Freddie, I'm not sure anyone had a good war as such. My father spent over four years in a German POW camp working in an open cast coal mine most of the time and on very limited rations. It was hard and he didn't know when, or if it, it would finish. I'd have to say, although being forced to work against was against the Geneva convention, unlike POWs held by the Japanese his treatment didn't seem to be deliberately cruel and some of the time when working seemed to be supervised by German civilians - old men and women, I assume the younger men were off fighting. He didn't talk about it much except at Christmas after a few whiskeys.What he did talk about was the boat from the UK going via South Africa, visiting Cape Town, his time in Egypt where - as a despatch rider - he was able to visit the pyramids when off duty, and his time in Crete exploring the island when not running messages between UK and ANZAC forces until he was captured by the German Army.My father's POW camp was near Löbau, not far from Dresden. I'm not sure how much he saw of the aftermath of the firebombing of that city when he was making his way West across Germany to get home but he always was doubtful about that action, particularly as it took place so close to the end of the war and mainly targeted civilians.So for my father, who was orphaned during the 1918 flu pandemic and brought up in authority children's homes, the war provided an opportunity to visit places that he wouldn't have otherwise dreamed of, but it did come at a cost of wasted years and doubts about authority.
Michael Ixer ● 2035d