I have a long-standing interest in military history and have read quite a few books on the subject. Today I was reading ‘A Crowd is Not Company’ by Robert Kee, a British airman in WW2 who was shot down and spent several years in a prison camp before escaping.
The first chapters describe how he was shot down and how he was processed through the system before being sent to his prison camp, he describes how different Germans treated him in different ways, some were kind and considerate of his feelings, others bluff and workmanlike and some who were vindictive and cruel.
For some reason it struck me that these people were like this before the conflict, war doesn’t change peoples basic personalities, if you were a nice person before you’ll probably try to be nice when you can (although participating or experiencing horrible events), if you were an utter bastard before you’ll still be an utter bastard during the conflict, although now able to give most of those socially unacceptable attitudes in peacetime free reign.
Basically I realised that war doesn’t change peoples personalities, it just makes it clearer what sort of person you are.
I don’t know why this realisation surprised me so much, but it did.
Now I’m waiting to be told how I’m completely wrong and I’m a horrible person for suggesting such a thing…