>2021>See photo of my great-granduncle in the Pacific during WWII while at my grandmother's>Become fascinated with him and spend 5 fucking years gathering dozens of different sources about his regiment>Only read and listen to them in bits; never actually sit down and cross-reference all of them while taking notes>Finally started doing that on a whim last night>Ended up doing it for ~7 hours>Slept during the day and woke up in the evening>At 6PM realized it's Memorial Day>Go back to researching and spend ~4 hours compiling and organizing a list of every soldier from my great-granduncle's regiment KIA during the regiment's largest battle/his/... you should genuinely look into the military history of your relatives. It's so much fucking work but it's so fulfilling to keep clearing up your misconceptions of some obscure unit's role in an obscure action in a relatively obscure battle until you have a clear picture of it, so clear that you actually get closer to grasping the full scope of it in human life and geography. I actually feel like I accomplished something meaningful for once instead of just learning little anecdotes.
Nice post. I have two grandfathers that were in WW2 on both sides of my family. On my fathers side; I never realized it but I found out only much later and after he had passed away that in addition to serving in the Italian, French and Dutch campaigns. In 1940 he was part of a Canadian operation that landed to cover the retreat of British forces from the continent.
>>18495753>part of a Canadian operation that landed to cover the retreat of British forces from the continent.That's super interesting. How much have you looked into that?
>>18495746No one in my family ever fought in a war.
