Yeah, we didn't really do much WW2 at school, a little in primary school at a very basic level, but 20th-century stuff seemed to be part of the GCSE level curriculum so if you didn't do History past 3rd year (which I didn't because I actually really liked history so didn't want to ruin it by doing History in school) you never really touched on it. I remember a lot about the Normans, Irish Potato Famine, and the Spanish Armada.

I always found mid-late 20th Centrury history hard to get into in my personal reading. I think partly due to there being so much information available, combined with the familiarity of it being recent enough to know people who remember it, and the overabundance of popular media on the subject. I probably have a better general knowledge than the average person, and I can pretty well tell "which war was that" when someone asks, but specific details of battles and armaments and so forth are still a mystery much of the time. I have been trying to rectify the knowledge gaps recently, working through a few resources on the period, but it still hasn't inspired the sort of devotion and knowledge many of you seem to have on the subject, just doesn't tickle my interest the way a lot of other history does (yet).

I confess I wouldn't really know much of anything about Monte Cassino and Kohima without googling them (which I did). Kohima rings a bell so I've probably heard it mentioned in broad overviews, but my more in-depth stuff only has me up to Moskow and Midway. And even then when doing broad sweeps of history remembering details of particular battles can be difficult. There are, after all, an awful lot of battles to take account of in the period: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_War_II_battles!

I suspect many of those of your own generation who did cover it at school would still struggle to remember many of the details and names unless they kept up a continued interest in it over the years. I tend not to be too harsh on people not knowing the names of battles and the like, as others have said, it's a very niche interest, and a specific period of that nieche interest. The thing about history is there tends to be an awful lot of it, and we keep generating more and more of it every day. Very inconsiderate. So you can't really expect the average person to know about Kohlima, Kurekdere, Kineton, Kawanakajima or Kadesh when it has no real bearing on their lives or interests.

I think it's certainly important for people to have a broad understanding of the events and consequences of history, but getting hung up on details is a path to maddness.

Make Kermode tells a story of going to watch Apollo 13 with the (much younger) Radio 1 film critic, who had no idea it was based on a real-life event.

Quote from: Techno II on 07 October 2020, 06:24:18 AM
I know I've told this tale before about one of 'my staff' in the figure painting unit at Workshop.

Everybody was busy painting when 'X' asked.

"Hitler, right......was he in the first World War ?"

"Yes, 'X'...he was a corporal."....Long pause.

"Oh......Was he in the second World War, as well ?"

Cheers - Phil.

... and by WW2 he'd been promoted to commander in chief, which is why he said "A Marshal's baton in every knapsack; guns and butter in every garage." I read it in Facebook so it must be true

Huuuummmm - atributing a French dictaors quotes to a German one, and mis-qotung the Fat Man - its guns before butter !

I have heard it said that the film 'The Madness of King George' was so called because it was feared that if it was called 'The Madness of George III' people would not go and see it, as they might think they'd missed 'The Madness of George II' and 'The Madness of George I'.   Possibly apocryphal, but perfectly believable bearing in mind that 'the good sense of the public' is the political oxymoron of our time.

Quote from: Ithoriel on 06 October 2020, 07:29:52 PM
I have to ask what relevance you think knowledge of Monte Cassino and Kohima has to the lives of all but a tiny fraction of the human population.

We have a niche interest in a niche subject. Be grateful for the four who had heard of Monte Cassino.

Yes, as wargamers we tend to focus on battles more than the general public do.

 

Some may thing King Ralph is a sequel.

Try asking Sunjester who bowled the Super Over for England in the 2019 World Cup Final.

Did someone mention the Fatman?

Quote from: Last Hussar on 07 October 2020, 05:57:43 PM
...bowled the Super Over....

Is this the same thing as the Superbowl?

I thought it referred to someone knocking a high ranking policeman over in a corridor ?

That's a thought for a 'clip'......Can someone embed the video of Constable Savage, from the "Not the nine o'clock news" team.
Nothing to do with knocking anyone over...But..........

Cheers - Phil

 

Absolute classic

Thanks, Nobby !

Cheers - Phil