We are a Peculiar People

[Cribtop]

This is an ETO story, but when my future college roommate and I were in High School, we had a weird history teacher. She knew her art history backwards and forwards, but she had some unique opinions about military history. She asserted that the Japanese assisted the Germans in trying to prevent the evacuation of Dunkirk. When we called her on it, she claimed the IJN sailed around the north end of Russia to get there. My future roommate made such a stink that she let him go to the library and bring back numerous sources to refute her.

Fortunately, this was not the normal level of education I got. We still laugh about it when we see each other.

PS - She later asserted that the Battle of Trafalgar wasn't very decisive. You can't make this stuff up. [8|][;)]

[jmalter]

I've learned a lot of geography from AE, & can even cope w/ the difference between its historical place-names & their modern replacements.

But a lot of my learned geography is severely distorted by the game's map! IMO if the map had some hexsides dashed or bolded to provide a best-possible approximation of 180 longitude, the Equator & the Tropics, I'd have a better understanding of the world.

For add'l fun, take an hour & google the names of some Allied transport ships, looking for the person the ship was named for. Tons of geeky historical goodness!

[nashvillen]

Another fun thing is load up Google Earth and look at some of the locations you are currently operating in. Gives you another perspective. Lots of photos. Kind of travel to another part of the world without having to get your passport out.

[denisonh]

I was in Ireland in 2005 and struck up a conversation with an older gentlemen. He mentioned that he flew bombers in the CBI in WWII. I began by asking him questions to include what squadron and where he flew out of. Asked him about the different targets, if he ran shuttle bombing missions and experiences with the other commonwealth units he worked with. I think he was both surprised and appreciative of the discussion and the detailed questions I asked.

[crsutton]

Yep, I impressed my wife's friends for about two seconds the other evening when I knew exactly where Tricomalee is (was, that is).

Funny, but I have been gaming for over forty years. I was very sensitiveness about it as a teenager and young adult and told no person about it. It was my dark secret. Amazing how that seems to go hand in hand with not ever having any opponents. The first person who I ever told about wargaming was my wife to be. Then I came out of the closet (literally) and advertised in the old AH General for some opponents and started to have some real fun.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: Gräfin Zeppelin

Well for some reason people are always surprised. A few months ago someone said that the war in the pacific changed when the Japanese lost 5 carriers at Hawaii (he meant that Midways thingie).... I took a deep breath and was going into full nerd mode ending with something like Shokaku and Zuikaku couldnt join that battle because.....ya kwow the jazz.

Well, I think if I was a dinner party and a woman started discussing the merits of the six Japanese fleet carriers at Pearl Harbor I would be pretty much totally blown away. [;)] You are indeed a rare bird.

[CaptDave]

I'm a lifelong geography geek so don't know how much of this comes from the game, but I used to have a coworker who was born in the Philippines (US Navy dad, native mother) and was there quite a while before eventually moving to South Carolina (then to Chicago when his parents were divorced, but that's a different story). Anyway, he was there long enough to know the country -- and I knew it better than he did!

[wdolson]

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

This is an ETO story, but when my future college roommate and I were in High School, we had a weird history teacher. She knew her art history backwards and forwards, but she had some unique opinions about military history. She asserted that the Japanese assisted the Germans in trying to prevent the evacuation of Dunkirk. When we called her on it, she claimed the IJN sailed around the north end of Russia to get there. My future roommate made such a stink that she let him go to the library and bring back numerous sources to refute her.

Fortunately, this was not the normal level of education I got. We still laugh about it when we see each other.

PS - She later asserted that the Battle of Trafalgar wasn't very decisive. You can't make this stuff up. [8|][;)]

I had a science teacher like that in 8th grade. My sister was in grad school studying Geology at the time, so I had picked up a lot more science than a typical 8th grader from her. There were a few instances where I locked horns with the teacher, but most of the time I rolled my eyes and kept my head down.

I wonder if she had heard somewhere that Italy had declared war on France and the UK during the Battle of France and confused that with Japan? That's the only thing anywhere remotely close to what she was saying. And I don't believe Italy had anything at all to do with Dunkirk, though there were some Regia Aeronautica units that went to northern France during the Battle of Britain. Their contribution was fairly minor though.

If you really want to get your blood pressure up, you should check out this guy: http://douglasdietrich.com/. I've heard him on the radio a few times and I end up yelling at the radio. He claims to be such an expert, but many of his claims are physically impossible. He'd be more believable if he claimed Japan used enslaved fairey folk.

Bill

[Grfin Zeppelin]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

ORIGINAL: Gräfin Zeppelin

Well for some reason people are always surprised. A few months ago someone said that the war in the pacific changed when the Japanese lost 5 carriers at Hawaii (he meant that Midways thingie).... I took a deep breath and was going into full nerd mode ending with something like Shokaku and Zuikaku couldnt join that battle because.....ya kwow the jazz.

Well, I think if I was a dinner party and a woman started discussing the merits of the six Japanese fleet carriers at Pearl Harbor I would be pretty much totally blown away. [;)] You are indeed a rare bird.

[rustysi]

When the earthquake hit Northern Honshu knew exactly where it was no map needed. The movie 'XXX', Bora Bora, yep know where that is.

[CaptBeefheart]

The one thing that throws me sometimes is historical vs. modern names. A buddy mentioned a great trip he took to Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia the other day. This was after I heard there were direct flights from Seoul as it is popular with Koreans. Thinking I didn't know any big towns in Malaysia by that name, after some googling I figured out it's the old Jesselton. Somehow that colonial name got the chop, but Georgetown survives to this day.

Then there was a trip I took to Burma 11 years ago. I got off a bus at a dusty crossroads near Taunggyi between Mandalay and Inle Lake and stumbled on a dirt-floor restaurant with a satellite dish that was showing the U.S.-Portugal World Cup soccer game. I got there with an hour to spare to see the U.S. beat the overconfident Portuguese (the F&B director at the Ritz-Carlton told me they partied hard the night before at one of his bars in anticipation of an easy victory against the Yanks). There are a lot of places I've been on the map and most of those have some good memories associated with them (I won't bore you further, though).

Cheers,
CC

[Banzan]

Flying across Myanmar, watching the flightmap with some "known" locations shown on it, was a quite funny experience.

[obvert]

My geek moment recently was a bit different than usual. During a family gathering I met my half-sister's step-father, an 80 something year old man who is now nearly blind. He is an avid amateur historian focused on the WW2 era. He listens to audio books daily and recently his wife read to him the entire Atkinson Liberation Trilogy. Quite a lady!

Having some knowledge of the war let me have a great conversation with him and hopefully make him feel not so isolated in a big chaotic family gathering. We spoke at length about the Pacific war and a bit about Europe. He was shocked I knew something about the war in China and Burma and the leading figures involved, the place names and the dates. Not many people he's met have ever heard of Myitkyina, Kweillin or Lashio, or know what Manchukuo meant.

It was a real connection and amazing to meet him and hear about that war from his perspective, that of someone almost old enough to have served in the war, but not quite. He said he was fascinated as a boy growing up hearing about what was going on, and in some way realized toward the end that they weren't getting the 'real news' of the costs and terrors of the conflict. That's when he decided he wanted to understand the deeper picture of what had happened, and began his life-long research.

It was a day when I realized that our interest in this game is always from a deeper perspective, and that we in a way are just like him, wanting to see beyond the veil presented to us into the past to really learn what those men went through and what they accomplished.

[pmelheck1]

I had a similar experience except for me it was almost all my male relatives had served in the pacific. I had an uncle on the Essex and another on a sub but I don't know the name. My dad was a Paratrooper. In the community I grew up in we had several WW2 vets of multiple fronts. My high school principle was a Bataan death march survivor. The owner of the local beer garden was a low ranking German Infantryman. He was in Greece when the war ended and as he put it he had to walk to Germany as all of Europe was to pissed at him to give him a ride. A business man in the next town over was a U-boat Skipper but I don't know his name. Having grown up in such a setting I really wish I had developed my love of learned of the past when I was much younger to have really talked to these folks rather than just the youngster "that's cool"

[geofflambert]

I saw on one of the news stations a report on the terrorist attacks at Volgagrad, but on the map they had that city where Dnepropetrovsk is. They must be using Apple maps.

[jeffk3510]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

Yep, I impressed my wife's friends for about two seconds the other evening when I knew exactly where Tricomalee is (was, that is).

Funny, but I have been gaming for over forty years. I was very sensitiveness about it as a teenager and young adult and told no person about it. It was my dark secret. Amazing how that seems to go hand in hand with not ever having any opponents. The first person who I ever told about wargaming was my wife to be. Then I came out of the closet (literally) and advertised in the old AH General for some opponents and started to have some real fun.

Same thing with my SO as well.

Funny you mention Tricomalee, too.

One of my religion professors in college was impressed with my knowledge of geography. I didn't tell him how.

[nashvillen]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

I saw on one of the news stations a report on the terrorist attacks at Volgagrad, but on the map they had that city where Dnepropetrovsk is. They must be using Apple maps.

You know, for a Gorn, you are funny! [:D]

[jeffk3510]

ORIGINAL: mullk

I had a similar experience except for me it was almost all my male relatives had served in the pacific. I had an uncle on the Essex and another on a sub but I don't know the name. My dad was a Paratrooper. In the community I grew up in we had several WW2 vets of multiple fronts. My high school principle was a Bataan death march survivor. The owner of the local beer garden was a low ranking German Infantryman. He was in Greece when the war ended and as he put it he had to walk to Germany as all of Europe was to pissed at him to give him a ride. A business man in the next town over was a U-boat Skipper but I don't know his name. Having grown up in such a setting I really wish I had developed my love of learned of the past when I was much younger to have really talked to these folks rather than just the youngster "that's cool"

I say the same thing about wishing I could have learned more about it at an earlier age. That, or of been born earlier to have these conversations with my grandparents and their generation.

[rustysi]

Well I had the interest at an early age. I remember asking one of my history teachers if I could borrow a Civil War book he had on his desk for over the summer. He looked at me a bit funny , but said sure. I read it and returned it. He later caught me with a book by Engels and was amazed. I'll have to admit though I couldn't get through it at that age, tough read.

[wdolson]

My family are all history geeks. We always had tons of history books around the house. There was even a big bookshelf in the breakfast nook. You could literally grab a book to read without moving from your seat.

My father was bored of kids books, so when I was 4-5 he started reading to me from his WW II history books. One that really caught me was a passage he read from Robert Johnson's Thunderbolt. When I asked him to read me more, he told me to read it myself. I think I had just turned 6. So I started reading the book. I think it took me a couple of months, but I got through it. It was kind of boring reading a book with no pictures at that age, but I don't recall struggling to read it.

I also started building plastic models at 3 years of age. I couldn't read the instructions at that age, but I could figure things out from the diagrams.

Bill