#330
Post
by MarkF617 » 05 Apr 2017, 23:59
Hello,
I realise this is an old thread but as a WWII fan who has just began reading about WWI I thought I could offer a perspective not offered by any of the other posters.
Firstly the reasons I got interested in WWII:
One obvious reason is Hollywood movies. I grew up watching all the classics which used to be shown on a weekend afternoon, then it would be off to the park with all my mates (who had also just watched the film) to play war. These films were all WWII but we just knew it as "the war". I don't think there were any films shown about WWI (I certainly don't remember any). I think the reason for this is three fold:
1. The films were mostly made in America about Americans. World war I was mostly fought in Europe by Europeans. American troops only started arriving in numbers in spring 1918 which is after pretty much all the famous battles have been fought. In WWII the Americans were in much longer and present at many great victories.
2. From a basic point of view WWII seems a lot more straight forward than WWI (see the previous 22 pages of this thread where the whole topic got side tracked into who had the most progressive government). I WWII you have the nasty Germans and Japanese conquering countries and treating everyone horribly with only the tiny island of Great Britain holding on until the United States enter the war and save the day (yes I do know people who actually think this is how it happened including not realising the Soviets were involved or thinking they were on Germany's side)!
3. The attitudes of the people involved seems completely different. From what I know about WWI (not a lot I admit) people seemed to be shocked by what they saw and were happy to write about it, from what I have read about WWII (much, much more) people glossed over the horror and tried to make their stories interesting.
The other reason I got into WWII was simply that my Grandparents were all involved in one way or another and would tell me stories of Hurricanes scrambling and of being a driver for a General. This is a personal aspect I have never had of WWI.
My next step, once the interest had took hold, was documentaries. In this case WWII massively trumps WWI with all the cool technology. Although now I can see how those first, lumbering, rhomboid tanks slowly crossing trenches were a massive breakthrough in technology, to a young teenager they simply couldn't compete with a Tiger tank. The same goes for Fokkers fighting Sopwiths which were no match for Messershmitt vs Spitfire and watching British soldiers being rowed ashore at Gallipoli is no match for troops charging down the ramp of an LCA at Normandy. Add in Paratroopers, rockets, guided missiles and the first jets and WWI seems to lack that wow factor.
So far I have only read 2 books on WWI. The first was Basil Liddle Hart's book which I read a while ago and which opened my eyes to the bigger war as the documentaries I had seen (all British) concentrated 95% on the western front. The second I have just finished and was Somme written by Hugh Sebag Montefiore was to be honest depressing. I picked this book as I have previously read his book on Dunkirk and found it very interesting and at times exciting, however this book was full of tales of horror and of Generals/Colonels who wouldn't listen and sent their soldiers forward to be slaughtered time and time again. The shock to the enthusiastic volunteers is obvious whereas in his Dunkirk books there seems to be an attitude of "the Generals have ballsed up again, typical". I have read a few threads on this site that have kindled my interest in WWI but that single book has nearly killed it.
I think that for these reasons and more (for example my son has just been offered a school history trip to Ypres. The entire itinerary is showing the children how British soldiers suffered) I think WWI has the image of mud, trenches, suffering and walking slowly towards machine guns not to mention bloody minded Generals who don't care for their men (see General Haigh in Blackadder Goes Forth scraping model soldiers off the map into the bin as he plans the big push safe behind the lines).
My interest remains and I will read more on WWI but WWII remains my passion.
Mark.
You know you're British when you drive your German car to an Irish pub for a pint of Belgian beer before having an Indian meal. When you get home you sit on your Sweedish sofa and watch American programs on your Japanese TV.