What started you off?

What got everyone here interested into WW2 and history?

I started laying medal of honour and sudden strike II, the watched a couple of films like Saving Private Ryan. Plus my dad is also a big expert, but recently I'm started to beat him.

 

My dad was always a flight simulator fan, nearly on a whim he bought Microsoft Combat Flight simulator. I played it the next morning, flying a Spitfire Mark XII over London swatting doodlebugs. I was already an expert on The Space Program, so i just transfered by energies to WW2.


CvM

 

Well, me and my Dad are really avid Civil War buffs, then I just sort of switched over to WWII(though I still maintain an avid interest in the War between the States.)

 

I have relatives too numerous to name that were in WWII and other recent wars. I just kind of inherited the interest. That, and when eveyone else was into star wars and superheros, I was into something that actually happened. That really struck me as a kid, and I just kind of stuck with it.

 

Yeah, me too! When I was little I watched "To hell and back", "the longest day" etc. instead of other things things.

WWII just always pulled me in. So many countries involved in so many different ways. + my grandfather being in it made a differnce too.

 

Im the same as Doc, and DB. I really got intrested in about 3rd or 4th grade read everything I could. Then I just suddenly stopped for a while.

During history class when we got to WW2, so much was wrong, but I kept my mouth shut because I couldn't remember what exactly happened. Sort of odd how bad teaching can ressurect your intrest in a subject.

 

When I was 12 they had a former resistance fighter coming to school and tell his story. That got me interested in the war.

Then the different graves of airmen in our area. Made me want to find out who these men were.

 

My mom bought me a book on Rommel for Christmas 1979...



what a big mistake....

 

Kai--it looks like our mothers thought alike mine got me interested in ww2 by telling me storied her father told her and watching old war movies and the TV series: COMBAT--as I was growing up.

 

well i was a army fan for a long time, and i started 2 look into wars and WWII was the biggest so i became intrested

 

5 or 6 years old when I got into my uncles duffel bag and started pulling out his WW 2 army uniform and medals. One thing led to another till I was 10 and I could visually and mentally understand of sorts what went on back then. My uncle started pulling out his WW 2 pics and gave me a huge RAD flag and pole top for starters, whcih i still have and almost in mint condition before they torched the barn and ammo inside.
I was then given materials in German of my deceased cousins which sparked an interest in both sides of the conflict with German military being the strongest.......

~E

 

Family history really.
I started reading up on my background, found out about my family in WW2...after, with the help of some people I became very interested in it...to the point where 95% of the books in my room are history orientated and about 75% of those are WW2.

DUCE

 

I started because both my parents are ex army. My mum was in the WRAC and my Dad was in the Royal Corps of Signals for 22 years. Living on an army barracks has that effec and i have gone from there to know where it is a passion and i hope to make some sort of living from my interest in all things military.

 

I started about when I was 7. I don't know why or how other than my dad was in the Army in the 60s. I just had the history bug in me.

I started with WWII, then went on to Vietnam and Korea and finally the Civil War. Now I'm also interested in alot of the ancient battles and want to read up on that as well as some of the Greek classics.

Greg

 

I started to get interested in WWII when i was 12 i think. It was a book on the scools small library wich name was simply "SS". I looked on the pictures because i thought that the german WWII uniforms and weapons was awsome(and still do). Later i began reading books like 'The Eagle Has Landed' and such. Then i began reading real WWII fact books. WWII has been my major interest since then.

 

Seriously? The Victor comic published in glorious colour in UK in sixties....

The stories in the Xmas ammuals got me into the 2nd world war, but interest then took off from their with regards to parents and relatives service in ww2.

Then furhter to all things military and onwards to general interest in history.

Took it all way to joining up, has never waned.

I owe much thanks to Aalf Tupper tough of the track, although dont think he ever put a uniform on in the Victor, but he gave me a taste for fish and chips in the paper too.

 

I have always loved History. Then I realised I loved military history too. And for some certain reason I started researching WWII some few years ago... And voilà!

Maybe my grandfather's influence helped...

 

Hey Fried, its good to have you back

 

Even though I'm in my late 30s, my father and many of my uncles were/are WW2 veterans; so I grew up on their stories. I first visited Normandy 20+ years ago, but for my many years my first love has been WW1. It's only in the last few years that I've come back to WW2 again, and have actively begun to track down vets, just as I did with WW1 vets years ago.

I'm also lucky that my work takes me out to a lot of WW2 battlefields and into contact with veterans; and the net has brought me into fellow WW2 addicts like you lot!

 

I watched Saving Private Ryan...then focused more on D-Day and learnt that America had fought desperate battles late 1944/early 1945 in Belgium and then it sprouted from there gathering names like Patton, Eisenhower, Rommel and the rest is history...