G'day mates! Still reading? I'M the one supoposed to have no life, mate! But stick with it...'cos this is where the fun starts...
How many of you have ever run across a Web Forum? These are discussion groups where members can post up questions, and other people can discussion them or answer them. Sometimes they're free-form, sometimes closely moderated - but the one thing they have in common? people sign up because they WANT to be there...
Forums are started and joined by people with an interst in something - and out there there's one for you - it could be hacking, rugmaking, cooking, sex, football (whichever of those last two is more important!), vaiation, cheap holidays in the sun - me, I want a holiday with SNOW!!! Who the bloody hell in Oz wants more sun? - old cars, new cars, the right or wrong way to pick yer nose...
And of course - military history.
You might not believe it, not with all that record keeping and diaries and reports and books - but nowhere near everything is known about even modern wars. Let's face it - every war sees SOMEONE charging at speed twoards the enmy....and the enemy's first reaction?
...throw the secret files on the bonfire and leg it!!!
Now that DOES create a bit of a problem years later - damn great big holes in the istorical record!
Hands up everyone who ever watched a Second World War film? Or made a kit model of a German plane? Or lifted a book in a library...or watched a dcoumentary on the telly???
Did YOU know - that in the last three months of the war the Luftwaffe - Nazi Germany's air force - successfully managed to destroy a THIRD of its paperwork???
That's a third of everything, mate! Every mess bill, movement order, catering requisition...squadron record, aircraft development record, technical manual, mission report...every field report on the Luftwaffe ground divisions that comprised hundreds of thousands of men in the ground fighting as well as in the air. A third of every personnel histroy, training record, medal entitlement...disciplinary action, court martial...
That's just one example for ONE military force in one conflict! And THAT is why people around the world are still researching, still learning, still searching, still teaching, still unearthing new paper records, militaria, and personal recollections - simply because there's SO much left to know and find out in their area of interest.
You go on ANY forum and you'll see experts, beginners, dilettantes, mockers, skeptics, researchers, schoolkids...
You go on a military history forum - and not only will soomeone possibly tell you what you want to know...but if they can't they'll tell you where you can find it out, or the book you can read, or maybe even put you in touch with the people involved in what you're asking about! And even - you can chat to the people who have written the books you've been referred to! Participating just like ANY other member!
And some of these blokes are smart. They're normal blokes like you or me, but you'll be amazed and what they know, and what they can help YOU to find out. And...like any gathering of people, they bring a LOT of other personal skills to the table.
And the best of them all seem to be
forum.axishistory.com
and
www.feldgrau.net
They cover EVERYTHING to do with the Second World War. Some areas are more focused than others, moderating styles are different , the faces and opinions are different - but they work in the same way, people bouncing opinions off each other or banging heads together, and learning...
...then someone made the mistake of appearing on them trying to advertise "Directive 19"
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