Re: EJ in WWII

[John King <john.king@st-johns.oxford.ac.uk>]

> > As an Italian infantryman (sort of), I'd like to know how many of us listmembers
> > had to wear a uniform (or still wear it).
> 
> We could even ak more detailed:
> who among the listmembers was NOT an infantryman ?

For what it's worth, I was in the University Officer Training Corps here
in Oxford for a couple of years, 1990-92. It's part of the British
Territorial Army (Reserves), is completely voluntary and doesn't really
serve any military purpose. I didn't feel the need to return to it after
my first year in Germany, but got quite a bit out of it - more than balls
and free ski trips ;-)

It is of course striking how history/culture shapes attitudes to the
military, itself an important cultural phenomenon. In British popular
culture (ie. oversimplifying chronically), it is not the Germans who were
the most evil in WWII but the Japanese - and indeed, one might contrast
the recent failure of a claim for compensation by former British POWs in
Japanese camps with Deusche Bank's willingness to pay out millions in
order to smooth its deal with Bankers Trust. Maybe one of the crassest
examples of British attitudes to "the War" (satirised brilliantly by John
Cleese (of Monty Python) in the Fawlty Towers episode "The Germans" with
its punchline "Whatever you do, don't mention the war!" - which of course
he does, incessantly) was The Mirror (British tabloid) with its picture of
Paul Gascoigne with a WW1 helmet on and a headline along the lines of
"Ready for War" (ok, we was robbed. And 1998 as well. Erm, yes, just got
to qualify for Euro 2000, and no more penalty shoot-outs ever again).

Enough from me on the British. I'm English and European long before I'm
British, BTW - just says I'm British in my passport.

JK
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John King
St. John's College	
GB - Oxford OX1 3JP
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