Kids today won't know anyone from the war

[raindropbox]

Our grandparents or parents were children during the war, and they had stories from their parents or grandparents, who had lived experience of WW1.

So we had a direct connection with somebody with first-hand experience of the world wars. It just occured to me that babies born now won't have that.

Does that mean WW1/2 will feel as distant to them as the victorians do to us? Will it have some kind of subconscious impact on society?

I’m 37 and don’t know anyone from the war. My grandparents were born after 1941 and so have no memories of it

Well this is one of the stupidest sweeping statements I’ve ever read

My youngest is 9 and has a grandparent that was born before WW2.

My DGMs nursing home plays them music from the First and Second World War and thinks the reason they don't know the words is because they have dementia.

I said that might be true, but try some music from the 50s and 60s and they'd have a better chance!

There is a certain group of society that fetishises war (especially ww2) - which include one of my older siblings (quite a bit older). It keeps the UK stuck in the past.

I really agree. People keep trying to expand the boundaries of what having lived through the war constitutes (it now seems to be widely claimed that having been a baby during peacetime rationing basically makes you a war survivor) to delay having to find a new locus of national identity.

You never met any of your grandparents?

I'm 50y. My grandparents were children during the war. Neither had an active role. I vaguely remember my great grandparents but they didn't really have active parts in either war as well - generally too old for Ww2 and too young for Ww1. Also in occupations which meant their war effort would have been here at home.

I seem to have had grandparents and great grandparents who missed being the right age in both, though I had great uncles who were older who fought (and died) in the war. Didn't meet any of these though.

Can we please stop using 'fetishising' whenever we wish to express disapproval fgs. Having an interest in something your parents or grandparents lived through is not 'fetishinging'

@KateyCuckoo really? That amazes me because I'm 44 and all four of my grandparent fought/worked in WW2 and my grandma has endlessly told me of the day her dad came back from WW1 (when she was 4).

I feel really connected to both world wars because people I knew, or their immediate family, fought in them and remember the feelings of the time.

I hope by telling the stories I heard as a child I can keep it real for my children.

I was born in 95 and my grandparents were born 1937-1940. So technically alive during the war but very young.

My great grandparents were alive during the war but I only knew one and I don't remember her ever talking about it.

I've never really heard any war stories. My grandpa once said he had some evacuees come stay with him but that was it, one of my grandmas was briefly evacuated but was a baby. It wasn't really talked about. I wouldn't say I have any living memory of the war. I imagine there's got to be a lot of children younger than me who haven't heard any war stories. Their grandparents wouldn't have even been alive during the war

Rubbish. We’ve had lots of wars.
What about the
NI Troubles?
Falklands War?
Bosnia & Yugoslavia?
Iraq wars I and II?
Afghanistan?
Ukraine?

I’m sure I’m missing a few wars. There isn’t a generation of British forces that haven’t seen war yet.

Yes! There was a thread about this issue a while ago.

I think their is only a handful of WW2 veterans left in the UK

But their must be plenty of other veterans of other wars and conflicts. I think their has only been one year since 1945 that UK forces haven't been in active service.

My mum died last year. She was born in 1928. I know all of her war stories, how she cycled at top speed to avoid the doodlebug bombs. How they went down into the air raid shelters at night. How she loved dancing with the Czech soldiers who were stationed at the top of her road! My dad was in the Marines in Burma. All his stories. I know all the words to the wartime songs. And now it's all gone.

Do you mean great grandparent?

Also none of my great grandparentss fought in the war so its not like any of my grandparents had that connection. They were all young children who were so young when the war started that they didn't know any different

I definitely would not say I have a living memory.

In a way I'm quite relieved that we can move on from going on about it all the time. The kids will learn about it in school. My own parents watch far too many Hitler / WW2 documentaries and I am not sure the obsession is healthy. Plenty of other wars to focus on going on right now.

I'm in my 30s and my grandma, my oldest living relative, was born in 1952. So I have never had contact with someone who lived through the war.

Sorry what?
Are you saying that the civil war that was the Northern Ireland Troubles did not affect everyone in the U.K.?

The same with the Falklands War?

What? Are Irish Islanders and Falkland Islanders not British enough for you to think that these wars inside the U.K. did not affect everyone in the U.K.?

It’s bad enough you are rubbishing all the refugees and descendants of refugees that have survived wars we have fought in since WWII as not affecting the “national psyche” whatever that means, but to say wars that saw British citizens killed on British soil just meh, nothing compared to WWII.

That’s really astounding and makes me wonder what they are teaching in schools these days.

Our forces have seen war, but the impact of war on the population at large has been pretty minimal (except for NI, and even with that, outside of Northern Ireland there has been relatively little that people have really felt).

World War II determined almost everything the UK did while it was running (and the ongoing impact for years after was immense). It totally changed the UK.

Mine was in the FAU! Never come across anyone who had even heard of it before!

I hope we don't forget/downplay the Holocaust when the testimony of living survivors is no longer there.

Nope @Comedycook my Dad was born before the war.

WW2 is of great interest to me. I read, watch and visit a lot of places connected to the war because I find it fascinating. I've often thought this too, that we are the final generation to have a real connection to the people who lived it. But in the other hand, neither of my grandads, who were both heavily involved, wanted to talk about it. Maybe a snippet here and there which was wonderful. But on the whole I think the memories are too painful.

There's a memorial to the FAU at the National Memorial Arboretum. We went on a family trip there when it was newish about 10 years ago. My grandad, his sister and her husband were all in it.

One thing during some history lessons is why the big focuses on WW2 ? There are many conflicts but when doing gcse/ alevels it's usually WW1/2 ?