They act on that feeling. The students I know are serious and have high principles. They believe in democracy, peace and social justice. They also like, and mostly admire, Britain. If they think it’s time we too moved on, they are surely right.  Germany, as Neil MacGregor will argue, is a great country with a rich history and culture before the “Brown Plague” of the Nazis struck. It’s time we recognised this and accepted the Germans as our friends and allies. Don’t forget the war, but stop going on about it.  Allan Massie CBE is a journalist and author  Prisoners at the Buchenwald concentration camp, Germany – April 28th, 1945 Picture: MARGARET BOURKE-WHITE / TIMEPIX/REX  NO, we should be proud of Britain's triumph over a great evil, says Dr Peter Caddick-Adams  Step outside the United Kingdom and you’ll be surprised to find we are no more fascinated with the Second World War than, say, France, Spain, Russia, Poland or the United States. The flood in these countries of battle re-enactments, books, magazines, TV documentaries, movies, PC games, model kits and media stories confirm this. This is not knee-jerk nationalism, for school and university courses, academic papers and conferences echo this as well. Military narrative of recent history – especially in a fight for survival – has always been part of the definition of a nation. Years later, we are still learning lessons from both world wars, and that is a good thing. Yes, we have a certain interest, but it is by no means unique.  The Second World War was seen as a righteous war, fighting a monstrous tyranny that would have otherwise engulfed us all and killed even more millions than it did. It is still perceived in those terms. But the war taught us other things too – how to fight and behave as part of a coalition: lessons we still respect today with Nato and the EU. Make no mistake: 1940 did not see Britain alone. The Axis powers were ranged against the British Empire of over 250 million people with the world’s largest war and merchant fleets and control of huge raw material resources. The use of those assets and peoples was a triumph to be celebrated. It reverberates and is still revered throughout today’s Commonwealth and the UN. Nigerians, Pakistanis and Indians are as much part of this heritage as are we.  The United Kingdom’s viewpoint of the Second World War is bound to be different because of geography. We can celebrate the triumph of an island nation prevailing in war. For other landlocked countries with their shifting borders, this is less easy. The Germans are less inclined to look back because of the Third Reich. Besides, modern Germany is physically different to the earlier Germanys of the Kaisers, Weimar, Hitler and the divided states of the Cold War. Instead, modern Germans look forward, not back, obsessed as they have to be with their place in Europe.  German war memorials, books and analysis tend to be forward-looking because they have to be. Germany as a national unit has always been perceived in the context of wider Europe. Their current angst over Ukraine and Russia is a case in point. The United Kingdom is no more obsessed with war and history than our Teutonic colleagues, but our narratives are different. We look back and celebrate, partly because we can, but also to find lessons for our future.  This may seem to exaggerate our interest with past wars, but it is a healthy, benign custom. Afraid of the past? Get over it: celebrate our military heritage.  Dr Peter Caddick-Adams is a lecturer at the UK Defence Academy and the author of Monty and Rommel: Parallel Lives
The director of the British Musuem says Germans are 'bewildered' by our   obsession with the 1939-1945 war. Allan Massie and Peter   Caddick-Adams debate whether it is time to change that.