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Sep. 24th, 2001 07:35 pmMy WWII interest is full-bore again, yet it started before the terrorist attacks, so I can't really blame it on that. I've just started reading Herman Wouk's War and Rememberance after just reading The Caine Mutiny and absorbing the 1000 page Winds of War in about 5 days.
It's an interest of mine I can't explain, but I'm drawn to the history of that war. It could be family; I had a grandfather on both sides, one a volunteer, one conscripted and forced to fight against his homeland. The stories from them were amazing. My American grandfather was a CPO on a destroyer in the Pacific -- a kamikaze attack on his carrier group left him so frightened, his wedding ring had to be cut off. He had squeezed the deck railings so hard in fear, he bent the gold ring to the point it cut off circulation in his finger. My European grandfather, separated from his unit and sleeping in a barn, was caught by Russian soldiers. Thinking him a German farmer (German uniforms were scarce in '45), they said in Russian that they would only scare him and let him go. He acted scared and they let him go. If they had found his papers (he had buried them the night before) or knew he spoke Russian, they would have shot him for a spy.
There's always the past life explanation. I had a roommate in college who had a fanatical interest in WWI. He had a vintage WWI British flying cap that he wore all winter long. He was more or less as normal as they come, but sometimes he would talk about dreams he had, lost in a German forest, a British pilot shot down and trying to evade capture. My brother has similar dreams about VietNam. I can't say I have any vivid memories per se, my only possible past-life vision is of a 1600-era battle in feudal Japan.
It's an interest of mine I can't explain, but I'm drawn to the history of that war. It could be family; I had a grandfather on both sides, one a volunteer, one conscripted and forced to fight against his homeland. The stories from them were amazing. My American grandfather was a CPO on a destroyer in the Pacific -- a kamikaze attack on his carrier group left him so frightened, his wedding ring had to be cut off. He had squeezed the deck railings so hard in fear, he bent the gold ring to the point it cut off circulation in his finger. My European grandfather, separated from his unit and sleeping in a barn, was caught by Russian soldiers. Thinking him a German farmer (German uniforms were scarce in '45), they said in Russian that they would only scare him and let him go. He acted scared and they let him go. If they had found his papers (he had buried them the night before) or knew he spoke Russian, they would have shot him for a spy.
There's always the past life explanation. I had a roommate in college who had a fanatical interest in WWI. He had a vintage WWI British flying cap that he wore all winter long. He was more or less as normal as they come, but sometimes he would talk about dreams he had, lost in a German forest, a British pilot shot down and trying to evade capture. My brother has similar dreams about VietNam. I can't say I have any vivid memories per se, my only possible past-life vision is of a 1600-era battle in feudal Japan.
