I'm only 17 years old, but I have been interested in military history ever since my Dad brought me a History CD, entitled Chronicle Encyclopedia of History back when I was about 7 (,shows the times we live in, where chlildren are not getting hooked on military history through books, but on CDs).
I knew about Mikhail Gorbachev before most children of my age knew who Tong Blair was. The CD was really wonderfully prepared, and it kept me interested everytime I went on it.
My first history book must have been something about the English Civil Wars, because I was doing that as part of my history course in primary school.
But, like Richard, I am positive it was my grandfather who got me really hooked on military history. He also served in the Second World War. He doesn't really like to talk much about his experiences, but I know that he landed on D-Day, that he served in British XXX Corps during the Battle of the Bulge; and he served with either the 51st or the 53rd Division during the Rhineland campaigns.
I guess having someone who is a part of the history you are studying, really makes it all much more interesting because you can see the evidence that the history exists here and now; rather than just from words in a book.
Posted by: EasyPeasy21 | July 03, 2007 at 02:19 PM
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Richard,
You pose a tough question. In my case it is very hard to narrow down just when I became a military history fan, some would say fanatic. I think it started more years ago than I wish to admit to. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of watching the TV series “Combat” as well as “The Big Attack”. There, that should date me some. When my dad gave me my first military history book I was in awe that such things existed. I had figured that all history books were like the ones we had in grade school but “The Siege of Port Arthur”, dad’s gift, really got me hooked. Also growing up in New England surrounded by history I can most assuredly say had a big part in it.
Cheers
Bill
www.russojapanesewar.com
Posted by: Bill M. | July 03, 2007 at 03:56 PM
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And Bill is still big on the siege of Port Arthur :-)
My interest in Military History started about 20 minutes after my mate of the time finished kicking my butt in an American Civil War battle played with unpainted Airfix plastic figures thank goodness they were moulded in blue and grey plastic), plasticine hills and Don Featherstone's Wargame. This would have been in about 1974 so I was 20.
Just after that game I went to the library to read up on Rome as our next battle was to be ancient Britons against Romans ... chariots and all. I was hooked after that.
Cheers,
Thomo the Lost
Posted by: Thomo the Lost | July 03, 2007 at 08:50 PM
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I really got hooked in August 1987 when a crafts store had an entire back wall full of model kits for sale. I really liked the artwork on the 1/35 Tamiya vehicle and figure kits. So I started to build them, and I started to read a lot about WWII. Currently I collect 1/6 military action figures, and the color plates from Osprey provide a lot of inspiration.
Posted by: Gene | July 04, 2007 at 12:27 AM
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I think like many it was the influence of relatives. My grandfather had served all through the Far East campaigns, even in the Dutch East Indies. He didn't talk about it much but it was still very formative, particuarly the horror of some of the (very few) stories (how to amputate on Indian soldiers without morphine and with only a bayonet was a particuarly interesting one). Mix that in with my father who worked in documentaries and was a military history nut himself and I grew up steeped in the stuff. I think I even have my fathers copy of "Arms and Armour" somewhere.
Posted by: xeoran | July 04, 2007 at 10:30 AM
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The first history book about history that i saw was "Ilustrated history of the world" on serbian (i'm macedonian) i was around 5-6 years old (22 years ago), and althought i didn't understand a word, the pictures in it made it my favourite.
Also i had (and still have) an "ilustrated bible" and from all that stories, my favourite part were roman soldiers in full equipment in front of the Jusus :)
Latter i learned to read and write (serbian too) and i started reading a lot about history (not only military history).
Currently i'm highly interested in WW1 and especialy the Salonica Front (especially since it was through my home town)
Although i work nothing conected with history, Osprey became my favourite publishing company :)
ok, i have some remarks on books about macedonia and balkan, but still that is another subject :)
Posted by: Kristijan | July 04, 2007 at 12:47 PM
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Boy, that's a tough question. I can't really say what caught my eye first - whether it was models (my own, my dad's or my uncle's), the Airfix toy soldiers, colorful/easy to read history books or comic books (Sgt Rock was always popular as an infantry man as was some character riding around in a Stuart tank killing Tigers!) I just always remember being "into" history, esp. the ACW, WWII (land and air) and WWI air. I recall spending a family vacation in Gettysburg that I thought was AWESOME!
I sure wish I knew what it was that got me hooked on history. I'd sure like to encourage it in my only son, now aged 2 (it's never too early to start and we've spent some evenings looking at Osprey books - his favorites include pictures of horses!)
Posted by: Michael | August 01, 2007 at 07:31 PM
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