I think the change in approach probably does have something to do the the passing of time - it's only when the veterans of a war start to disappear that we value them and start to seek them out, when suddenly it's not a thing that everyone's grandfather did.
And it wouldn't surprise me for a person in the 1970s to know very little. In my experience - granted, modern war is a little different - these war stories are not things that most people will tell. Sure, there will be one guy who fancies himself a writer, but mostly...
...honestly, I know nothing about M's war. I can't see him discussing it with our boys either. It's private.
There's some kind of really interesting contrast going on here between the individual's war and the collective, national war. I remember my grandpa, who was on the navy in ww2, would never talk about the war, right up until he was about 89, when suddenly he started telling us all how absolutely awful it was. My other grandpa, also in the war, never talked about it either
( ... )
In some ways, WW2 is unique though. It's one of very few wars where you can build a nice, simple, childhood-game sort of narrative out of it - "we fight the terrible Nazis for the future of the world!" and so on. Compare WW1, what's the narrative there - a bunch of countries get bored, have a pissing contest and kill millions of people until one side collapsed?
It's also quite unusual in that there WAS a collective war to discuss. With things like rationing and the Blitz and so on, this was probably the first war where targeting civilians, getting civilians really, deeply involved in "the war" was an actual thing. Before this...WW1 had some aspects of total war, but nowhere near as much. Your father's memories don't rely on veteran's stories, because suddenly civilians have war stories too
( ... )
I've been thinking about this ever since you wrote it. You're right, ww2 was unique in being both collective and simple (or at least, simplifiable, if that's even a word) - air raids and evil Nazis, and so it makes sense that it has a more public story than the others. Thank you, this comment really helped me to understand that much more clearly.
Comments 8
And it wouldn't surprise me for a person in the 1970s to know very little. In my experience - granted, modern war is a little different - these war stories are not things that most people will tell. Sure, there will be one guy who fancies himself a writer, but mostly...
...honestly, I know nothing about M's war. I can't see him discussing it with our boys either. It's private.
Reply
Reply
It's also quite unusual in that there WAS a collective war to discuss. With things like rationing and the Blitz and so on, this was probably the first war where targeting civilians, getting civilians really, deeply involved in "the war" was an actual thing. Before this...WW1 had some aspects of total war, but nowhere near as much. Your father's memories don't rely on veteran's stories, because suddenly civilians have war stories too ( ... )
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment