Read on Twitter
To be honest I find this sort of comment quite annoying.
World War II was incredibly psychologically damaging to millions.
The fact that it wasn't worse is because few troops spent very much of their time in the heat of fighting. https://twitter.com/andrewtghill/status/1328029572886093829
World War II was incredibly psychologically damaging to millions.
The fact that it wasn't worse is because few troops spent very much of their time in the heat of fighting. https://twitter.com/andrewtghill/status/1328029572886093829
About one in 20 Americans who fought overseas during WW2 was admitted to hospital during the war with neuropsychiatric problems:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3181586/
About 15% of people who fought in the two Gulf Wars suffered PTSD: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2089086/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3181586/
About 15% of people who fought in the two Gulf Wars suffered PTSD: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2089086/
One study of (now quite aged) Polish civilian survivors of WW2 found half suffered from depression and a fifth from PTSD: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7055398/
Most families with relatives who fought in the world wars will have stories about those relatives that suggest the damage done -- that alcoholic great uncle, the grandfather who suicided.
To actually run a military force in these conditions meant rotating troops in and out of the front lines so that they'd often spend no more than 10% of their time in harm's way.
Read military memoirs and it's amazing how much is taken up by descriptions of dull logistical jobs like managing warehouses and driving trucks through secure territory, and activities -- amateur dramatics, sport, writing -- to take the edge off the ubiquitous boredom.
Obviously some people had a terrible time of it. Many of those probably ended up broken people, lost to untreated trauma, alcoholism, and suicide.
And then you'd have some people who was maybe good at maths, was drafted in during wartime to do paperwork away from the frontlines, ended up in a job in the financial sector afterwards and told a story about themselves with a Messerschmitt always up their arse.
Some people survived the front lines and thrived. Good for them. But I hate this macho posturing. I suspect it's much more common among those who didn't suffer genuine trauma as soldiers than among those who did. (ends)
