I think Hollywood has done both a service and disservice to history--a service in that it makes things like D-Day feel real to today's generation, but of course, a disservice to actual facts that are often set aside in the name of dramatic license. I think it worries me more when the schools themselves deem WW2 and that era as no longer relevant, which sadly seems to be going on more and more.
I have a vivid memory of speaking with a Normandy veteran who attended the church we went to about 25 years ago... it was one of the most rewarding conversations I've ever had with a WW2 vet. Very inspiring, for all that he was incredibly humble about his own part. He's been gone for some 15 years now--I wish every D-Day that I could call him to thank him.
I think it worries me more when the schools themselves deem WW2 and that era as no longer relevant, which sadly seems to be going on more and more.That is sad. When I was at school it wasn't really seen as history as it was much too recent - the war had been over for less than 10 years when I was born. But nowadays it is a big part of almost every secondary school's history syllabus - particularly with an emphasis on the holocaust. In part, of course, many schools choose this option to teach for the National Exams because school trips to see the actual battle sites, or the Holocaust memorials, are fairly easily arranged
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Some of them were older, of course - my uncle Eric was 27 by that stage, having signed up as a 22 year old during the very first weeks of the war.
But somehow the old film footage makes them all look as if they are in their 30s... I absolutely agree abut their parents. Can you imagine your son at 18 being given a machine gun and sent into battle?
I was thinking of that when we went to P's awards ceremony, and some of the kids in their uniforms looked to be no more than 12, although I think they were at least 14. But in so many eras, 14 was considered old enough to apprentice, and I know that during the Revolutionary War here, that was old enough to play the fife or drum, and they were often targeted to prevent the rest of the army from getting the signals on the battlefield.
But P is going to be 17 this summer, and he wants to go into the military, and he's still so young. I can't imagine being 18 and seeing that sort of carnage.
The drummer boys in the Civil War were even younger than that - 8, 10 years old. Which explains how I was able to know someone who was in the Civil War as a child.
My Dad was 29 on June 6, 1944 but I'm sure most of his company were a lot younger than that.
oh wow i'm so impressed that you knew somebody who was in the civil war (and jealous) the closest I have come is being able to talk with someone who knew a civil war veteran when he was a child.
He was a tiny man with a long white beard who was friends with my Mom's Uncles and he walked around town with a child's red wagon. He must have been in his 90s at the time because I was somewhere around 8 - 10 or so (I'm 65 now).
I'm glad it has had some coverage so that people can see how much their loss was appreciated and remembered.
Here there has been almost 24/7 coverage of both yesterday's events and those today. Hopefully the younger generations have been watching at least some of it, as if we forget the past we repeat it...
It was good to see that nothing was glossed over.
In our schools the emphasis, in Primary School, is on everyday life 'on the home front; what did you get to eat? What was it like to be in an air-raid? And so on. The fighting, the how and the why, is always taught in Secondary Schools.
When I was a child we knew quite a lot about 'The War', I'm not even sure how, to be honest. And we always went to the Remembrance Service at the town War Memorial every year. But I am, like you, mainly grateful for good history programmes on TV, a husband who is an expert too - for my father and uncle spoke little of their experiences - and usually only told us the funny bits - of which there were, as in all life, certainly a few.
Well you can't blame Hollywood for emphasizing the U.S. part in the invasion, this was their men they were filming after all! Considering how thin the U.S. was stretched at the time with the war in the Pacific, I am surprised they were able to send so many
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I am not really surprised that Hollywood mainly shows the American side of the war, as if it only started when they arrived. Although it would be helpful if they didn't keep changing history to make it look as if everything was done by Americans such as the film that showed the capture of the enigma machine from a submarine by an American vessel... When in reality, it was British personnel from HMS Bulldog who first captured a naval Enigma machine (from U-110 in the North Atlantic in May 1941), before the United States had even entered the war.
Considering how thin the U.S. was stretched at the time with the war in the Pacific, I am surprised they were able to send so many!But then there were also something like 150,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers fighting there, too, as well as airforce and naval personnel. Or do they not mention them in America
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Yes, there was rationing in the U.S. but I am talking about rationing in England where I was born and lived until I was 21.
To be honest I don't remember them teaching us about the war in school, probably too soon after the fact.
I do remember my uncle talking about heating tins of what they thought was stew of some kind only to find on opening them that they had a nice tin of melted butter! He was in Italy for a time. My dad was in the signal corps when young but developed a hearing impairment, the head phones were not as well made as they are now and he had infections in his ears that damaged to canal and he had to rely on bone conduction to hear.
Yes, that's right the U.S. did not enter the war until November of that year after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
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I have a vivid memory of speaking with a Normandy veteran who attended the church we went to about 25 years ago... it was one of the most rewarding conversations I've ever had with a WW2 vet. Very inspiring, for all that he was incredibly humble about his own part. He's been gone for some 15 years now--I wish every D-Day that I could call him to thank him.
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I did not realise that the soldiers who took part were so young. Their parents must have been terrified.
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But somehow the old film footage makes them all look as if they are in their 30s... I absolutely agree abut their parents. Can you imagine your son at 18 being given a machine gun and sent into battle?
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But P is going to be 17 this summer, and he wants to go into the military, and he's still so young. I can't imagine being 18 and seeing that sort of carnage.
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My Dad was 29 on June 6, 1944 but I'm sure most of his company were a lot younger than that.
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(and jealous)
the closest I have come is being able to talk with someone who knew a civil war veteran when he was a child.
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Here there has been almost 24/7 coverage of both yesterday's events and those today. Hopefully the younger generations have been watching at least some of it, as if we forget the past we repeat it...
It was good to see that nothing was glossed over.
In our schools the emphasis, in Primary School, is on everyday life 'on the home front; what did you get to eat? What was it like to be in an air-raid? And so on. The fighting, the how and the why, is always taught in Secondary Schools.
When I was a child we knew quite a lot about 'The War', I'm not even sure how, to be honest. And we always went to the Remembrance Service at the town War Memorial every year. But I am, like you, mainly grateful for good history programmes on TV, a husband who is an expert too - for my father and uncle spoke little of their experiences - and usually only told us the funny bits - of which there were, as in all life, certainly a few.
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Considering how thin the U.S. was stretched at the time with the war in the Pacific, I am surprised they were able to send so many!But then there were also something like 150,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers fighting there, too, as well as airforce and naval personnel. Or do they not mention them in America ( ... )
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To be honest I don't remember them teaching us about the war in school, probably too soon after the fact.
I do remember my uncle talking about heating tins of what they thought was stew of some kind only to find on opening them that they had a nice tin of melted butter! He was in Italy for a time. My dad was in the signal corps when young but developed a hearing impairment, the head phones were not as well made as they are now and he had infections in his ears that damaged to canal and he had to rely on bone conduction to hear.
Yes, that's right the U.S. did not enter the war until November of that year after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Lynda
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