Hi fellow Probus Club members, we are all part of history and we want you to recognise your ability to develop our interest in things historical or older. It has been suggested by Gerry that we could contribute to the website with our respective historical interests.
I suggest you write something. I know you are all clever people, but you may not have thought about writing about history. Why not? Everyone else does!
I have written tons of stuff to do with my own historical interests and I do not want to hog things but perhaps I could stimulate your interest a little. What I found out when investigating almost anything historical is that there is nearly always an angle which no-one else has come across.
For instance, Saving Private Ryan is a great film of the Americans storming Pont du Hoc on Omaha beach D Day. I went on two D Day trips and then led my own party. Simple research demonstrated that not only was that event not typical of D day, but it was also not typical of Omaha beach much of which was taken without casualties. The Americans knew it would be difficult to take but their preparation was poor. They dropped 30,000 bombs on the beach none of which hit anything. The battleships Texas and Nebraska bombarded for 1 hour whereas the British ships, Warspite, Belfast and Roberts bombarded all day and 2 days later after re-arming were requested by the Americans to shell behind Carentan. Their troop carriers were dropped 7 miles out whereas ours were taken as close as possible. Some of their tanks with their hapless crews were dropped straight into the sea whereas ours were on the beach when the infantry arrived. This sort of sloppy preparation makes a poor film and takes nothing from the heroism of the ordinary soldier, but it happened. The record is all there – if you look.
Interestingly the first few frames of Saving Private Ryan show Abraham Lincoln writing a letter of condolence to a Mrs Bixtby on the loss of her 5 sons fighting for the Union. It is said to be one of the most beautiful letters ever written in the English language. But – a bit of research reveals Mrs Bixtby from Boston Massachusetts was a Confederate sympathiser and hated Lincoln. Not all her sons were dead, and some had not even fought but were claiming compensation. Oh, and Lincoln may not have written it anyway!
So, what did I find that no-one else has mentioned? The timeline reveals that the letter was written in the summer of 1864 when the Union casualties were so bad such a letter was the last thing the public wanted to hear about. It was buried until November when the fall of Atlanta made it politically acceptable!
Have I whetted your appetite to write something interesting on your favourite subject? Writing is very therapeutic. Stopped me going mad anyway!
So, try something. Surprise yourself. Surprise us.”
One of my friends gave his own contribution. He was a pupil at boarding school in 1957 when the Asian flu came and has compared it with 2020 and COVID-19. Its history. We can all do it.
Best wishes Charles
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