VE Day

Started by Steve J, 08 May 2020, 06:40:12 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Steve J

Well I observed the two minutes silence, but didn't know about the toast bit. So neighbours had a bit of an afternoon tea party and were singing songs, which was good. We just watched the Queen's message which we thought was spot on and then sang along to 'We'll meet again' as we watched the nice montage of people singing bits of the song.

I explained to our daughter that the War didn't end until August '45, which she vaguely remembered. So many people think it finished today and as mentioned at the start of this topic, I hope we do commemorate the end of the War. At least the Queen mentioned in her speech that the fighting was still going on in the Far East.

steve_holmes_11

Quote from: Ithoriel on 08 May 2020, 08:42:22 PM
Yes, Geoff, even today "The Forgotten Army" lives up to it's nickname :(

I had hoped that Captain Tom's exploits had fixed that.

Ithoriel

Spoke to a young man today who was under the impression that the Far East Theatre in WW2 and the Korean War were the same thing. He was by no means stupid or uneducated but his schools coverage of WW2 had been restricted to The Blitz, The Land Army, Bevan Boys and rationing, as far as I can see.

I don't know, education hasn't been the same since they stopped teaching everyone Latin :D
There are 100 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who can work from incomplete data

Techno

I know I've already told you about one of my 'staff' at the EE asked whether Hitler was in WWII.  X_X

I HATED Latin !

Cheers -  Naughtius Maximus.

Lord Kermit of Birkenhead

Delivering an Access course in History I was informed by one of the students that I had mis-spelled Russia, I'put a P in front  ;)
FOG IN CHANNEL - EUROPE CUT OFF
Lord Kermit of Birkenhead
Muppet of the year 2019, 2020 and 2021

Techno

 X_X

Good grief..Most of you know that my knowledge of 'historical facts' can be written on the back of a postage stamp....But...Stroll on.  ;D ;D ;D

Cheers - Phil



Lord Kermit of Birkenhead

To be fair she did get rather better quite quickly - and passed the course.
FOG IN CHANNEL - EUROPE CUT OFF
Lord Kermit of Birkenhead
Muppet of the year 2019, 2020 and 2021

toxicpixie

Quote from: Orcs on 08 May 2020, 08:48:47 PM
Yes even in by many wargames manufacturers who produce  WW2.

It's not the one true scale but Peter Pig do a superb 15mm 14th Army range. Which has tempted me for years...
I provide a cheap, quick painting service to get you table top quality figures ready to roll - www.facebook.com/jtppainting

flamingpig0

Quote from: Ithoriel on 08 May 2020, 11:12:21 PM
Spoke to a young man today who was under the impression that the Far East Theatre in WW2 and the Korean War were the same thing. He was by no means stupid or uneducated but his schools coverage of WW2 had been restricted to The Blitz, The Land Army, Bevan Boys and rationing, as far as I can see.

I don't know, education hasn't been the same since they stopped teaching everyone Latin :D

I think being a wargamer gives one a very different perspective and even base of knowledge - as kid in school I  caused outrage in one lesson by correcting the teacher on the Opium War not being about the Chinese selling opium.
"I like coffee exceedingly..."
 H.P. Lovecraft

"We don't want your stupid tanks!" 
Salah Askar,

My six degrees of separation includes Osama Bin Laden, Hitler, and Wendy James

hammurabi70

Quote from: Ithoriel on 08 May 2020, 11:12:21 PM
Spoke to a young man today who was under the impression that the Far East Theatre in WW2 and the Korean War were the same thing. He was by no means stupid or uneducated but his schools coverage of WW2 had been restricted to The Blitz, The Land Army, Bevan Boys and rationing, as far as I can see.

I don't know, education hasn't been the same since they stopped teaching everyone Latin :D

At the (socially distanced) street party yesterday, most of the attendees were retirees, of which I was the youngest (!), yet I was the only one who seemed to be informed about WWII against the Japanese and the forthcoming VJ Day.  Everyone else seemed to think it was all about peace on 8 May 1945 [wonder why it is VE and not just V?!!].

Quote from: flamingpig0 on 09 May 2020, 11:37:23 AM
I think being a wargamer gives one a very different perspective and even base of knowledge - as kid in school I  caused outrage in one lesson by correcting the teacher on the Opium War not being about the Chinese selling opium.
Yes.  I was surprised that when I attended BRNC for my officer training that I was the only one who had heard of, and knew about, the raid on TARANTO.

toxicpixie

Wait, officer training for the *Navy* no one had heard of Taranto?!
I provide a cheap, quick painting service to get you table top quality figures ready to roll - www.facebook.com/jtppainting

mollinary

Quote from: toxicpixie on 09 May 2020, 04:03:52 PM
Wait, officer training for the *Navy* no one had heard of Taranto?!

Difficult to imagine, as 'Taranto Night' dinners are not unknown in naval establishments!
2021 Painting Competition - Winner!
2022 Painting Competition - 2 x Runner-Up!

toxicpixie

I guess you only go to them AFTER you graduate?!
I provide a cheap, quick painting service to get you table top quality figures ready to roll - www.facebook.com/jtppainting

mmcv

I suspect part of the vaugness of knowledge comes as a result of a disconnect from distance in time. For many of you, you have parents and grandparents who took part in the war. For me, my grandparents were young children during the war. For younger generations they may have no living familial connection to it at all.

I suspect a lot of what people know now comes from movies, video games and popular media. For a long time I always thought of the Pacific Theatre as the American war. I'd very little concept of the British involvement (at least beyond the River Kwai). It was only relatively recently I learned more about it from a British rather than American and Japanese perspective.

In school I wasn't really taught the world wars in detail. I remember doing a bit on the first world war in primary school and visiting a museum (Somme Heritage Centre outside Belfast) and we also visited a WW2 museum (Eden Camp in York) on a school trip and talked a little about the second a few years after, but at secondary school it wasn't really touched on. It was reserved for GCSE History, which I chose not to do because I enjoyed history far too much.

So most of what I'd know came from documentaries or a bit of reading after playing a game or watching a film set in the period. Or in more recent times active self learning on the period. But most people won't have the interest in doing that. Even as a history lover it's taken me a while to get into it as I just wasn't that interested in 20th century history for a long time. It's also an immensely complex period to wrap your head around if you're starting from only a basic understanding of what happened.

Over time as those who remember the war first hand sadly pass on, the disconnect will become all the greater. I mentioned this to my wife whose knowledge of the wars is fairly vague and her reasoning is that those who fought the war did so so that future generations wouldn't have to know the horrors they went through and while it's important not to forget what they did, many of them wouldn't want future generations to spend a lot of time thinking about the war and rather be living their lives as best they could and making the most of the freedoms that they fought and died for.

I'm sure many others share a similar sentiment.

Even in much of the coverage on Friday the focus seemed to be a lot more on the current situation and trying to equate it to the experience in the wars rather than the details of the history. But maybe that's what is important to a culture, the experiences, emotions and social impact that resonates through to the present day, more than what date the war ended or what battle was fought where, and to each generation it becomes more of a distant memory. There'll always be history nerds and scholars about to study the details, but for the average person all that is important to them is that the war did end, not knowing the actual dates.

hammurabi70

Quote from: toxicpixie on 09 May 2020, 04:03:52 PM
Wait, officer training for the *Navy* no one had heard of Taranto?!

They were mainly a bunch of 18 year-olds just out of school. I was shocked by the general ignorance of (nautical) history most displayed. In my class of 50 when the lecturer mentioned Taranto I was the only one who knew what he was talking about and you can imagine how stunned I was by such a level of ignorance.  I had not done any twentieth century history at school and perhaps they had not. I had been a wargamer so had a lot more knowledge; we easily forget how little people know of history, even, or especially, military history.  The vast majority have no interest and perhaps that is a good thing. Was it not Rommel who said that if the measure of a man is only his ability as a soldier then civilisation is lost.