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@rochellaine

That’s fine 🙂

@eden-anderson

Sorry if I worded that badly. I don’t mean defend them as in “Wave away all the bad things they do”, and yes, I’m referring specifically to World War One, because that’s my area of expertise and that is what Rochellaine and I were discussing. WW1 was never as clearcut as WW2, so its harder to point at a side and say “They’re bad”, and yet we still do it, mostly with the Germans, but also a little with the Turks (that’s probably more of an Australian thing, though our friendship with Modern Turkey is very strong).

And yes, it’s true that the Germans committed horrible, atrocious acts (in WW1), but so did the Allies, and yet we’re more willing to sweep those under the carpet because “they’re good guys”. Wanting to defend the world against what they saw as a hideous evil, and wanting to protect the small countries like Belgium, is a noble desire, but it doesn’t excuse some of the things that happened.

Just like in the Allied countries, the people of the Central Powers were being fed ridiculous propaganda, and many believed that they were doing right. In fact, it was a huge belief at the time that it was a Holy War, and both sides believed they were fighting for God’s will to be done on earth. The clergymen in particular, tended to fuel this idea. Not only that, but conscription was a huge thing. In fact, toward the middle of the war, Germany had lost so many soldiers that they had to start conscripting boys sixteen years of age, and some were probably younger. All Quiet on the Western Front is about a school class who literally goes straight from a schoolroom to the Western Front. Compared to that, Australian soldiers were a lot older, for the most part, more experienced,  etc.

And this is getting very long. One of my favourite authors is Michael Morpurgo, who writes a lot on war. One of his books, which you may have heard of, is War Horse, which is about a horse on the Western front, who initially belongs to an English lieutenant, before his owner is killed and he is rescued by a French farmgirl. While he’s staying with the French girl, he is commandeered by the German army, along with his horse friend. He’s given to the gunner, to pull the heavy guns the German artillery used, but the gunner is a really kind young man, who looks after his horses as best as he is able given the cruelty of their conditions. Then he’s stolen by a very young German boy and his brother, who are deserting the army. And when they’re shot for cowardice and desertion, he ends up wandering no man’s land, where he is then rescued by an English soldier and a German one.

Basically, the point of that long ramble, is that those are the plot points and I may or may not have got them in the right order. And also that, Michael Morpurgo showed both sides of the war and the horrors and kindnesses that they both dealt.

Um, well, hopefully this made a little sense. 😀