Chugalug (#9070),
...it is a judgement made by others of someone's war record. Did Denis Healey though ever admit to having a "Good War" I wonder? I doubt if he ever did, if only out of modesty...
No, it was only spoken of you by others.
Our general attitude was summed-up by a brother-in-law, also in RAF, two years younger than I, but now, sadly in last stages of Alzheimers:
"
War is a terrible thing - but I wouldn't have missed it for the world !
"
But I suspect that (for example) an ex-prisoner of the Japanese (or, like Walter, of the Germans) might well feel very differently !
As you say, it's a generational thing. It comes down to the old Jesuit quandary - is it lawful to do evil that good may come of it ? In Captain Erikson's case, he must consider all the other seamen who may die if he allows the U-boat to run free. It was Truman's quandary when he had to authorise the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Does he sentence a million Japanese, most of them non-combatants, to a painful death to avoid the death of several times that number, which was the sober estimate of the cost of a seaborne invasion of Japan ?
In each case, the right (dreadful) decision was made with a heavy heart. In war, there are usually no "good" answers - you just have to try to choose the least bad one. Do your best - and then try to forget it.
Danny.