Mr Hawkes. Thanks for posting the full article. Perhaps not everyone's experiences are the same, or perceived to be the same? My late father was an orphan brought up in a local authority home. I believe he felt it was his duty to fight the facists (he and a friend had joined the Territorial Army before war broke out over their fears of rising facism in Europe, although I'd note my father was never a supporter of Labour or socialism). I believe he had a cynical view of war (it might be necessary to quell tyrany but there was no glory in it), patriotism and authority because of his disadvantaged upbringing. Similarly, his agnostic views stemmed from the ridiculousness of both sides praying to the same god to kill and defeat the other side in war.The initial months of the war were quite illuminating for him: sailing around the Cape, visiting Cape Town and seeingTable Mountain, then stopping off in Egypt. As a motocycle despatch rider, he was able to go off and visit the pyramids; no queues in those days, but apparently local custodians weren't happy - but who'd argue with the British Army!He saw action after being transferred to Crete; another opportunity to explore a new land on his motorcycle when not passing messages between the British and Anzac forces. I think after the initial German parachute drop, inadvertently into rather than near the British forces, he had some sympathy for the German paratroopers, many were younger than him and been told the British would shoot them rather than take prisoners. (My father for some reason had been taught German in school - in spite of being brought up in a home he had a reasonably good education - so could communicate with them.) My father liked Crete so much that he went back with my mother and me when he retired in the mid '70s, although it had changed significantly from his memories. although we did chat over some glasses of Mavrodaphni wine which seemed to conform to his memories from, I assume, his unofficial excursions ... I do admire him riding a motorbike on what must have been mainly donkey and cart tracks in those days!When Crete later fell to the Germans he spent the remainder of the war in a Germany POW work camp (strictly against the Geneva convention) in Silesia (now part of Poland), so didn't see much action after that. Although, he apparently had an interesting journey in a cattle truck, through the Balkans via (I believe) Dresden to the work camp. He had an "interesting" learning experience in the Balkans calling a Croat a Serb, to their annoyance, but fortunately as a POW was under the protection of the German army!Interestingly, my father never hated Germans. That's possibly because he was in a work camp which, although guarded by German soldiers, was run by local Germans - I think an elderly man who owned the open cast mine, his daughter, and some others who would not have been called up for military service. My father could obviously understand what the locals were saying and got the impression they weren't anymore impressed with the deprivations of the war than he was.I think being able to communicate with the enemy in their own language may have been an advantage for him. At times he was apprently called on to act as a translator and on one occasion was complimented on his language skills by a German officer as his Greman was "more correct" than the local version wherever he was at that time.When he had to make his way westward after the German guards fled in the wake of the Russian advance, he did see some of the devastation in eastern Germany and that made him feel uncomfortable with the bombing of Dresden (which he described had been a beautiful city) and the killing of so many civilians at that late stage of the war - even though it may have hastened his release.As I say, he didn't seem to have any grudges against Germans and when a German family moved into the next road to us during the 1960s he went round for a chat; I think partly to practice his German and also he was intrigued to find out why the family had moved to Essex where we lived at that time. (I think the man was carrying out agriculture work as I seem to recall a tractor parked in the family's driveway. )However, my late mother hated Germans for decades as her only experience of them was faceless Luftwaffe pilots dropping bombs and random V-weapons falling on London killing some of her friends. However, even she realised times change and when the German husband of a friend died of a heart attack around 25 years ago she was very upset. (He was of a similar age to me and helped my mother with some small jobs when I couldn't get to Essex because of my work.) In fact, although in her younger days my mother appeared a little xenophobic she seemed to overcome that; she was quite welcoming to some of the more recent Polish immigrants wnen others were being rude to them. When she was younger, my mother worked as a secretary for the Church Army. Although sho had time for the missionaries she dealt with who she considered practiced Christianity, it instilled a dislike of organised religion in her. She had to facilitate and take minutes that senior CofE clergy (eg Bishops) attended and felt they were arrogant and self important. Although she was a Christian she was never a regular church goer.Perhaps in both my father's and mother's experience it was a case of meeting people to understand they're not radically different to oneself?As a corollary to the VJ aspect in the subject line, an uncle of mine was called up later in the war and sent to the far east. He was lined up to go and fight in Japan but never saw action as Japan surrendered. I suppose he and his young wife who he'd married just before departing to the east may have been thankful the atomic bombs were dropped. However, my uncle did make it to Japan and Hiroshima (after a specialist US group had done an initial clean up). My uncle never spoke to me about this but my cousin has a picture of him with a couple of army comrades taken in what's obviously Hiroshima. My cousin thinks his father was affected by seeing the devastation of a civilian city that saved him from action and a high possibility of death. My own father - after narrowly escaping being straffed by a Russian fighter plane (shooting anything that moved?), then meeting up with US forces and repatriation from Germany - was put into a fitness training course with a view to being sent out to the far east, but the war ended before army had been able to compensate for his survival rations as a Germany POW.Probably because of my parents negative views of authority (whether army, church, politicians, etc) I've never had a strong feeling of patriotism although I feel fortunate to be a UK citizen, and I'm proud to be a Londoner and think it's good other people want to visit or live here; there must be something good about it!I suppose my own formative years were late 60s, early 70s during the anti Vietnam war times, flower power - unfortunately, I didn't get to San Francisco until the early 80s - and the so called permissivesociety with the All You Need Is Love, Wishing Well, Imagine, Politician, Ohio, Eve of Destruction, A Walk on the Wild Side, Rebel Rebel, etc music era, so I'm not really enamoured with the British establishment of the Victorian era :-) Perhaps in the hippy age patriotism rather than ideals - which might include fighting antisemetic facists - seemed more important than patriotism for many post war baby boomers as Germans and Japanese were now our friends while our former Russian and Chinese friends were now our enemies? Perhaps the current difficulties with multiculturalism were caused by the racism of the 60s and 70s that created a barrier between cultures and slowed or inhibited integration? There are certainly some benefits: middle eastern and Buddhist Indian, Chinese and other far eastern foods have great veggie and vegan options, and hasn't Carribean, African and Indian music influenced and enhanced our popular culture as well?Anyway, my original point was, it's happened for good or bad! We have to live with it :-)(I was also born less than ten years after the war ended. As far as I know my father had discarded his uniform well before I was born and wanted to also leave the children's home and prison camp of earlier times, and move on to a happier time of working with motor cars as a mechanic, owning and maintaining a home, and having a family life with my mother and me.)
Michael Ixer ● 3d