The reason a lot of war stuff hasn't been told is that it was so horrific the returning servicemen and women didn't want to talk about it.
Forty or more years ago I nursed returned soldiers at Greenslopes Repat Hospital in Brisbane. Most of them didn't want to relive the horrors. But they often did, in their nightmares!
Sometimes you would walk into a room where they were exchanging stories, and all talk would stop.
My OH was a RAAF Spitfire pilot and apart from a few escapades while over Australian territory, he has always been reluctant to relive a lot of his experiences, especially overseas when, as he says, 'they were all trying to kill you'. A couple of years ago his daughter urged him to dictate his memoirs - we got life in detail up until he joined up, then a complete refusal to go further. In his original squadron, he and one other were the only ones to survive.
When he was discharged from the RAAF he was given a life expectancy of 55. He's now 87!

Dawn M