The Heroes, Legends, and Liars Who Fought in WW2

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 13 February 2024

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Veterans of World War 2 are called the Greatest Generation for their uncommon courage and self-determination. Whether this descriptor is true or part of America’s self-mythologizing during the 20th century is a challenging question, one that Andrew Biggio, a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, worked to answer.

Biggio found that many were brave, but they were all ordinary men who also shared in humanity’s weaknesses and flaws while responding to the call of duty. Biggio is today’s guest and author of “The Rifle 2: Back to the Battlefield.” He shares first-person accounts from the last of the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who fought the most dreadful war in history.

The idea for his first book “The Rifle” was simple: travel across the country with a 1945 M1 Garand, the basic U.S. fighting rifle of World War II, ask combat veterans of that war to sign it, and listen carefully as the sight, touch, and feel of that rifle evoke a flood of memories and emotions. In this follow-up book, Andrew Biggio once again reveals the astonishing effect his M1 Garand had on the old warriors who held it.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Sky here with another episode of the History on Plug Podcast.
0:07.8	For over 80 years, men of the World War II generation have been celebrated as the
0:12.0	greatest generation having an uncommon level of determination and courage that sustain them through World War II, and these descriptors also applied to those who are on the home front during the war.
0:22.0	How much of this narrative is truth versus
0:24.4	a mythology of America that had told itself during the Cold War? And while many of the soldiers
0:29.3	were great, they were all ordinary men sharing in all of humanity's weaknesses and flaws
0:33.4	while responding to the call of duty. To explore this question and also look into a
0:37.2	number of stories of those who served in World War II is Andrew Bizio, today's
0:41.2	guest, who's the author of The Rifle 2 back to the battlefield.
0:45.2	Andrew joined us a few years ago with his book The Rifle, where he personally met a number of
0:49.0	World War II veterans.
0:50.0	He returns with more stories of first-hand accounts from the last of the soldiers, sailors,
0:54.9	Airmen, and Marines who fought the largest war in history.
0:58.0	This idea came about when he began traveling across the country with a 1945 N1 grand, the basic US fighting rifle of
1:04.7	World War II. He asked combat veterans of that war to sign it and as touching that
1:08.5	rifle evoked a flood of memories asked for their stories. In this episode
1:11.9	we're going to see how grasping that rifle
1:13.4	brings out memories of that war whether good bad terrifying or heroic. Hope we enjoy
1:18.1	this discussion with Andrew Bizio. And one more thing before we get started with this episode, a quick break for word from our sponsors.
1:27.0	This episode is brought to you by Wise, the account that helps you manage your money all around the world.
1:32.0	I lived overseas for many years and one of the biggest
1:33.9	bottlenecks to international living is money transfers. You want to withdraw money from an ATM to access funds from your American bank account
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