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(Dad is standing just behind the kneeling man furthest to the right, and seems to wearing his cap at a particularly jaunty angle. The difference in the uniform colours is due to the mix of Australian and British servicemen.)
It really does, doesn't it? Good observation.
Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
Churchill put it best - They sowed the wind, and now, they are going to reap the whirlwind.
I've confined my own reading to autobiographical accounts by participants, which often doesn't give an overview, so the shifts in thinking have largely passed me by, but I think I'm right in saying that there was a recent reassessment of the WW1 generals that recast them as intelligent thinkers rather than donkeys. The sheer numbers of dead and wounded would argue against any such revisionist thinking.
Re. the greatest generation, you are right, they were. They did have one advantage that current generations lack - a clearly identified enemy and an almost cartoonish evocation of evil in Hitler (you only have to hear one of his speeches to know he's a man deserving of a slap). They also had a clearly defined sense of community, something that we seem to have lost. I wonder if we would face up today in a similar way; or is it simply that time has moved on and technology has made such a response obsolete.
There were, for example, a set of pen and ink sketches drawn by a Frenchwoman named Violette Lecoq (a member of the Resistance), of her time in the Ravensbruck womens' concentration camp - quite shocking in their brutal simplicity.
There are also some impressive commissioned works of art, as well as bits of hardware, including one of our atom bombs from the 80's/90's. Such an innocuous-looking thing to say it was capable of such massive destruction - just 3 metres long and 20cm in diameter. It frightened the crap out of me, a child of the Cold War.
After 2 hours, I needed to get out. I'd recommend a visit, but it's not what you'd call "fun".
Considering it was still on the ground, I was wearing relatively light clothing and no one was shooting at me, it was surprisingly tiring. I wouldn't fancy that at 20,000ft and -20°c for eight hours with the Luftwaffe after me, that's for sure.
I said maybe.....
I also saw the tears in his eyes as he told me that 70% of his mates did not come back from every single raid the Aussies did during one of his stints (460 Squadron). Being absolutely decimated on one particular raid and then being ordered to do exactly the same mission the following night. Like many, his overiding emotion is one of guilt and incomprehension as to why he wasnt killed too. " just doing my faackin job, sport".
I'd like to see some historian argue with him that what he did was wrong or misplaced...he's 93 and I wouldnt argue with him. Tough as hell and the fight of a tiger. I just hope he sticks around a good while longer.
An amazing generation of people in our eyes, through his, nothing special, just simply what he had to do. An amazing human being.
Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself