"This success in the skies above London, which saw him awarded the Victoria Cross just 48 hours later, was due to a mixture of the 21-year-old's own bravery, an improved
defence strategy and a revolutionary flammable bullet."
I've always found it interesting how you virtually never see stories with this sort of tone or content (using positively charged words like "bravery" or talking about military honors) from the BBC about soldiers on the German side, unless they were effectively acting on their side.
Similarly, you virtually never see articles detailing the lives and "bravery" of Vietnamese soldiers, or Iraqi soldiers in the US mainstream media.
This is understandable (if not excusable) during the wars themselves, when censorship and "patriotic" pro-war sentiment is rife, but now, decades after those wars, it's interesting that the taboo still holds strong.
I'm sure there were many "brave" and interesting people and actions to write about on all sides of any war, considering the number of people involved and the historical drama of the events. But you really only hear from the mainstream media of these countries about the "bravery" and "heroic" actions of people on their own sides.
That may vary in Germany, considering the collective guilt many Germans feel over their country's role in WW2. So stories of "heroic" Nazis are probably not very prevalent there.
On the other hand, considering the allegedly unrepentant and arguably revisionist views of many Japanese about Japan's role in WW2, there may be more stories about "heroic" and "brave" Japanese soldiers still told in Japanese mainstream media.
I don't read enough German or Japanese media to say, though it would be very interesting to know if my guesses about them are right.
It would be similarly interesting to know how many stories of "brave" Iraqi soldiers are told in the Iranian media, and of "brave" Iranian soldiers in the Iraqi mainstream media, etc.
Because of this tendency, people who rely on only their own country's mainstream news to paint them a picture of what happened during that war tend to get a very one-sided and incomplete view. I personally see this as a great failing of the mainstream media to educate and inform their viewers and listeners on history. They could be doing a much better job.
I've always found it interesting how you virtually never see stories with this sort of tone or content (using positively charged words like "bravery" or talking about military honors) from the BBC about soldiers on the German side, unless they were effectively acting on their side.
Similarly, you virtually never see articles detailing the lives and "bravery" of Vietnamese soldiers, or Iraqi soldiers in the US mainstream media.
This is understandable (if not excusable) during the wars themselves, when censorship and "patriotic" pro-war sentiment is rife, but now, decades after those wars, it's interesting that the taboo still holds strong.
I'm sure there were many "brave" and interesting people and actions to write about on all sides of any war, considering the number of people involved and the historical drama of the events. But you really only hear from the mainstream media of these countries about the "bravery" and "heroic" actions of people on their own sides.
That may vary in Germany, considering the collective guilt many Germans feel over their country's role in WW2. So stories of "heroic" Nazis are probably not very prevalent there.
On the other hand, considering the allegedly unrepentant and arguably revisionist views of many Japanese about Japan's role in WW2, there may be more stories about "heroic" and "brave" Japanese soldiers still told in Japanese mainstream media.
I don't read enough German or Japanese media to say, though it would be very interesting to know if my guesses about them are right.
It would be similarly interesting to know how many stories of "brave" Iraqi soldiers are told in the Iranian media, and of "brave" Iranian soldiers in the Iraqi mainstream media, etc.
Because of this tendency, people who rely on only their own country's mainstream news to paint them a picture of what happened during that war tend to get a very one-sided and incomplete view. I personally see this as a great failing of the mainstream media to educate and inform their viewers and listeners on history. They could be doing a much better job.