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Mystic Mongol posted:So, my neighbor is a 99 year old WW2 vet from England. He was the navigator for an Avro Lancaster heavy bomber... he started as a mechanic, because only gentlemen flew, and then the war used up all their gentlemen and he was promoted into action. The Lancaster had a wingspan of 102', and he was involved in the world's first night bombing campaigns... as hundreds of planes from across Europe would converge on a location within a three minute window and just bomb it to rubble, taking note of any V2 missiles they saw heading the other way and reporting the headings for the DH Mosquitos to fly back in the morning and try to find the trucks the missiles were launched from. If this holds any weight tell him one of the internet weirdos you talk to is a historian and would love to hear it. I mean we have a few of those in this thread and that’s something he might find attractive. Lots of people like that don’t think their story is interesting to others and perk up when someone with paper attached to their name says that no, really, it is.
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Feb 2, 2021 00:56
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HookedOnChthonics posted:If you have access to a better mic than ipad i'd use it (or for instance if you have a single headset, give it to the subject) I could set up a laptop, webcam, and Blue Snowball setup. I probably should, huh. HookedOnChthonics posted:it would also def be worth shooting an email to the archivists at your nearest air or military museum; they probably already maintain an oral history archive and could give directions on how best to capture something for inclusion (tho be aware archivist backlogs on that kind of material are immense everywhere) Oh, absolutely. I believe he sent some of his war poetry to the Imperial War Museum, back in the day. HookedOnChthonics posted:it sounds like he has a set presentation he gives—are you just interested in capturing that, or would you also do an interview? He had a set presentation he GAVE, twenty years ago. If I can eek that out of him, that'd be ideal, but just from experience talking to him I think it'd wind up being a recorded conversation with visual elements. He still has the paper pad covered in dates and maps in his basement from when he last gave the presentation--that's how I found out about it, when I was over there helping him fix his internet router. I'm not a professional interviewer or video production anything, sooooooo we'll see what we end up with. HookedOnChthonics posted:but in any case i can definitely and unequivocally tell you that interest in wwii oral history is at an all time high, not a low. capture that voice. If I can! More positive reactions would certainly help me convince him,  Hint Hint. If anyone wants to be encouraging without filling this thread with posts about a project that might not happen, feel free to send a Private Message, as I'm gonna print all of the responses out and show them to him.
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Feb 2, 2021 01:04
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Episode 7 is out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5hsWenQVeg Less comparisons to other planes this time around, but there's a lot to talk about nonetheless. Next up is gonna be a French design of Breguet.
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Feb 2, 2021 01:52
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Mystic Mongol posted:If I can! More positive reactions would certainly help me convince him, What I'd tell him is pretty simple—almost of my direct relatives who were in the war either died before I was born or not long after. The closest I ever came to learning about their experiences was when I went to one of the last of my grandfather's ship's reunions, where I was able to talk to his old shipmates and learn more about what it was like to serve, and more importantly what he was like. We're fortunate enough to live in a world now where moments can be captured in time to be shared for posterity. I'll never hear from my grandfather what it was like to be on a destroyer escort in the Atlantic convoys, my great-grandfather on being in Tokyo Bay for Japan's surrender, or my great-uncle about being a gunner on a PBY. But hearing from others about what their experiences were like can help fill in the gaps, and it's now more important than ever to record these experiences before they pass from living memory.
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Feb 2, 2021 02:34
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I have a similar experience. My grandpa was a b17 gunner and was shot down. He spent a year in a camp and we still have the Texas flag he made there. I was at the point where I wasn’t old enough to want to learn about his experience and also not old enough for him to tell me. e: I mean when he passed suddenly TK-42-1 fucked around with this message at 02:42 on Feb 2, 2021 |
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Feb 2, 2021 02:40
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Mystic Mongol posted:So, my neighbor is a 99 year old WW2 vet from England. He was the navigator for an Avro Lancaster heavy bomber... he started as a mechanic, because only gentlemen flew, and then the war used up all their gentlemen and he was promoted into action. The Lancaster had a wingspan of 102', and he was involved in the world's first night bombing campaigns... as hundreds of planes from across Europe would converge on a location within a three minute window and just bomb it to rubble, taking note of any V2 missiles they saw heading the other way and reporting the headings for the DH Mosquitos to fly back in the morning and try to find the trucks the missiles were launched from. If you get his squadron and aircraft info I'll paint up a 1/72 model of it and post pictures if that's any incentive for him! It will be crap as I'm not all that good.
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Feb 2, 2021 02:57
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Mystic Mongol posted:
WWII isn't even a topic I care much about and I'd still be incredibly interested because it's a first hand account that should be recorded. He could talk about how they decorated their bunks for 2 hours and I'd still watch it twice. Also yeah, use the laptop and the Snowball if you have them kicking around. That's barely any more effort than recording on a tablet and the quality will be galaxies better.
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Feb 2, 2021 03:42
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Is there a definitive narrative history book on the French Resistance I can throw in my Kindle pile?
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Feb 2, 2021 12:46
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Mystic Mongol posted:
My father has confirmed that he would also be very interested in hearing the interview.
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Feb 2, 2021 15:06
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So I've taken all these replied, and all the replies from the GBS thread to get more, and printed them out. Seven pages! Not bad. Also a two page letter from a PhD historian, which is impressive. If this doesn't melt his flinty heart--well, then the issue is something else, and I can't force him. Off I go to talk to him now. I'll post any news. Fingers crossed!
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Feb 2, 2021 18:39
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On the subject of Mike Duncan I’m a fan as I didn’t know much about the French Revolution, but after listening to his series I picked up a book on Napolean and now know a lot more about a big time span that I didn’t before. I also didn’t know about the Haitian Revolution until he covered it. Regarding far right media figuring writing bad books, it is not fun to try to search for history books and always see their stuff clogging the results. I’m going through Rick Atkinson’s liberation trilogy and learning a ton, did not know Mt. Vesuvius erupted during the campaign. Had a chuckle when he made reference to both sides being like exhausted boxers in a ring, although in his defense he only does so once and not at the start of every chapter.
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Feb 2, 2021 21:21
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Is it a hot take to say that the Macedonian Front was the turning point of WW1? It liquidated Bulgaria and exposed both Austria-Hungary and Ottomans to an attack that they had no preparation for and resulted in their groveling armistices. Is this a common belief outside America/Britain or did I get suckered by Greek nationalists?
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Feb 2, 2021 22:11
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Baron Porkface posted:Is it a hot take to say that the Macedonian Front was the turning point of WW1? It liquidated Bulgaria and exposed both Austria-Hungary and Ottomans to an attack that they had no preparation for and resulted in their groveling armistices. Is this a common belief outside America/Britain or did I get suckered by Greek nationalists? No it was very much the Kaiserschlacht. You got suckered by Greek nationalists.
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Feb 2, 2021 22:21
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Yeah I'm skeptical a campaign where the Ottomans commited like 26k troops total and their casualties were "probably a few thousand maybe" was what drove them to the negotiating table.
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Feb 2, 2021 22:29
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https://twitter.com/RealTimeWWII/status/1356696794672091136 What did your average German citizen know about what actually was going down in Stalingrad in 1943, and was this a morale turning point for the German people? I guess I'm looking elaboration on "The German public was reeling" That propaganda (I'm assuming airdropped flier?) is loving brutal.
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Feb 2, 2021 22:36
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Judging by the citation, that's an American or UK propaganda leaflet?
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Feb 2, 2021 22:42
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zoux posted:What did your average German citizen know about what actually was going down in Stalingrad in 1943, and was this a morale turning point for the German people? I guess I'm looking elaboration on "The German public was reeling" Goebbels gave his infamous Sportpalastrede (Sports Palace Speech) in February 1943 in which he talked about the need for total war to save Europe from the Commies. Unlike previous speeches it spoke of recent "misfortune" and admitted that defeat was possible, so it's safe to say your average German would have figured out that things weren't going well.
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Feb 2, 2021 23:06
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Baron Porkface posted:Is it a hot take to say that the Macedonian Front was the turning point of WW1? It liquidated Bulgaria and exposed both Austria-Hungary and Ottomans to an attack that they had no preparation for and resulted in their groveling armistices. Is this a common belief outside America/Britain or did I get suckered by Greek nationalists? You got suckered. The Central Powers had been worn down so far that they simply lacked the resilience to react to major offensives in the way they'd been able to previously. If you must have a turning point for that war, it's the entry of the Americans, but it really doesn't make much sense to think of WW1 as even having turning points. Everything happens very quickly at the start, then everything bogs down forever while the strain increases and increases and increases on both sides, but by 1918 there's so much pressure going one way that all the others can do is collapse, which all happens so suddenly that even at the start of October 1918, everyone's planning for the grand war-winning offensives of 1919 and it isn't fully apparent just how hosed the Germans are.
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Feb 3, 2021 00:02
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Hyrax Attack! posted:On the subject of Mike Duncan I’m a fan as I didn’t know much about the French Revolution, but after listening to his series I picked up a book on Napolean and now know a lot more about a big time span that I didn’t before. I also didn’t know about the Haitian Revolution until he covered it. I just read through those books as well, and ended up surprised by how much I enjoyed them, Day of Battle in particular. I had no real notion of how awful Italy really was as a theater
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Feb 3, 2021 00:15
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Cessna posted:Goebbels gave his infamous Sportpalastrede (Sports Palace Speech) in February 1943 in which he talked about the need for total war to save Europe from the Commies. Unlike previous speeches it spoke of recent "misfortune" and admitted that defeat was possible, so it's safe to say your average German would have figured out that things weren't going well. Also your average German citizen had a family member out on the Eastern front or knew a neighbour that did. Yes censorship existed of course but that's not watertight and anyway doesn't help when someone is home on leave.
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Feb 3, 2021 00:23
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Baron Porkface posted:Is it a hot take to say that the Macedonian Front was the turning point of WW1? It liquidated Bulgaria and exposed both Austria-Hungary and Ottomans to an attack that they had no preparation for and resulted in their groveling armistices. Is this a common belief outside America/Britain or did I get suckered by Greek nationalists? Karl groveled for peace because the Empire was starving. So in that sense, the turning point was some combination of distant blockade and the convoy system.
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Feb 3, 2021 00:45
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feedmegin posted:Also your average German citizen had a family member out on the Eastern front or knew a neighbour that did. Yes censorship existed of course but that's not watertight and anyway doesn't help when someone is home on leave.
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Feb 3, 2021 00:50
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While propaganda broadcasts in the Third Reich usually didn't talk about defeats at all, I think the fall of Stalingrad got a dignified announcement saying there was a big defeat. They didn't talk about *why* it had happened, but it was too big a catastrophe to treat any other way. Actually, here's a question about propaganda the Third Reich and conquored regions: I know radio broadcasts from the BBC were covertly listened to. How factual were they? If I were in change of programming the German/French BBC broadcast, I'd keep it as factual as practical to counter Nazi propaganda to build credibility.
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Feb 3, 2021 01:03
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Trin Tragula posted:You got suckered. The Central Powers had been worn down so far that they simply lacked the resilience to react to major offensives in the way they'd been able to previously. If you must have a turning point for that war, it's the entry of the Americans, but it really doesn't make much sense to think of WW1 as even having turning points. Everything happens very quickly at the start, then everything bogs down forever while the strain increases and increases and increases on both sides, but by 1918 there's so much pressure going one way that all the others can do is collapse, which all happens so suddenly that even at the start of October 1918, everyone's planning for the grand war-winning offensives of 1919 and it isn't fully apparent just how hosed the Germans are. The planned 1919 offensives are something I wish I could read more about. Like apparently it would be a proto-Blitzkrieg with massed Renault Tanks backed by close support aircraft and rolling artillery. And waves of Americans doughboys marching to glory. 
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Feb 3, 2021 01:26
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Nebakenezzer posted:Actually, here's a question about propaganda the Third Reich and conquored regions: I know radio broadcasts from the BBC were covertly listened to. How factual were they? If I were in change of programming the German/French BBC broadcast, I'd keep it as factual as practical to counter Nazi propaganda to build credibility. This is exactly what they did. In 1942 the BBC took the decision (or rather, was permitted) to broadcast impartial news at home and abroad - still subject to wartime oversight, censorship and security approval of course, but the ethos of 1939-42 of positively 'spinning' everything to the British/Allied advantage was gone. Of course in 1942 things looked much more secure favourable than in previous years, but the value of a reputation for factual, truthful news in a sea of blatant propaganda was clear. Even if this meant acknowledging defeats or setbacks for the Allies. The exceptions were the BBC India and Eastern services, which remained on a tightly biased leash to counter German and Japanese attempts to stir up conflict in the British imperial possessions and weaken the commitment of those territories to the Allied cause. Apparently a lot of Europeans developed a habit of listening to the BBC from the war and the immediate years afterwards. When the Beeb shut down its Italian service (originating as a wartime broadcast to fascist Italy) in the 1980s on the assumption that no one would care about it anymore they were surprised at the backlash and found that it still had regular audiences for individual programmes well into six figures.
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Feb 3, 2021 01:38
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BalloonFish posted:This is exactly what they did. In 1942 the BBC took the decision (or rather, was permitted) to broadcast impartial news at home and abroad - still subject to wartime oversight, censorship and security approval of course, but the ethos of 1939-42 of positively 'spinning' everything to the British/Allied advantage was gone. Of course in 1942 things looked much more secure favourable than in previous years, but the value of a reputation for factual, truthful news in a sea of blatant propaganda was clear. Even if this meant acknowledging defeats or setbacks for the Allies. I forget, was this because of the Tobruk fiasco? Churchill ringing the bells for it or something.
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Feb 3, 2021 01:46
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Jobbo_Fett posted:I forget, was this because of the Tobruk fiasco? Churchill ringing the bells for it or something. I don't really know. I vaguely remember something about the fall of Tobruk being especially bad for morale because the relentlessly upbeat press coverage didn't tell the troops on the ground, let alone the people back home, how the situation in North Africa was actually going. So it came as a much bigger shock than it should have been. Maybe that (coupled to the victory at El Alamein?) made the Ministry of Information decide that, as far as the Home Front was concerned, it was better to be essentially honest than to distort things and then have defeats not only be more shocking but lay bare the untrustworthiness of the reporting?
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Feb 3, 2021 02:26
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The fall of Tobruk in 1942 was a bit shocking because it had survived a 241 day siege in 1941. There was a lot of propaganda effort swept up in that defensive success and so when the pendulum swung again in the desert and Rommel it fell (along with ambiguous instructions as to whether they were to to fight or evacuate) it was a pain. German soldiers knew they were losing the war but it's been the subject of quite a lot of research that that a fairly large proportion of them genuinely believed in the regime propaganda that if they just held out a bit longer the secret super-weapons would turn the course of the war. There's anecdotes of captured German soldiers in Normandy apologising to US troops about New York 'because it's been bombed away'.
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Feb 3, 2021 11:52
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Alchenar posted:German soldiers knew they were losing the war but it's been the subject of quite a lot of research that that a fairly large proportion of them genuinely believed in the regime propaganda that if they just held out a bit longer the secret super-weapons would turn the course of the war. There's anecdotes of captured German soldiers in Normandy apologising to US troops about New York 'because it's been bombed away'. Didn't they film a movie during the last years of the war about Friedrich the Great who had the luck of having one of his enemies die mid-war and their successor being a fan of Prussia?
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Feb 3, 2021 13:08
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Ataxerxes posted:Didn't they film a movie during the last years of the war about Friedrich the Great who had the luck of having one of his enemies die mid-war and their successor being a fan of Prussia? Peter III of Russia, who got coup'd within 6 months by his own wife (Catherine the Great).
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Feb 3, 2021 14:01
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Ataxerxes posted:Didn't they film a movie during the last years of the war about Friedrich the Great who had the luck of having one of his enemies die mid-war and their successor being a fan of Prussia? Kolberg, I believe. Alchenar posted:German soldiers knew they were losing the war but it's been the subject of quite a lot of research that that a fairly large proportion of them genuinely believed in the regime propaganda that if they just held out a bit longer the secret super-weapons would turn the course of the war. I think there's a degree of genuine belief and a degree of desired belief. You don't want to believe you are going to lose the war, but you recognize that literally the only way to not lose the war is for the super-weapons to come, so therefore the super-weapons MUST be coming. And they did! Just kind of a shame (if you're Team Axis) that it was for the Allies.
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Feb 3, 2021 14:13
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:Kolberg, I believe. Yeah, but it's about Frederick III. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolberg_(film) It was for a period of time one of the most expensive films ever made, I don't think it still is, and that speaks volumes about Nazi priorities at the end of the war. German civilians had a pretty good general idea by mid-war what was going on in the east due to railroad workers as well. They not only knew things were going badly, and were worried about Soviet vengeance, but they were also aware that Jews and other "undesirables" were being shipped off to the east. The propagandists did their best and public talk of defeat was punishable but it's hard to keep events of that scale under wraps.
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Feb 3, 2021 15:12
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Zorak of Michigan posted:I got curious and tried to find more about nuclear blasts in atmosphere wasting their energy into space and I got nothing in from any source that seemed authoritative. I see it in Wiki/Wikia pages but that's about it. From the perspective of this search engine user, it seems like an idea that got out there and was accepted as fact without ever getting a proper attribution. If you saw it somewhere in Wiki-pages, could you link it? I'm curious to see what they used as sources, as my own search attempts came up empty
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Feb 3, 2021 15:30
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Ty Seidule, who some of you might remember from the "prageru" video about slavery and the Civil War that came out of nowhere to piss of a bunch of people a few years ago, has written a book that seems likely to do much of the same and is probably very much worth checking out. The Amazon reviews are also definitely worth checking out. "Lee did more for the reunification of this country than anyone else in history."
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Feb 3, 2021 20:21
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bewbies posted:"Lee did more for the reunification of this country than anyone else in history." Bwuh?
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Feb 3, 2021 20:33
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Oh hey it's the only decent PragerU video
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Feb 3, 2021 20:37
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Yes, it's like a lava lamp.
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I mean, he did lose the war
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Feb 3, 2021 20:38
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Fangz posted:I mean, he did lose the war If that's our standard Braxton Bragg did more for the Union.
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Feb 3, 2021 21:19
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Cessna posted:If that's our standard Braxton Bragg did more for the Union. I think I see what's happening here. Hitler won WW2 for the allies Seems logical. Let me put up a video about it.
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Feb 3, 2021 21:27
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Ice Fist posted:I think I see what's happening here. While that's not wrong, I wonder if a more competent Fuhrer would have never gotten to where the Germans were in the Winter of '41 just because he'd have been smart enough to not, you know, invade all his neighbors at once and never gotten the string of lucky wins that let Hitler look like a military genius for two years.
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Feb 3, 2021 21:30
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