Colonial Soldiers, Race, and Military Masculinities during and beyond World Wars I and II

2020 ◽  
pp. 518-538
Author(s):  
Richard Smith
Keyword(s):  
Military Service ◽  
Mental Capacity ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
World War ◽  
History And Memory ◽  
Emerging Nations ◽  
Political Patronage ◽  
War Experiences ◽  
Martial Race ◽  
Second World

Millions of colonial soldiers served the empires during World Wars I and II. Until the end of the twentieth century their history and memory received little attention. This chapter shows how martial-race theory, notions of mental capacity, and pre–world war experiences impacted the deployment of colonial troops. These factors included fear of arming colonial subjects, anxieties about the apparent mental and physical incapacity of some white soldiers, and pragmatic strategic considerations. The chapter takes a comparative approach to explore how the imperial military service of colonial soldiers contributed to masculine visions of independent nationhood and citizenship following the First and Second World Wars. Visions of heroic masculine sacrifice were appropriated by emerging nations, even where war service involved discrimination and deployment as military labor. The chapter also evaluates the extent to which imperial loyalty and the hope of postwar political patronage motivated colonial troops.

THE MARTIAL SPIRIT: YAO SOLDIERS IN BRITISH SERVICE IN NYASALAND (MALAWI), 1895–1939

2003 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 413-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
RISTO MARJOMAA
Keyword(s):  
Military Service ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
World War ◽  
Simple Fact ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
Martial Race ◽  
Second World

During the colonial period, the Yao formed the main source of recruits for the King's African Rifles Nyasaland (Malawi) battalions. Originally, the main reason for the large number of Yao volunteers was probably the simple fact that the recruitment office was near Yao areas. However, due to prevailing racial ideals the British colonial military interpreted this as a sign of a ‘martial spirit’. This led to active encouragement to enlist the Yao, which in turn made military service ever more attractive among this group. They became the ‘martial race’ of Nyasaland, a concept which continued to affect British recruitment policies until the Second World War.

Military Service and Canadian Army Suicides of the Second World War, 1939–44

2021 ◽  
pp. e20200008
Author(s):  
William J. Pratt
Keyword(s):  
Military Service ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Canadian Army ◽  
Total War ◽  
Individual Agency ◽  
Difficult Time ◽  
Military Mobilization ◽  
The Many ◽  
Second World

Over 230 Canadian Army soldiers took their own lives during the Second World War. For many, soldiering seems to have exacerbated stresses and depressions. Their suicide notes and the testimony of family, officers, and bunkmates reveal that wartime disturbance was an important section of the complex array of reasons why. In attempts to explain the motivations for their tragic final actions, the instabilities brought by the Second World War and the stresses of military mobilization must be added to the many biological, social, psychological and circumstantial factors revealed by the proceedings of courts of inquiry. Major military risk factors include: access to firearms, suppression of individual agency, and disruption of the protective networks of friends and family. Some Canadians had a difficult time adjusting to military discipline and authority and were frustrated by their inability to succeed by the measures set by the army. Suicide motivations are complex and it may be too simplistic to say that the Second World War caused these deaths, however, it is not too far to say that the war was a factor in their final motivations. Some men, due to the social pressures and constructs of masculine duty, signed up for active service despite previously existing conditions which should have excused them. Revisiting these traumas can expose the difficulties that some Canadians experienced during mobilization for total war. Many brought deep personal pain with them as they entered military service and for some, the disruptions, frustrations, and anxieties of life in khaki were too great to bear. Like their better-known colleagues who died on the battlefield, they too are casualties of the Second World War.

Life stories: biography and creativity

2020 ◽  
pp. 21-44
Author(s):  
Paul Thompson ◽  
Ken Plummer ◽  
Neli Demireva
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
World War ◽  
War Experiences ◽  
And Gender ◽  
University Expansion ◽  
Second World

This chapter traces the engine of the pioneers' success and discusses their earlier lives, hinting or reflecting on how these experiences may have shaped their research. It begins by analyzing how the pioneers' were influenced by the communities where they grew up. Looking at the pioneers' families as a whole, even though this generation for which unprecedented university expansion brought rare opportunities for upward mobility, the chapter examines the pioneers' working-class families and old Oxbridge intellectual aristocracy. It notes that some of the key factors which brought them opportunities were due to national social changes and international events. The chapter also looks at how the older generation generally benefitted from Second World War experiences that took them out of their social-class cocoon. The chapter then discusses the pioneers who chose to explore other cultures rather than to research their own communities. It emphasizes social class injustice, racism, and gender injustice.

From Heroes to Villains

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elke Weesjes
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Memory Studies ◽  
Second World War ◽  
War Trauma ◽  
World War ◽  
History And Memory ◽  
German Occupation ◽  
Soviet Invasion ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Second World

Informed by oral history and memory studies, this chapter draws on a series of interviews with 38 British and Dutch cradle communists and is dedicated to the impact of the Second World War and its aftermath, and the events of 1956 – the year of Khrushchev’s secret speech and the Soviet invasion of Hungary – on the Dutch and British communist movements. This chapter particularly examines how cradle communists in the Netherlands and Britain experienced the contrast between the communist movement’s zenith during the Second World War and its nadir in 1956. Within this context, it discusses the Dutch communist resistance during the German occupation, parental war trauma and transgenerational communication, and the impact of anti-communist measures in Britain and the Netherlands on participants’ lives.

British Visions, African Voices: The “Imperial” and the “Colonial” in World War II

Itinerario ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-315
Author(s):  
Myles Osborne
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Racial Segregation ◽  
Second World War ◽  
General Interest ◽  
World War ◽  
African Writers ◽  
And Shifts ◽  
Second World

AbstractThis article is focused on a magazine called Jambo, which was published by the British East Africa Command for troops in its employ between 1942 and 1945. Jambo was an agglomeration of political articles, general interest stories, propaganda, cartoons, crosswords, and more, with many of its contributions authored (or drawn) by men serving in the Allied forces. Here, I use Jambo to consider notions of the “colonial” and “imperial” during the Second World War, exploring how the realities of racial segregation in the colonies fit awkwardly with imperial service. Jambo also permits us a window into the views of some hundreds of British servicemen, who wrote extensively about the Africans with whom they served, revealing the complexities and shifts in British perceptions of African peoples during the conflict. Jambo is unique in another respect: it also provided a forum for African troops. In few other publications—and even fewer with such wide circulation—could educated (but nonelite) African peoples reach thousands of British readers. Though their published letters and articles were few compared to those written by Jambo's British authors, African writers used the venue to critique the conditions of their military service, argue about the sort of social ordering they desired in their home communities, and create an alternate narrative of the war. Like most colonial publications, Jambo had intended audiences, but also voracious, additional, alternate publics that mediated the articles which appeared in its pages. All this suggests that we might think of the colonial public sphere as both local and global, inward and outward looking, personal and communal, and situated along a continuum between colonial and imperial contexts.

scholarly journals Coping with traumatic memories: Second World War veterans' experiences of social support in relation to the narrative coherence of war memories

2009 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
KAREN J. BURNELL ◽  
PETER G. COLEMAN ◽  
NIGEL HUNT
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Narrative Coherence ◽  
World War ◽  
War Veterans ◽  
Traumatic Memories ◽  
War Experiences ◽  
Second World

ABSTRACTThis paper reports a qualitative study that used narrative analysis to explore how social support helps many armed-services veterans cope with traumatic memories. The analysis was carried out on two levels, that of narrative form (level of narrative coherence), argued to be indicative of reconciliation, and narrative content (themes of social support), which allowed exploration of the types of social support experienced by veterans with coherent, reconciled and incoherent narratives. Ten British male Second World War veterans were interviewed regarding their war experiences, presence of traumatic memories, and experiences of social support from comrades, family and society. Different patterns of support were qualitatively related to coherent, reconciled and incoherent narratives. Veterans with coherent narratives were no less likely to have experienced traumatic events than those with reconciled or incoherent narratives, but they reported more positive perceptions of their war experience and of the war's outcomes, more positive experiences of communication with family in later life, and more positive perceptions of societal opinion. The results are discussed in relation to how veterans can be supported by family and friends to reconcile their traumatic memories, thus to lessen the burden in later life when vital support resources may be unavailable.

scholarly journals Correspondence, Camaraderie, and Community: The Second World War for a Mother and Son

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Gann
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
Home Front ◽  
World War ◽  
Prisoner Of War ◽  
War Experiences ◽  
Initial Attitude ◽  
War Experience ◽  
And Coping ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Second World

Erle Sinclair Miller enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) in 1940. While his initial attitude towards the conflict was one of personal invincibility and an eagerness for action, much of Miller's Second World War experience was spent in five prisoner of war camps, enduring physical as well as psychological hardship. The following thesis engages with the contents of the Miller Collection, a series of 297 letters, two prisoner of war journals, one flying log book and one scrapbook, in order to reveal the details of a young man's experiences of war and the critical relationship he retained with his mother in Canada. The key themes in this analysis, that of identity, community, and coping, are drawn out in each of the following three chapters, and offer an intimate appreciation of the impact that the Second World war had on families, sharper insight into the dynamics of the RCAF and prisoner of war experiences, the intersection of communities of war, and the role of mothers on the home front.

scholarly journals Od Hermanna Hoogewega do Hermanna Golluba: Z dziejów Archiwum Państwowego w Szczecinie (Staatsarchiv Stettin). Recenzja monografii Macieja Szukały, Archiwum Państwowe w Szczecinie w latach 1919–1945. Ludzie i działalność, Archiwum Państwowe w Szczecinie, Naczelna Dyrekcja Archiwów Państwowych w Warszawie, Szczecin–Warszawa 2019, ss. 269

Archeion ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krystian Maciej Szudarek
Keyword(s):  
Social Transformation ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
The State ◽  
World War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Type ◽  
State Archives ◽  
Second World

Recenzowana monografia omawia dzieje Archiwum Państwowego w Szcze­cinie (Staatsarchiv Stettin) w okresie od wybuchu pierwszej wojny świato­wej do zakończenia drugiej wojny światowej. W tych latach dyrektorami archiwum byli kolejno: Hermann Hoogeweg (1913–1923), Otto Grotefend (1923–1930), Erich Randt (1930–1935) i Adolf Diestelkamp (1935–1945). W okresie II wojny światowej, w związku ze służbą wojskową Adolfa Die­stelkampa, funkcje kierownika archiwum pełnili Fritz Morré (1939–1941) i Hermann Gollub (1941–1945). Działalność archiwum została ukazana w monografii przez pryzmat funkcji, jakie pełnią instytucje tego typu (gro­madzenie, przechowywanie, opracowywanie i udostępnianie zasobu), na tle przemian politycznych i społecznych zachodzących w Niemczech. Dużo miejsca autor poświęcił pracownikom merytorycznym archiwum i prowa­dzonym przez nich badaniom naukowym. W tym kontekście ukazał kształ­towanie się nowego typu archiwisty zaangażowanego politycznie, włącza­jącego się w niemieckie badania wschodnie (deutsche Ostforschung). From Hermann Hoogeweg to Hermann Gollub: history of the State Archive in Szczecin (Staatsarchiv Stettin). Review of the monograph by Maciej Szukła, Archiwum Państwowe w Szczecinie w latach 1919–1945. Ludzie i działalność, Archiwum Państwowe w Szczecinie, Naczelna Dyrekcja Archiwów Państwowych w Warszawie , Szczecin–Warsaw 2019, pp. 269 The reviewed monograph gives a description of the history of the State Archives in Szczecin (Staatsarchiv Stettin) from the beginning of the First World War to the end of the Second Word War. Within that period the Archive had following directors: Hermann Hoogeweg (1913–1923), Otto Grotefend (1923–1930), Erich Randt (1930–1935) and Adolf Diestelkamp (1935–1945). During the Second World War Fritz Morré (1939–1941) and then Hermann Gollub (1941–1945) deputized for Adolf Diestelkamp when he did military service. The monograph take a look at how the Archive performed its typical functions (collecting, preserving, processing and providing access to archival materials) in the context of the political and social transformation in Germany. The author puts a lot of emphasis on professional working in the Archive and their academic research to show the emergence of a new type of politically engaged archivist who joined the studies on Eastern Europe (deutsche Ostforschung).

scholarly journals Żeniu! Dziecino droga! Historia znajomości łączniczki AK i jej dowódcy Franciszka Studzińskiego

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 71-91
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Kułagowska Silva
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
War Experiences ◽  
Personal Assistant ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Second World

Tekst opowiada historię komendanta Okręgu AK terenu tarnopolskiego pułkownika Armii Krajowej Franciszka Studzińskiego i jego łączniczki oraz osobistej sekretarki Eugenii Starościn, działaczki AK oraz – w okresie późniejszym – organizacji Wolność i Niezawisłość. W artykule omówiono aktywność konspiracyjną obu postaci w okresie II wojny światowej oraz ich powojenne losy naznaczone przesłuchaniami, więzieniem, licznymi przeprowadzkami i problemami ze znalezieniem pracy. Zhenya! My love! The story of the relationship between a Home Army military courier and her commander, Franciszek Studziński The article presents the story of the Home Army colonel in the district of Tarnopol, Franciszek Studziński, and his courier and personal assistant Eugenia (Zhenya) Starościn, an activist of the Home Army and in subsequent years of the Freedom and Independence organization. The article presents their conspiracy activity during the Second World War and their post-war experiences: interrogations, imprisonment, numerous relocations, and problems with finding employment.

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