Your First Taste of History

[Ferdinand Foch]

Hey everyone. I've been thinking for awhile. Many of us here like history, of war, aviation, world, etc. What I was interested in is when did people first have a taste of history? I guess I'll start with my own story.



When I was five or six, I was at the next door neighbor's, who were babysitting me. I was watching "Reading Rainbow" when they talked about a book called the "Titanic," which was this twenty page booklet with simple information on the ship. This eventually led to me learning more about the Titanic. I also started learning about other great liners, especially the shipwrecks: Empress of Ireland, Lusitania, Britannic, Andrea Doria, etc. Then I started learning about warships like the Hood, the Bismarck, U-boats (like the U-110), and the carriers at the Battle of Midway after watching a National Geographic special on it (when Ballard located the Yorktown, CV-5).
My family would also take Vassili and I down to South Carolina, where my ma's parents went to during the winter. We got to see Charleston, and learned about the Hunley, Fort. Sumter, Fort Pulaski, and other battlefields related to the Civil War.
Hehe, well that's how I started learning and loving history. Can't wait to hear other responses.

[Florence]

Interesting topic. I suppose it was after watching all those glorious old war movies when I was younger ie The Longest Day, Midway, 12 O'clock High, Battle of the Bulge...the list is endless. My dad taped them on the old VHS when they came on TV and I would watch my favourites over and over again. As I grew older I wanted to know the real story behind all these movies and therein lies the beginning of my fascination with military history. I am still a sucker for a good war movie.

David.

[RabidAlien]

You should check out the book "Shadow Divers", if you haven't already. I think you'd really like it.

I grew up in the Air Force, so airplanes (mainly B-52's and F-4's that I can remember) and military were always a part of my life growing up. They're cool, but planes never really seemed to grab my imagination like they did with some guys. But the P-38....now, THAT was an airplane! It was odd looking, kinda like the ugly duckling, and didn't get much attention, so maybe that's why I always loved that bird. After getting out of the Navy, I got married, divorced, blah blah blah...one of the only positive things to come out of it was that she challenged me to look up P38s. So I did. I found a book online, "The Last Great Ace", and went to Barnes-n-Nobel to find it. Didn't find it. I did, however, find "Baa Baa Blacksheep" (Boyington's autobiography), and bought it instead, since I remembered watching that show with Dad as a kid. I was hooked. Ordered "Last Great Ace" from Amazon, and my Amazon wishlist/shopping cart has not been empty since. I love the personal stories that the guys tell of their time in the trenches/air, or the biographies of those (like Major Thomas McGuire, "Last Great Ace") who never made it back. This is History like we were never taught in school....I would've done MUCH better in that subject if it was taught differently!

[tyrodtom]

I'm a child of the fifties who grew up emersed in the WW2 generation. My Dad was in the 1st Marines at Guadalcanal, my mother had 5 brothers in the war, and lost 2, one in the Navy coming home on leave, the other in the Marines at Saipan. And my dad lost a brother in Italy, as a B24 navigator. A lot of my friend's Dads were veterans, the majority of the adult males of the church I attended were WW2 veterans, and teachers too. So I was completely surrounded by history, it fasinated me then, but even as a child I could see the toll history can take on the people who live it.

[parsifal]

I have been interested in history for as long as I can remember. When i was a kid I loved ancient history. As I progressed to adolesence i got interested in wargaming, and then wargame design. went to officer training school and started serious study in strategic studies and military planning. From military college received my bachelors degree, and then masters degree in tactcal warfare concepts, whilst hobby wise moved into the simulations design area. Gave lectures at the RMC for a number of years. So history, and military history was a bread an butter issue for me, although of late i have not had to rely on its for an income....not enough money in it for that.

[Edgar Brooks]

Started school in 1945, and, during the 1950s was taken to the (fairly) local Battle of Britain day, at Benson airfield. One year we were treated to a "dogfight" between a Spitfire and Hurricane, which landed afterwards, and we were allowed to get up close to them after they'd been refuelled (crowds tended to be better-behaved in those days.) We were shooed away, to allow them to take off, and were then treated to the Spitfire looping, straight from take off. I was told, years later, that this was Jeffrey Quill's signature departure, and the Hurricane was probably flown by Beamont. It left me with a love of the Spitfire, which has never diminished.
Edgar

[BikerBabe]

Hey, good idea FF, it's interesting to read how you guys got interested in history.

As for me, I guess I've been interested ever since I started in school.
Some of my favourite lessons were the history lessons, and later learning that my own grandfather was a chief radio operator aboard one of the Royal Danish Navy's inspection ships during the german occupation of Denmark in WW2, has only made me more interested, together with meeting my then-to-be colleague, Poul Fjeldgård, who was one of the approx. 2000 danish police officers, who were sent off to the concentration camp of Buchenwald in WW2, and hearing his story was a wonderful, fascinating and horrifying way of learning more about KZ camp life - or lack of same.
Poul was an excellent storyteller, and he loved to talk about what he and others had experienced, so I'm grateful for having worked with and gotten to know him.



Poul and me at the museum, Oct. 13th, 2005.

Apart from that, I started getting interested in WW2 aviation, shortly before I went to my first airshow in 2002.
Watching one of the Hannas fly their Spitfire just plain hit home, and I've been interested ever since.
But I can't remember how I got interested in the german WW2 pilots.
Damn, I'm getting old.

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

History in general has been a love of mine since I was a little child. I honesty can not remember a single thing that gave me a taste for it, I just always loved it. WW2 history obviously left a mark on me as I grew up in Europe. I believe the fact that it was during the Cold War helped fuel my desire to learn more about WW2 as I believe it was a direct result of the conflict.

If I did have to pick a single piece of history that I am most fond of witnessing it would be being in Berlin for the fall of the wall.

[Thorlifter]

I liked watching the war films with my dad when I was little, but the thing that lit the spark in me watching "Baa Baa Black Sheep". From that time on, I've been hooked.

[javlin]

Military family started it I guess.My father was a radio operator on a B-17 in the first group to actually arrive in England.He use to tell me about the fun stuff that happened not much about the horrors.I use to love reading about Egypt,dinosaurs and then military history(civil war still an interest).I actually wanted to be an archelogists till about 17 or so.Things waned after that for some years till I went back to school and had to pick a subject to right a paper on in English"The Titanic" it started all over again.When you look at that event and who died how did that change the world?Many rich,powerful and important people perished that night?At this time I started building again after a 15 year lapse.I still like reading about the Civil War and older battles they can teach good tactics or lets say tactics that are easier to see.When I read of big conflicts(WWII) its hard to keep the whole map in one's mind.A good read of the Civil War goes Fredricksburg,Chancellorville(both by Sears) then Gettysburg.Stonewall's in and around in Chancellorville on the Union is a hoot and then thier was a classic pincher movement at Fredricksburg developing at night with a Union retreat that would of smashed Meades(?) army.

[parsifal]

Some very intersting stories here guys...keep it coming

[B-17engineer]

Hm, I want to say in 2003 or 2004 my dad decided to take us down to World War II weekend in Reading, Pennsylvania and I was just fascinated by the planes, especially the Lancaster and B-17.

[javlin]

Well one battle I would love to have a good read on just it is "The Battle of Cold Harbor" an excerpt from Wikpedia....

The Battle of Cold Harbor was fought from May 31 to June 12, 1864 (with the most significant fighting occurring on June 3). It was one of the final battles of Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign during the American Civil War, and is remembered as one of American history's bloodiest, most lopsided battles. Thousands of Union soldiers were killed or wounded in a hopeless frontal assault against the fortified positions of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's army.

I do not remember which battle it was wether Fredricksburg or Chancelorville but Jeb Stuart was quite the comedian.JB was the eyes and ears for Lee with his calvary and the Southern Calvary early in the war were much much better than the Unions.Well he was out doing recon up around the Potomac and requisitioned some Union supplies at a communication site w/telegraph.Now all these guys have served together in West Point and Mexico and now are on opposite sides of course but still treat each other with formalities,integrity and honor.Will JB gets a wild hair and after the requisition sends a telegragh back to Washington to have more supplies on hand next time and some better looking horses.Needless to say Lincoln was pissed along with his staff.

[brucejscott]

My dad was Army ROTC and an advisor in Vietnam so every night it was news from SEA ( even took precidence over Star Trek ) and color commentary from dad. Most of the books I learned to read on were historical texts, so to me, it seemed to be the way kids just grew up. After dad went to work for the government we never stayed in any one town for more than two years so I never had friends long enough to learn that most kids read comic books and not history. No complaints though, I kick ass at Jeopardy.

[Night Fighter Nut]

I've always enjoyed history. I remember my Grampa telling about when he serviced ships during WWII. He was one of the ones who worked on the Queen Mary. He told us once how he found a message written in a rope locker about a major accident that happened but was never mentioned because of the war. The message recounted how a Canadian Distroyer was cut in half by the Queen Mary when she cut across the Queen Mary's bow. The Captain of the distroyer didn't realize how fast the Queen Mary was. Everyone was under orders not to ever talk about the accident but someone couldn't keep it to themselves so they wrote the whole story about it in the rope locker when she was in for repairs. Interesting.