What is it about WW2 that makes you guys so passionate about it.? I am not a military person...a scholar...or a historian. But that war has always Fascinated me. I guess the world wide scale, and the date line that puts it in recent history makes it feel accessible...part of MY life. I think The One aspect that really makes it interesting is the technology. Many inventions we have today are a result of WW2...and many of today's products are here because they stood on the shoulders of WW2 technology and inspirations from The War. ALSO.....Armies of that era were more or less "matched". Today it would be impossible for Japan to send a fleet of ships to Pearl Harbor in "secret". Gaza cannot invade Israel. Most of what happened in WW2 cannot happen today. The prop planes were all similar...so were ships and RADAR. Some countries had more and better...but technology was not the lopsided disparity that we see today. There was chance for Britain to stand up to Germany. There was a chance that The Japanese could defeat the USA Navy. Victory was not a foregone conclusion in most cases. So I guess the more or less equal technologies...which caused a race for better technologies...makes WW2 of great interest to me. best
It was truly a world war. Most everybody knew or had relatives or friends involved. It's ramifications still echo today. The Cold War, Africa, and Middle East,et al.
What got me so passionate were four things... 1. The passing of my dad and some of his closest friends in Bomber Command... having never spoken a word about their experiences. http://www.members.shaw.ca/ASovereign/Art.html 2. Visiting (617 Squadron) Joe Merchant's Wing Commander (from his previous squadron) near Lismore NSW Australia. I spent a heartrending day with him in 1992, one of the most emotional and memorable of my life, while we toured his Macadamia Nut and Banana plantation. He said the only reason he was promoted to Wing Commander was that at 23 years, he was the oldest living pilot in the Squadron. :flag_oz: :S! He said he still received a steady stream of letters and phone calls from old crew members, and would politely reminisce but in fact could not remember a single name or face. In the war, all crewmen were referred to by the last three digits of their enlistment number only - never, ever by name. Neither would he ever look directly at the face of a squadron crew member. He said this was an absolute pre-requisite for emotional survival - the losses were that high. - Oh... that hurts. Hard to grasp how tough that job must have been. 3. The mile long row of Ginnala Maple Trees along Kalamalka Lake Road, Coldstream BC Canada. http://www.districtofcoldstream.ca/ Planted by my neighbour Hugh Mackie, one tree in memory of each boy lost in the war just in our little rural community alone. I maintain the gravesite to his two sons, lost to the RAF in WW2. No family members survive. http://www.members.shaw.ca/ASovereign/Neighbours.html and here at: http://www.ww2f.com/topic/17280-33-squadron-raf-africa-greece-1940-41/ 4. The interview with Paul Tibbets, veteran of the atomic bomb drop on Japan who was introduced by a teacher to a gym class full of students as a "veteran of World War Eleven." That tore my heart out, yet again. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad-l9MYPWMc From that "moment" on I resolved to ensure that I, for one, "will remember them." Fred Wilson, Royal Canadian Legion Member (Vernon, BC Canada; Branch 25) Returned and Services League Club Member (Barraba, NSW Australia)
For me, the technology is secondary. My interest in WW2 started with an investigation of my father's units. I spoke with a man who was in the 473rd and he gave me details that I didn't know. I corresponded with some here who gave avenues of investigation. The more I looked, the more I realized there were huge gaps in my knowledge. This led to more reading. There are still huge gaps, but I know where I can go for information. Thus, my involvement with the war began as a personal quest that led to a wider interest. I don't consider myself an expert, there are others here far more informed. The war in general holds my interest in a way no other subject does.
Why ww2 ? This, from my memoirs: 1st September 1939 It was a Friday afternoon and the family were gathered in sombre mood in the kitchen of our house in Boreham Street in the East End of London. The main talking point was the German invasion of Poland and the imminence of war in Europe I had celebrated my 16th birthday only a few weeks earlier, on the 16th of August, to be precise and I listened with feelings of excitement as the elder members of the family discussed the likely outcome of the urgent Governmental meetings taking place in Whitehall at that moment. “It has to be war now ” one of the boys said. “They’ll start calling up all the men” said one of the girls. The conversation flagged for a moment as if everyone was weighing up the consequences of what had just been said, there were, after all, five men in the family , Lou, Jack, Mossy, Mick and myself and then of course there were our sisters husbands and boy friends, also of military age. Mum spoke. “Well” she said, as if seizing some consolation, “at least Ronnie won’t have to go” Some three and a half years later, in April 1943, the troopship S.S.Frankonia anchored in the harbour of Algiers and prepared to discharged its cargo of fresh troops, reinforcements for the First Army in North Africa. Amongst the last of the troops to disembark that day were a draft of wireless operators including one Goldstein.R., Army No.14300260, in other words the same young man who’s mother had once said of him “At least Ronnie won’t have to go” It was to be a long and terrible war and by the time it was all over one of the boys had perished whilst serving in Bomber Command in the RAF and life was never to be the same. Ron
The rhetoric of our times is so grossly inflamed that the old words we once used to describe monstrous evil have been devalued almost to the point of worthlessness. Hitler, Stalin and Mao were demonic figures, mass murderers and torturers who destroyed millions upon millions of lives. The Japanese under the emperor believed they were so superior to other races that their treatment of them need not be inhibited by questions of morality. So they were free to bury Chinese up to their heads and gallop over them on horses or nail them to walls by their tongues. And yet the extreme left commonly used the term BusHitler to describe the former president, and the extreme right calls Obama a Communist. Whatever their faults, it is grotesque to compare them to those homicidal figures of the recent past. My point is people born even a few years after WWII have no idea how vile the Axis were and how foul their deeds. It is not too much to say it was a global war between good and evil. Tolkien wrote Lord of the Rings during the war and always insisted it had nothing to do with the conflict raging around him, but people have naturally assumed a close connection because the stakes were so high and the situation so desperate in the beginning years. The veterans at the point of the spear had seen such horrors that they seldom spoke of it until late in life if they did at all. Fred Wilson above mentions his father, a young wing commander who had to think of his fellow flyers as numbers and couldn't look them in the face because chances were good they wouldn't be coming back from the next mission or the one after that. Can you even begin to imagine the emotional pressures that would force a person into such self protection? Now multiple that by the millions magnitudes and you have WWII and why the interest in it continues.
I do have lesser interests in earlier wars but they're not ever going to be as engaging for me as WW2. My father was a British Army veteran of NWE, his father served in both world wars, and cousins, uncles, in-laws etc also served. His friends and contacts were invariably fellow veterans. My maternal grandfather fought in the Kuban, his brother-in-law was in Norway and a cousin was declared missing at Stalingrad - so, the other side. Personally then, an interest in WW2 was unavoidable; it was only a matter of when it took hold and how in-depth. WW2 has had such a large presence in both my and my husband's family - two relatives of his were killed - that I do regret approaching it initially as background for genealogy research rather than as History. Although I have a great amount of personal detail, I think I'm still too hazy with eg strategy than I really should be. However, if it was only about machines, weaponry and kit, I don't think I'd have hung around WW2Talk for as long as I have. No idea, really? I can't agree.
Dave55 re: Is there not a local Veteran's Association that is prepared to send Veteran speakers to these schools ? Ron
Dave at least you qualify your statement with many or most, but the original statement was "people born even a few years after WWII have no idea how vile the Axis were and how foul their deeds." I assume that includes you as well as me? If they don't teach it as part of the history syllabus it isn't the children's fault, the guilty ones are those in the generations above who are in charge. Come to think of it I was never taught about WW2 when I was at school in the 1970s and 80s, I knew of it, but not about it. Yet here I am on a WW2forum. Learning doesn't have to stop after school.
I really don't what sparked my interest, as it started rather early in my childhood. I guess it was the bogus "thrill" of warfare but as I matured, my interest developed into the plight (and I use that word intentionally) of the common soldier, just trying to live from day to day. I have books about the strategy, tactics, weapons development, rivet counting books, but my favorites are the numerous first person accounts that fill my bookshelf. I grew up around a large number of men who stood tall in my young estimation because I knew that they had seen the elephant. Most chose to speak very little of their experience but l learned that while many had a reason to be proud, most were just grateful for the extension to their earthly life offered to them by fate. I had several friends whose fathers were crippled by the war and they went on with their lives, dealing quietly every day with the infirmities meted out to them by combat. I respected those men. Later in life I also began to appreciate the strength of those left behind, either temporarily or permanently, to maintain the households, waiting on that day when their son, husband, father, brother, whatever, returned. That anguished was punctuated with me as a father one day years ago as I hurried out of the house to attend to some volunteer duties and left my 4 year old daughter sobbing uncontrollably as I departed, as she was worried that I would not return. I consider it an honor to be able delve into that horrendous time where those men gave a part of their youth, health, or their lives for a cause worthy of sacrifice. If you are a Christian, you will understand John 15:13.
Hi Ron. I'm sure the local VFW or American Legion would be happy to but politics and political correctness dictate everything that is done in public schools here. There would have to be a presentaton of the German point of view as well. I'd bet there would be groups that would protest veterans speaking to the little treasures because they would hear about violence. As dbf said, it isn't the kids fault if it isn't in the syllabus
Dave, I don't know where you live, but such a visitation is welcomed here in the suburbs of Philadelphia. I taught history and social studies for nearly 35 years, and such a visit was not uncommon. We had veterans and Holocaust survivors speak to both individual classes and to large groups. There was never a protest about them that I am aware of. If what you say is true, then I feel sorry for the young people in your location.
My interest in WW2 started when I received my fathers records. I started researching my family tree about 10 years ago and managed to go back to 1795; then I realised I didn't even know what my father did in the war. Like many others I never thought to ask what he did during the war-he died aged 65 and I was in my mid 30's. I find it strange even now that when I was younger I never gave much thought that he was a person and not just a parent, and that he had had a life before I was born. When I received his records I found I wanted to learn much more, and thanks to the guys on ww2talk I know much more than I could possibly have hoped for. I have learned so much from being on ww2 forums and find I can even help other members who are just starting out on their relatives research. I am passionate about WW2 now. When I was at school in the 60's we were never taught about WW2 or WW1. It was all about the Battle of Hastings and the Magna Carta-and I cannot remember any of it, only the dates have stuck in my mind :lol: . I guess you have to be really interested in something for it to grab your attention and stick in your memory. Lesley
Like many others, family...Grandad, Dad, their immediate kin...and even my mum who is still with us..all bared the scares of that war. And related it to us...their kin.
My interest is mostly centered on our Family involvement and rather limited to the events and areas directly associated with my uncles (three Brothers) and an uncle by marriage who served. To start me on the journey it was talking to two Uncle's who were Veterans of the War when I was young. Both continued their military career in the Air Force and retired as a full Colonel & Lt. Colonel. Added to that was two other Uncles who also served. One of which I found out, not long before he died, had bailed out over Yugoslavia when his P-38 ran out of fuel. Finding out I had relatives who lived through some of the things I had read about had a direct bearing. I think the most impressible memory was seeing those silver Eagles on Merle's shoulders and the rows of Ribbons on his uniform. The tv show "Combat" was popular at the time and here I was standing beside and talking to a "Real Life" Soldier! That's what brought me to this website & still drives my desire to learn more. As an added bonus; I now have the Military file of one Uncle with yet more snippets of information to add to the Family Military Tree.
Man - Oh - Man...could I have written this. I am sure many people could have. How does a person go about finding info regarding their parents military status in WW2.? I know they were both in The Navy...and both State-Side...but not much else. My Father died about 6 years ago (so I cant ask him), My Mother is still alive...but her mental condition would never allow her to remember, much less explain what she or my Father did in the war. Thank You
A further thought on the matter............ Two of my wife’s uncles, sadly departed many years ago, were of the generation that fought in the First World War, then known as the Great War and I was bemused by the fact that whenever these two met up they would be forever comparing WW1 wartime experiences. I have to remind myself now, in the year 2013, that these two old codgers were reminiscing in 1949 about events that had taken place only 31 years before yet here am I, on this site, discussing and yes, remembering, things that took place over 70 years ago ! It's a funny world, isn't it ? Ron
Funny? That's not the phrase that first pops to mind about you Ron. (Given the nod to your frequent contributions to our jokes threads!) Ron: We relish every word you post here and on ww2talk. I, for one, do not care a whit about what the topic is. If you have posted a reply, I immediately go to that post first to see what it is that you have to say. You are by far and away one of the most valued and appreciated member / contributors on both of our forums. Thank you Ron for all and everything you do and have done. :S! Fred Wilson. Vernon BC Canada.
