Posted: 11/11/2004 11:45:44 AM EDT
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The point in another thread was made about myself being extremely knowledgeable in some of the historical posts. Got me to thinking. Am I? Then I remembered many of the blunders I have made in the past. It's strange how we will pick up misinformation or ideas and consider them as fact. Sometimes you wonder, where did I even get that information? I notice this most readily at work. I work in civil service so there are rules and regulations up the yahoo. There are policies done that everyone will assume is fact and that have been followed for years and years. Yet if you look up the actual regulation you will find that the policy is much different. Seeing as I posted this in the history forum I will go back to the statement of me being extremely knowledgeable and give some examples of blunders that for whatever reason I assumed were correct. Given that that these examples are in the areas where I tend to concentrate my studies on even makes them more glaring. 1. Tiger Tanks in North Africa For the longest time , I had some notion in my head that there were never any Tigers in the North Africa front. 2. Sherman tanks in the eastern front. I have not the slightest idea on what made me think they were not used by the Russians against the Germans. 3. Non-Nationals serving in the Wermacht. This one gives me the most trouble because I can remember vaguely reading something that had to do with this but for the life of me I cant remember what it actually was or from what and it is irritating. Of course, what makes these blunders all the worse is that you post them to a forum with thousands of people viewing and then have to suffer the embarrassment of being shown that you are wrong. |
Yeah, I remember every blunder you put in print, too  .A lot of these misconceptions stem from what we read as well. Lots of unpleasant truths we would rather ignore, absense of information, etc. With WW2, the basis of common knowledge stems from memoirs with an obvious agenda, or works written in the 1950s, or unpleasantness we would rather ignore. Some of the little factoids I picked up on this, and other boards are: French and Ukranians running concentration camps, Lend lease between Japan and Russia until summer 1945, Operation Mars ( and I read a lot of WW2 East front stuff before hearing about it).... |
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That's one of the reasons I've enjoyed reading others' posts here. For example, nobody made a point, which I never considered. I just assumed that an invasion of Germany while Hitler's armies were still fighting in Poland would have knocked Hitler out. He made me think twice about how well the French would have done. I think we've all assumed historical truths which we shouldn't have. The more you know, the more likely you are to question historical assumptions - in my opinion. |
Same here.
Now you have some pictures of them. 
Yea, like this comment. Where I know pefectly well that you know that Wermacht means armed forces and includes the SS which had many foreihn nationals. Sorry, had to take that shot.
You are very knowlegeable on the subjects you have posted on. We all make mistakes, even on stuff we should know. I still feal stupid about you correcting me when I said there were no Russians in the SS. I have several books on these units that I have read! I think part of the problem is that after a while, you read so much that you only remember little snipits of different books. All that info gets jumbled in there. Often it is hard to argue here because people post such stupidity. Based on nationalism and ignorance, but both so often quite frustrating. I have stayed out of many just because I knew I couldn't keep a rational arguement.......... WWII is a tough thing to talk about. The whole train of thought about it has changed in past years, and it is so much more complex than just what you are taught in High School or college. It was a major turning point in history. These things are never - un-complex. Pogo, you should read the book :Zhukovs Greatest Defeat; The Red Armies Epic Disaster in Operation Mars, 1942. By David Glantz |