World War II

[bulldogscram.livejournal.com]

Hello all!

A few questions on canon and historical context occurred to me and I was wondering if anyone could help with them? The topic is fairly seasonal, given the time of year.

Am I right in thinking that in Ring For Jeeves, there is either no mention of Bertie serving in WWII or it's hinted at that he didn't serve? Is there any mention/lack of mention of the same for Jeeves?

Setting RFJ aside and briefly dragging our beloved characters into the real world, can anyone tell me whether either Bertie or Jeeves would have been conscripted? There was certainly a period during which the British government conscripted most men between the ages of 20 and 41. Taking a fairly general view of the likely ages of both, this would seem to affect both Jeeves and Bertie. Also, would Bertie's class have affected this in any way? For instance, was there a trend for conscription to affect the lower classes before the upper classes?

I'm afraid that my grasp of WWII era social dynamics and politics is shallow at best. Also a copy of Ring For Jeeves is impossible for me to get my hands on at the moment. Really looking forward to hearing peoples thoughts and opinions on this!

Comments

[emeraldreeve.livejournal.com]

I feel the same way about Bertie. I just can't see him leaving the country. You summarized my feelings on the matter very well.

It's very possible for them to have served overseas. Older men did serve overseas, even if most of them were young.

There were reserved occupations and people in them did not get called up.

Anyway, I don't want to comment on everything you said as I don't consider myself an expert in this matter. WWII is indeed a vast subject. I've studied it for two years now and I'm still learning things.

Thank you for the kind words!

Certainly any time you wish to ask me something, feel free to do so. I'll help if I can. I'm at:

emeraldreeve@gmaildotcom

I'm looking forward to your fic!

[bulldogscram.livejournal.com]

It's very possible for them to have served overseas. Older men did serve overseas, even if most of them were young.

Did you ever come across any reasoning for this?

WWII is indeed a vast subject. I've studied it for two years now and I'm still learning things.

In your research did you ever come across a documentary called World at War? I'm wondering how reliable an information source it is. Although apparently (as it was filmed in the 70s) it has interviews with several key military figures from the war.

[emeraldreeve.livejournal.com]

Reasoning for most being young or for older men serving? I'm guessing older men. My reasoning is due to the fact that there were older men overseas. {I have a big stack of books by computer. One is Time's D-Day Anniversary issue, and I'm getting some ages from there.}. General Bradley was 50. Percy Hobart had been dismissed into retirement in 1940. He served first in the Home Guard and then commanded a division into Normandy. He was 56 in 1943. The oldest US fighting man in the invasion was Teddy Roosevelt, Jr. at 57. From the Internet there is: Captain Kenneth Cummins who served in the Royal Navy in WWI and the Merchant Navy in WWII. Wikipedia has him born in 1900 so he would have been in his 40s in WWII. The same for Bill Stone.

If you go here:

http://www.unithistories.com/officers/Army_officers_B02.html

and scroll down, you'll see men that served in both wars and so couldn't have been in their 20s in WWII. {You'll also see men that were probably young.} The catch with all this is that these men were military career men, so were already in the military and were not called up. It makes sense, though, that if registration reached men of age 40 in June 1941 that men in their late 30s, at least, were called up and therefore just possible that either Bertie or Jeeves were called up.

I read an account of a 40 year old who was called at the start of the war, but I don't know if I bookmarked it or not. If I find it or anything similar, I'll give you the link.

World at War is a great documentary. As far as I can tell it's a reliable documentary.