Re: EJ in WWII

[mark.grzeskowiak@utoronto.ca]

I've never been in the army-and to be honest, I hope I never have to be.
I was, however, a player and an assistant coach for a university level
soccer team...

Neither fact has diminished my interest in Juenger.  

Mark Grzeskowiak

On Tue, 9 Feb 1999, John King wrote:

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