Who Else Enjoys Military History?

fureverywhere

fureverywhere

beloved friend who will always be with us in spiri
Location
Northern NJ, USA
I'm a history buff. Would have been my second choice for a major next to political science. I've just started a book called "Ship of Ghosts". The USS Houston was FDR's favorite warship. Only two months into the war the Japanese bombed it causing irreparable damage. It says the movie "The Bridge on the River Kwai" was based on survivor's stories. A real page turner.
 

I'm a card carrying history nut, with a special interest in military history, especially the American Civil War (or as my very southern great aunt called it "the late unpleasantness with the Yankees"), WWI and WWII.
 
I would mention Shelby Foote. My younger son's middle name...Shelby. He was a complicated character. Ed Burns said that rather interview him they just asked an open ended question and let him roll. Proud of his Southern roots but vehement against segregation. He would have been a happy Southern gentleman without slavery. Yep quite complicated...
 

I've enjoyed visiting battlefields all over the US and the world and learning about the battles from the visitor centers.

Last spring, I visited the Anzac Cove memorial at Gallipoli where I saw the very moving memorial to the Anzac soldiers, written by Ataturk:

"Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives… You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours… You, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace, after having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well." Ataturk, 1934
 
When you've helped make it (1953 - 1993 , Libya, Sudan, Kenya, Belize, Zimbabwe, Yemen, the Gulf (4 times), Ulster, the Falklands,Berlin) you tend not to study it!

I thank God that I was too young for Korea and too old for Afghanistan.
 
Just finished "I Was Hitler's Chauffeur" and was impressed with this personal view of life close to Hitler throughout the period of the Third Reich. Although Hitler might look foolish to us today, his magnetism and political skill seduced normally rational people. Kind of what we are seeing in the US today...
 
I'm a fan of historical Chinese and Japanese warfare. Interesting stuff and you get an appreciation of where their heads were at during those times.
 
I enjoy history but I'd never say I'm a military history buff. My husband owns the DVD sets of Ken Burns Civil War, and the World at War. He's seen both countless times. We visited Gettysburg twice.
 
Laurie said:
When you've helped make it (1953 - 1993 , Libya, Sudan, Kenya, Belize, Zimbabwe, Yemen, the Gulf (4 times), Ulster, the Falklands,Berlin) you tend not to study it!

I thank God that I was too young for Korea and too old for Afghanistan.
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You must have storiies!



I love history,I love to read about it.I'm not ann expert though.I wish I knew more.

Fur,you might like the show that chic mentioned. TURN,Washingtons Spies.
 
When you've helped make it (1953 - 1993 , Libya, Sudan, Kenya, Belize, Zimbabwe, Yemen, the Gulf (4 times), Ulster, the Falklands,Berlin) you tend not to study it!

I thank God that I was too young for Korea and too old for Afghanistan.

My Dad was in WWII for several years. Except for "The Greatest Generation" it's a subject he has always avoided. It must be quite different if you were actually in the conflict. Something you don't want to go back to.
 
My late FIL was in the RAF for the entire 6 years of the war. He was a gunner. Husband said he didn't talk about it a lot but he did share a few stories.
 
Ameriscot said:
My late FIL was in the RAF for the entire 6 years of the war. He was a gunner. Husband said he didn't talk about it a lot but he did share a few stories.
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How did he keep his sanity? The sort of cold courage that cannot even be imagined.

The long hours of the outward trip, alone in you turret with your thoughts, twenty minutes or so of stark terror, then the long trip home, alone in your turret with your thoughts, knowing that a few nights later you'd have to do it all over again, and again, and again ..............
 
Laurie said:
How did he keep his sanity? The sort of cold courage that cannot even be imagined.

The long hours of the outward trip, alone in you turret with your thoughts, twenty minutes or so of stark terror, then the long trip home, alone in your turret with your thoughts, knowing that a few nights later you'd have to do it all over again, and again, and again ..............
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No idea. I never met him. He spent a lot of time in North Africa though.
 
My Dad was lucky. He could type incredibly fast. He got a job as chaplain's assistant that kept him out of heavy combat...always joked he spent most of the war moving the organ place to place. Still put you in some scary places I'm sure.
 
Laurie said:
When you've helped make it (1953 - 1993 , Libya, Sudan, Kenya, Belize, Zimbabwe, Yemen, the Gulf (4 times), Ulster, the Falklands,Berlin) you tend not to study it!

I thank God that I was too young for Korea and too old for Afghanistan.
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Because of the draft, I lost high school friends, including the love of my life, in Vietnam. Not the same as being there, of course, but horrific shocks to a young girl/woman. To this day, I cannot bear to read about or see movies about Vietnam.
 
"He spent a lot of time in North Africa though."

I had an uncle who was a Desert Rat in North Africa as a motor cycle despatch rider.

I can remember a member of the Afrika Corps (I'm an honorary member) saying to me in the 1980s, with a twinkle, "I'd like to meet your uncle. I would have liked even more to have met him in 1941!"

The Germans have no sense of humour!
 
Laurie said:
"He spent a lot of time in North Africa though."

I had an uncle who was a Desert Rat in North Africa as a motor cycle despatch rider.

I can remember a member of the Afrika Corps (I'm an honorary member) saying to me in the 1980s, with a twinkle, "I'd like to meet your uncle. I would have liked even more to have met him in 1941!"

The Germans have no sense of humour!
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When I was in the army I was acting as a guard over an Africa Corps POW camp and believe me those guys behind that wire were some of the nicest men you could wish to meet. They accepted their defeat like real men and showed no malice towards us whatsoever. I can tell you a little story but don,t let on. I was once put in charge of the guard over a POW camp of Africa Corps POWs in Italy. We were bored and went out and got plastered. When we got back we thought maybe the POWs would like to have a little wander around the town so we unlocked the gates and went to bed. When we woke in the morning we had sobered up. My Gawd!! What have we done! We dashed down to the camp and much to our relief every one had returned and thanked us for letting them have a run out. We must remember though that most of these Africa Corps men were NOT Nazis but regulars of a pre war army.
 
My dad was career Army, but that does not make me a military history genius by any sense of the imagination. Wars, beginning with WWII and forward, I have studied and still do, but only to some degree.
 
Every year on April 25 Australians remember the Gallipoli campaign that began on that day in 1915. After 1945 ANZAC Day has come to be a day when we remember all of the fallen in all wars that Australia has been engaged in. Last year was the centenary of the landing on the beach in Turkey which is now named Anzac Cove and since then we have been reliving many major battles/campaigns of the Great War.

ANZAC Day is a national public holiday and ceremonies are held in every city and country town and at major battle fields - Gallipoli in Turkey, Villers-Bretonneux in France, Kokoda in PNG and Long Tan in Vietnam. people for whom these locations have particular significance travel there, many at their own expense, to take part in the ceremonies. Young people in particular have begun to make the pilgrimage to Gallipoli in increasing numbers. Hubby and I have been to Gallipoli, Singapore, and PNG where we have visited war cemeteries and other sites significant to Australian military history.

The major services are broadcast on TV and so are the solemn street marches of returned service people. Commentators give some details of the service history of each unit that passes by.

Our house has many books written about Australian military history. The National War Museum in Canberra has a very moving shrine of remembrance and on the walls leading to the shrine are the names of all the Australian fallen in both of the world wars. Nearby are more recent memorials for later campaigns. The names of two of my uncles are recorded for WW II and although both were killed before I was born I always search them out and leave a poppy whenever I am down that way.

Roll of Honour.JPG

Enjoy is not the word I would use about my interest in history relating to wars but I do think that it is important to understand what went on in the past and hopefully learn some valuable lessons for the future.
 
I enjoy the History Channel and similar stations. My son will watch with me and we learn together. There's always something new...One night there was a fascinating story. They captured a bunch of high ranking German officers. Instead of jailing them the Americans had an idea. They wired up a house to record voices in every room.

Of course nowadays that's not a big whoop. But with the technology of the era it meant actually wiring key places, which went to human transcribers hiding in the basement. They had to listen for conversation, translate it to English and type it onto disks that could be delivered elsewhere.

The officers were moved into the house and treated as detained guests not prisoners of war. And just as was predicated they talked. Even the radio programs they listened to could be tweaked to give them false news reports. Then their reaction could be tracked. At the end of the war they were basically pardoned. But so much interesting stuff packed into 45 minutes.
 
"We were bored and went out and got plastered. "

Good job you didn't take them ( the Afrika Corps) with you. By God those boys could drink!

I thought our Chelsea Pensioners could put it away, but that particular Kameradenshcaft saw off a British Sergeants' Mess!


 
It is very moving because the dead from both sides are buried there. And all are honoured for their sacrifice.
My reaction when I went there was "what the hell were we doing invading this country?"

Of course, historical events must always be understood in terms of the era in which they occurred.
 
War has been the norm it seems thru the history of mankind. Maybe some day it won't be so...
 

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