Reflecting on war in a small town in Normandy
Why are people willing to lay down their lives during wars? A Singaporean seeks answers at a famous World War II site.
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Paratroopers jump into Normandy to pay tribute to the soldiers who parachuted in on D-Day, in Sannerville, Normandy, on June 5.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Shashi Jayakumar
My late mother used to deposit me, a dreamy and somewhat bookish child, at the old National Library, wisely returning only after many hours elapsed – long enough for me to lose myself in other worlds.
I now realise that it may have puzzled her somewhat, how I always gravitated to the part of the library which was devoted to history – specifically the Second World War. If asked, I do not think I could have explained it myself. I drank deeply from my chosen fountain – learning of U-boat wolf packs roaming the Atlantic, massive tank battles on the Russian front, and that heroic moment in British history when Britain stood alone in the summer of 1940 against Hitler’s dreaded Luftwaffe.