandchildren to be girls, so that they would never be drafted into the military. It was a wish fate was to grant him.