Getting the message to the younger generation

As another who is still (pretty much) a kid I agree with Matthew. I started off following my father to airshows and was hooked in a matter of months. Before I could read I had been through and learned all of the aircraft in my fathers recognition guides. From there my interest just got bigger and it continues to do so every day. As I got older I began to ask my grandpa questions, not about his experiences per-se but things, like 'did he have a Tommy gun' and 'did he ever drive a Jeep.' Of couse each question turned into a story, which my brother and I are now recording.

One final thing, don't forget in the UK we have the finest resource for getting kids interested in WW2: Commando Comic!



From the age of about 8 I read every one I could get my hands on, got a subscription eventually and was tearing through them right up until secondary school (makes me laugh that the day I bought my last Commando I also bought Catch 22). They are actually quite complex, with a clear destinction between 'good' and 'bad' but often with a 'sympathetic baddie' just to show the Germans aren't all rotters kind of thing. An excellent place for a youngster to start, now available in large volumes at waterstones.

 

Yeah I've been rather "inactive" if you will I check here fairly regularly and this thread caught my eye, I'd like to be more active but we all know how that goes

BTW Stefan, that magazine looks pretty interesting, is it historically accurate? One thing that really bugs me is when folks don't do their research. Such as Spanish tanks used for king tigers in "Battle of the Bulge" or the american halftracks with .50 cals on top It was most disapointing to learn that because that was one of my favorite movies to watch with my grandfather. Then I started doing my research on real tanks saw the KT and thought "hmmmm"


Matt

 

Ah, erm...those old 'Commando' comix ( which I also used to read avidly ) I wouldn't really decribe as 'historically accurate'.....

But they led me on to collect Orbis' 'World War II' ( one of those old weekly part-works ) in the early 1970s and that certainly was accurate......

 

Generalfeldmarschall Matthew Bluhm, why such a short name?

 

Haha, for a kids comic they are reasonably accurate but that isn't the point. They are action packed adventure stories for kids (though whilst looking for an illustration I noticed that they have some new ones out that look great!).

I have never found the inaccuracy particularly annoying.

 

Inaccurate?!
Next you'll be telling me Alf Tupper wasn't 'Tough of the Tracks' and that Warlord wasn't the finest double agent of the Second War.
Pah!

Acka acka acka!
Gott in Himmel!
Take that Fritz!
Aiieeee!


Putting aside the rip-roaring storylines the illustration of equipment was usually pretty good in Commando and Battle Action Weekly etc., those front page weapon briefings were probably the very beginning of the slippery slope towards obsessive book-collecting for me. Commando's history is discussed in the new 12 book editions, understandably given the timescale most of the writing and illustration was done by chaps who had served in WW2. It's a shame but I don't suppose we'll see the mass-market flowering of 'war comics' again.

Cheers,
Adam.

 

Very true, Commando is the only reason I knew the dimensions of various fighter aircraft and tanks right up until I was about 14...

 

I see we've found the joker of the bunch

Not that I would be too interested in buying them if they did but I agree with you. I think we are way to "politically correct" these days. If something like that appeared on the shelves nowadays I think people would have a conniption fit anic:



The superfluously named Generalfeldmarschall Matthew Bluhm

 

My friend has a series of old WWII comic books. I can't remember what they were called but each one was a seperate fictional story from the war. They are very good. Whenever I visit his house I read one. They are small about six inches by four inches.

I recall a rather memorable one where a feldwebel returns from the dead to get revenge on the commanding officer that abandoned his squad on the eastern front and got them killed. You didn't find out he was a ghost till the end which was very cool. Anyone remember these?

 

Urqh, I think he is lieing to us, we all know that the 'division of the dead' fought in the ruins of Berlin!

 

I've got a neat little cache of "military" comics from the early 1980's. They include the first ten issues of G.I.Joe, a few Combat, Sgt. Rock and other lesser known. What's that one called with the American tank that's haunted by the ghost of J.E.B. Stuart? I also have The Punisher: Armory 1st edition. I had a few Groo as well but don't know where those got off to. Sadly, none of these is worth Jack's beans, as I found out by looking on E-bay.

 

Photos of my son and I. We are at the Battle of the Bulge museum in Clarveux Luxembourg. We also stopped by and paid respects to all those buried at the WWII cemetery including George S. Patton

 

Holy mackerel, in what planet were these pics taken?

 

Looks like a great trip and a fantanstic way to get the message across, but what's up with the color?

 

It's my scanner going martian on me. Sorry.

 

Who cares, I was only joking. What matters here is your spirit in taking this trip and taking your son along.

 

Thanks Za. I think I need a Pz to run over that scanner of mine. BTW, my son put two and two together when I told him that Patton was that general in the movie (Patton) that I like and he had seen with me. His face got really sad when he looked at Patton's grave stone. It was a great trip. This trip took place over ten years ago.

 

This is what I think or believe. That sentence is how I start out with my kids and now my grandkids. This is with any subject matter when they ask about something. Plant the seed and water it every so often.
A while back everybody was over to the house for it was time to clean out the acumalations I was moving into a little apartment.
The gals cleaned up all the knicky-knacks and the guys got the tool's and sporting items. My second oldest grandson came up to me and asked if he could have my army uniform (class A) I asked why would you want that? To remember you were in the Army. He got it.