Prompted by Annie's post on how she became interested in the Code Talkers, I started wondering how I and others became interested in WW2. I grew up in the late 70s/early 80s and started by reading many of the WW2 comics that were much more readily available at that time e.g. Warlord, Victor etc. I also spent a lot of time in hospital, and their library was very well stocked with donated books. This prompted my visits to the library during my teens, and the most exciting stories seem to involve the RAF. However, by my late teens (around the time of my A levels) the interest started to wane, especially as "other" interests took over I spent most of twenties and early thirties bogged down with reading for education, and research and completely forgot my previous interest. It was during my reading for my doctorate that I started finding references to Indians in WW2, and WW1, and like an alcoholic who falls off the wagon, I was transported back to those halcyon days of my childhod - a good war story, a plate of biscuits, a glass of cold milk and a snug corner to sit in But it has only been in the last 3 years or so that I have really turned my attention to the war, and my particular interest of the RAF and Commonwealth air forces. About a 1000 books later, here I am So, what about you guys?
Met a distant cousin of my grandfathers' who informed us we had a cousin in the RAF Bomber Command. Didn't really believe it until we found a photo of our cousin, and it was the spitting image of my youngest brother. More research into the squadron, and that led to more research on Bomber Command, and from that into WW2 in general whilst involved in research for a local display for the 60th Anniversary of VE/VJ Day.
Having a Dad who is English with, of course, an English education based around the Empire etc etc, we would be allowed to stay up to watch The Dambusters, Sink the Bismarck etc etc. Dad and I even built a model of the Bismarck (looking at it now and it's a bit battered in the mast department) but we never did finish it. Various aeroplane models followed and then I built them on my own. At the age of 10, I borrowed a book on the Battle of Britain from the library and that was that. A move to the US ensued as did numerous visits to Hill AFB and one memorable trip to the Smithsonian in Washington DC. We also visited Hendon when we returned to Australia 2.5 years later in 1989. I continued to build models and my book buying was usually limited to books about the aircraft. While still in the US, Mum and Dad bought me a 1988 subscription to FlyPast magazine and that's where my interest in the personal side of the air war really got started. I subscribed to that magazine for about 15 years but competing interests (as Kyt alludes to) and university led to the interest waxing and waning. In about 99/2000, I started buying books again but this time they were biographies of pilots. About three years ago, I started concentrating on Commonwealth airmen and 99% of my purchases since then have been in that area. I never cease to be amazed by the courage and the sarifice yet the neverending ability to have fun and the "extreme" methods of relaxation to ease the tension they all shared. It is an interest that has taken me around the world and has allowed me to work on projects such as the Beaufort restoration in Brisbane and the Liberator in Melbourne. Above all else, I have learned what true courage is and am in constant awe.
Hi all, For my part, much of it stemmed from my Mum and Dad's service in WW2 and subsequent post war RAAF. My interest has been there as long as I can remeber. As a kid, wading through photos, trying on uniform bits, flicking through yellowing documents, etc, etc. As an adult, I've tried to back it up with some self-education. ( A work in progress.) On a broader scale, it fascinates me as it was a time in which a generation brought the world so far, having been so close to the brink. A genuine case of strength in the face of unimaginable adversity. Cheers Owen
My interest in WW1 and WW2 stems from starting to research my family history for my grandchildren about 4 years ago. I started to find members of my family being killed in both wars. I then began to search the NAA & AWM records to find more information. I am in a WW1 forum and then found this forum by sheer luck while trawling the internet. (best find I have made). Before I became wheel chair bound 2 years ago, I use to go to the local library and check their War books to find out about battles my rellie's were in. I now rely totally on forums like this one to find information I seek.
My interest is due to my Grandfather who served with 51 HAA regiment for the duration of WW2. He use to tell me stories and take me to the HAA sites around Bristol when i was a kid. Just wish i could remember everything he told me.
Ww11 My first interest in WW2 was that my Father died in 1942. Secondly I was a child throughout the war and remember rationing and queues outside shops. My interests were again revived in 1991 when I started trying to piece together the circumstances of Dads Death.
I have to be honest I feel that WW2 sort of chose me. Like John I started to research our family tree and got sidetracked into wanting to know something of what the war meant to my Dad because he rarely spoke about it. It is unfortunate that he was in REME / RASC and despite obtaining his records I still know very little about what he might have experienced. Brian were you able to find the information that you were seeking?
It was Biggles who started me off, as regards to both the wars. And when I was growing up in the 60's people still talked about the war as though it was yesterday. Names like Dowding and Bader were still household names, like footballers are now. And living in the London/Kent area even the civilians had been through the blitz, even if they were children at the time; my mother-in-law still talks about it now. I met at least a few WW1 veterans as well. The boys magazines such as Victor and Warlord were still popular, and books like "Reach for the Sky" and "The Dambusters" were in the school library - I bet they aren't in many school libraries now. A book that I read by the time I was about eleven that clinched it for me was John Frayn Turner's "VCs of the Air". As far as WW1 is concerned, I remember reading about Albert Ball in a magazine when I was about eight. And yet, many others of my age had the same experience as me but got hooked on football, rock music etc. Why I was different I still don't know.
My father and uncle were both in ww2,didn't talk much about it.Also comics and commando books.Have always been interested in both world wars,am currently researching records od relations served in ww1.
What a good question Kyt – Well done! Such a good question that I began questioning myself on how it all began. Not a lot of books, not a fantasy for a particular aircraft, class of ship or hero except maybe Sergeant Alvin York in WW1 and my fathers participation in WW2. We first received television in Australia in September 1956 which aligned with the Melbourne Olympic Games. I have faint recollections of people talking about competitors and mentioning how the world had moved forward from ww2 (what’s that?) and Korea (where’s that?) and all the people that had died. I was only four so I did not know what many millions meant either. I remember watching all of the British war movies whether Ground, Air or Sea and really admiring the British character actors and actresses that made these people and situations seem so real. Charles Laughton, strangely was my favourite actor during those times. John Mills, Bernard Miles, Richard Attenborough, Michael Wildng, Michael Redgrave, Basil Sidney, Richard Todd etc etc. My father would never speak of the war unless he was with with his friends from the 9th division (The Rats of Tobruk) although he was 2/8th battalion, 19th brigade, 6th division. He was the victim of a mortar bomb in the advance to Tobruk on the 21st January 1941. The memories of the pain of headaches for many years (he had a metal plate in his head) made him not want to revisit those times. Later I went to the Pacific for work and with most preparation you need to know about the people and the places you visit. New Guinea, (Port Moresby/Lae/ Rabaul/Madang etc)The Solomons, The Marshall Islands, Kiribati (The Gilberts / Tarawa) Nauru visiting all the WW2 sites. This is where my intense hatred of the war time Japanese was born. This made me understand the POW’s who sons and daughters I played with as a child and the reasons that led to the drunkenness, the breakdown of the family unit and the inability of many of these men to live a normal life. For most the war ended in August 1945, for many of those POW’s and their families, it only ended with the death of the boy that went away and returned broken and mentally unfit to live in the post war society. My interest in the RAAF/RAF came later when I realised that the Americans I spoke to in the Pacific knew nothing of the Australian involvement in WW2. My two favourites of these now make me laugh instead of making me angry. To one group of Americans on Tarawa I said that my fathers division defeated the Italians at Bardia and then took Tobruk. They were the first to defeat the Germans on land at Tobruk and the 7th division defeated the Vichy French in Syria. They were also the first to defeat the Japanese on land after they had made a beachhead at Milne Bay. The response was: “Come off it, Australia wasn’t even in WW2”. Luckily I was supported by ex-pat British veterans who lived on Tarawa. The other is: How can Australia claim to have been part of the victory in Europe if you didn’t have troops on the ground from D-Day? This is possibly the main reason I commenced my project on collecting photos of headstones and memorials and researching 10,800+ RAAF deaths and those of 200+ Australians who died with the RAF. I have now added those 320+ Australian flyers who died with the fledgling AFC/RFC/RNAS/RAF in WW1.
