# WWII - Why the Eternal Interest? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 5, 2013, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382 "2013-02-05T11:36:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Otara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a88e4f/32.png) [@Otara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otara)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/41 "2013-02-06T00:22:06Z")
Ton of films made after the war, holocaust and its factory methods used as lessons about inhumanity, videogames. Most importantly maybe, we won convincingly, rather than the murkier results of Vietnam, Iraq etc. Edit: The seriously snappy uniforms and regalia help a lot too. Overall though, I’d say there’s a lot less than there used to be. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/42 "2013-02-06T04:10:38Z")
“Combat” was one of longest running series in my country when I was a kid. And I mourn the death of Vic Morrow to this day. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/43 "2013-02-06T08:03:19Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Fine, Navies then. Bzzzt! Sorry, but thanks for playing. The Falklands was fought by two angry Boy Scout troops and in the midst of a regatta. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/44 "2013-02-06T08:20:17Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > The modern world is largely a _consequence_ of World Wars I & II (which are themselves inseparable, really). > > Want to know why China is rising? Why Russia dislikes the US? Why Iraq has different ethnic groups struggling for influence? Why Saudi Arabia is so important? How the US landed on the moon? How agriculture boomed because of nitrogen fertilizer? The invention of computers? Why is there a European Union? Why are the French in Mali? > > All these subjects (and many, many more) have their roots in the two World Wars. The ethnic conflicts in the Mid-East and Africa are the result of countries being defined and borders drawn by Europeans for the convenience of Europeans. We will see these problems until the people who live there get to draw borders. The Allies’ refusal to stop the Holocaust created such guilt in them that they screwed up even more by giving Palestine to the Jews - the all-time-champeen border screw-up. The war didn’t create those other problems. You might argue that that, after yet another war, the Europeans were too quick to dump the colonies; that they might have done a better job of creating countries from colonies had they not ben so quick to go home and lick their wounds. Note that the US maybe should have been 2 countries from the start - it took the Civil War to get that line or lack thereof sorted out. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/45 "2013-02-06T09:44:20Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > \*In that area, WWI is the champ, with the first wide use of the machine gun […] Machine-guns (as in, actual machine-guns like the Vickers and the Maxim) had been around long before WWI and things like the Gatling and the Nordenfelt had been around beford that. The British used Maxim guns in the Matabele War of 1893 and notably at the battle of Omdurman (in the Sudan) in 1898, while the Russians also employed Maxim Guns in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, too. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/46 "2013-02-06T13:33:29Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > The ethnic conflicts in the Mid-East and Africa are the result of countries being defined and borders drawn by Europeans for the convenience of Europeans. Yeah, but a lot of the border-drawing was influenced by the World Wars or the perception of strategic necessity in and after said wars. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/47 "2013-02-06T15:26:39Z")
So in addition to the reasons already given (clear-cut sides, epic scale, variety of types of combat, relatively equal strengths, ‘feel good’ outcome), I’ll add one more: WWII happened right at a crux where technology was very important (tank and plane design mattered), but not so overwhelming that humans were disconnected (planes, tanks, and rifles all had individuals pulling the triggers, and those individuals mattered, too). So geeks have valid reason to think about tank gun sizes, but it’s not as abstract and hard to understand as modern radar/radar-jamming contests) ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/48 "2013-02-06T16:27:06Z")
Spying. World War 2 has an endless supply of epic stories of spies and spying and double agents, moles, secret codes, languages, decoding machines, concealed radios, clandestine meetings on the dark streets of Paris, assassins, bullets to the head, executions, SS, propaganda, Tokyo Rose… etc etc. Utterly fascinating. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/49 "2013-02-06T16:31:18Z")
The war was discussed much more by the public while it was occurring the the later Korean, Vietnam and Iraq wars. It affected the lives of people much greater. The scale was larger, more men served, more women were needed to go to work. Gasoline and many items were rationed, and much more personal sacrifices. The draft was universal and it wasn’t just the poor kids fighting. There were many more movies made during and after the war. (How many good Korean war movies, outside of MASH?) Plus there was the bonds drives and advertising for them. When I was growing up in the 60s and 70s, I heard first hand accounts from relatives and teachers who had served in the war. I don’t know anyone who fought in Korea and while I know some people who were in Vietnam, they never talked about it. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/50 "2013-02-06T17:05:31Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Contrast that with more recent wars like Vietnam, Afghanistan and the Gulf wars, where the good/bad guys are more ambiguous, and our reasons for fighting were a lot more gray than in WWII. Add to that the fact that militarily, we far outclassed our enemies, and the narrative becomes a lot less heroic and romantic, and become complex and a little painful sometimes. I also think that the scale and scope of WWII - across two theaters and dozens of countries in all sorts of environments, cultures and locales - lends itself to so many more stories that can be told. Island hopping across the Pacific, the Tuskeegee Airmen, an Airborne company fighting across Europe, a sniper duel in Stalingrad, Parisian partisans, Jewish partisans, Dutch partisans, Iwo Jima from both the American and Japanese side, submarine warfare, concentration camps, the plot to kill Hitler, Pearl Harbor, the air war in Europe, so on and so forth. In contrast, every 'Nam film is all humping through the jungle, helicopters and Ho Chi Mihn trail culminating in some firebase getting overrun by waves of Viet Cong. > [@Diceman](#): > > I think we’re overlooking a factor: WW2 is big right now (after a long spell being more-or-less out of the public consciousness) because the WW2 generation is dying off. In a decade or so, they’ll only be a handful of extremely old folks left who fought in it, and anyone with any personal memories will be well up there in age. (If you were a 5-year-old child in 1945, you’re 68 today, and in a decade you’ll be 78.) At this point, WW2 will start to slip into the “not quite ancient history” slot currently occupied by WW1. I don’t know. WWII, Vietnam, the Civil War and the American Revolution always sort of seem to stay in the public conscious. Others, like the Korean War and the War of 1812 just don’t. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/51 "2013-02-07T01:40:45Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > And there were several times were things could have very easily gone the other way, in which case Diese Diskussion könnte statt in deutscher Sprache または、日本のことについては.\*\* Speak for yourself and the Brits, Cobber. 😉 > [@Baal\_Houtham](#): > > It was the most recent time that America’s existence was actually at stake. (Its fall would have occurred a long time after the defeat of Russia and England, but the threat was real.) Errant nonsense. Yamamoto rolled his eyes at the prospect of a Japanese invasion of North America because he had been here and knew just how bloody BIG it is. Hitler couldn’t even get it together to invade the UK when he was 20 miles away. > [@the\_diego](#): > > Downton Abbey has awakened my interest in the Great War. Looks to be even more fascinating than WW2. The Austrian archduke and the Romanovs are just a taster. WWI is fascinating, in particular because its causes were so stupid. > [@LC\_Strawhouse](#): > > In some classes I’ve been in , half the boys could … tell you the exact widths of every tank gun barrel used in the North African theater I’d say 37mm, 57mm, and 75mm would cover all the combatants. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![DummyGladHands](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/49beb7/32.png) [@DummyGladHands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DummyGladHands)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/52 "2013-02-07T03:01:45Z")
Ask the Military Channel. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/53 "2013-02-07T08:54:12Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Errant nonsense. Yamamoto rolled his eyes at the prospect of a Japanese invasion of North America because he had been here and knew just how bloody BIG it is. It wasn’t just Yamamoto, it was the entire Japanese military. The IJA couldn’t even contain China. Japan knew it could never beat the States with all our resources. That was never the plan. Their idea was to repeat the Russo-Japanese war by doing a stunning navel victory, followed by grabbing a bunch of territories. The morally weak West would pay off them rather than fight a bloody war to the finish. They didn’t expect it to last more than several months. Among the history of war planning, it has to rank up in the top several for miscalculations. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/54 "2013-02-07T19:55:29Z")
> [@LC\_Strawhouse](#): > > In some classes I’ve been in , half the boys could explain the difference between 5 different types of bayonets and tell you the exact widths of every tank gun barrel used in the North African theater > [@dropzone](#): > > I’d say 37mm, 57mm, and 75mm would cover all the combatants. 😉 Ah, you’ve forgotten: [Italian M13/40](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_M13/40) – 47mm British [Crusader](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusader_tank) [Matilda](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matilda_tank) [Valentine](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine_tank) – all using the 2-pounder (40mm) And the German [Panzer III](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panzer_III) – 50mm (short and long-barrel versions) Sorry, I’m an old grognard. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/55 "2013-02-07T19:57:00Z")
I wasn’t going to mention the Tiger (and King Tiger if it appeared in Africa,) which both used the 88mm. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/56 "2013-02-07T20:03:56Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > I wasn’t going to mention the Tiger (and King Tiger if it appeared in Africa,) which both used the 88mm. I don’t think any vehicles sporting the 88mm were involved in the North African campaign, although towed 88s were certainly used. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/57 "2013-02-07T20:36:48Z")
[Tigers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_I#First_actions) were used in Africa, although of course Wikipedia might be missing an early 88-less variant that I didn’t know about or might be wrong about Tigers in Africa. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/58 "2013-02-08T02:48:07Z")
I was wondering how long it would take for this thread to turn into another WWII trivia thread… p.s. - if you think WWI was about an assassination, you really should look further into it. It was the ultimate go-around of _the European War_, which had been happening at least every century. It just managed to drag the US in. And the US’s casus belli was almost as thin as was that of the Spanish-American War. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/59 "2013-02-08T03:45:26Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > [Tigers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_I#First_actions) were used in Africa, although of course Wikipedia might be missing an early 88-less variant that I didn’t know about or might be wrong about Tigers in Africa. A battalion of Tigers was deployed in the last few months of the N Africa campaign. Not much effect, kepth breaking down. King Tiger was first used IIRC in Normandy. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/60 "2013-02-08T06:02:22Z")
WW2 is also a good place for aspiring writers to find [plot holes](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=645923). 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382.md?page=4)