It was a different era in attitude and action. Our forces of today are just as brave but much better equipped than ever their forebearers were. All the planes of WW2 had no protection when attacked except for machine guns on bombers.
My uncle flew Lancasters in the war and never spoke of the horrors he saw, they knew bombing civilian targets was seen by many as "not cricket" but it was necessary to bring the war direct to the people who supported it but had seen little of it's effect directly.
We will never see the likes of WW2 again thank god unless the rest of the world decide to take on China. Instead we will see local wars like Iraq where cruise missiles will do the job that bombers did without the loss of life to our forces. But imagine if there was a need to call up people today, how many would go? How rich would the law proffession become in legally challenging the decision? That is what sets apart WW2 were people from all walks of life marched away to lay down their lives for our freedom. Men and women in every avenue from spying to the hand to hand combat, who were ordinary before became extraordinary overnight.
All the men and women should have been recognised straight away, from Bomber command and the Artic convoy,s to the Bevan boy's who were drafted to the mines to help the war effort. For a young man who had been a teacher to suddenly become a miner was no less dangerous in many ways and many lost their lives there.
When we see all the ills that this country has we must never forget without the sacrific of millions of people we may not have been in the position we are now. They say we always need to look at history to see the future I hope we never repeat what those in the war years went through ever again.
On a lighter note, my office at one time was right next to Filton airport in Bristol. There was a steady stream of Spitfires and Hurricanes that came and went as Rolls Royce has a factory there. At least once a month I was privilidged to watch practice air displays by them and even on busy shopping days people would stop and watch with Awe at how beautiful such deadly machines could be.