I used to believe that the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) club was actually a club for Very Fat Women. My older brother encouraged me in this belief.

George

When I was little and asked my mom what Vietnam was (this was during the war), she gave me the emotional (but unhelpful) answer, "I hope they remove that country from the face of the earth!" So for years I went around with the mental image of a Vietnam-shaped piece cut out of the planet. That's what I thought she meant should be done with it!

Anon

When I was very young, I used to think that wars were what happened when you got your brother angry at you and he threw a chair at you. I considered myself very lucky to be an only child.

Anon

I used to believe whenever I heard 'Germ Warfare' on the news it was something the Germans were doing to us. I always remember thinking that it wasn't very nice and wished they'd stop!

Anon

i used to believe that if there were bombings, that the world will split in half..

kins

My friend (who was a sandwich short of a picnic) believed that 'Storming Norman' of Gulf War fame was actually called Storeman Norman. I can just picture him in his brown overalls striding across the deserts of Iraq with his trusted Thermos and ham sandwiches in his pocket!

Becky

I used to think that war was like a sporting event, in which two opposing armies would line up on opposite sides of a football field then run at each other and try to kill each other...and "war" never extended beyond that field.

britta

Whenever i heard the beatles song war is over i always got really confused as i thought they were singing about one of the world wars but i knew they couldn't be old enough to be singing (or even born)just after both had ended. I decided they must be singing about world war 2 and carried this in my head till i was thirteen and i was embarisinglly corrected by my mother

jay

As a child I believed that a gas war was when attendants lined up with the hoses and shot gas across the street to another station.

Anon

This is actually a common belief among children. But, when I was little, I used to believe that the Cival War was called the Silver War.

Anon

I used to think that the word "Nazi" rhymed with the word "Navy" and they rhymed because the Nazis had invented the concept of a navy.

Jonny boy

I always saw the Army recruiting booths at the mall and other places, and they confused me to no end. After all, why join the Army if there's no war? Then I thought, "Wait, why join the Army at all? You're probably just gonna be killed!" And so I came up with my own reasons for this...
The Army is a small room, with about 100 people total, all sitting around a tiny table. On the table was a light, and the soldiers would sit there for years, waiting for the "War light" to come on. And when it did, that meant there was a war. At that point, you'd pull a lever on the wall, and the floor would colapse, dropping you into a series of tunnels that somehow lead you right to the war.
I was quite happy with this explanation, until I remembered my original question, "Why do people bother joining the Army?" Well, I assumed that while waiting for years for the War light, you didn't need to sleep, eat, drink, pee, OR poop!

Idiot

When I was about 6 there was a war in my country and I asked my mom how long it was going on. She said 4 years. I don't know why but untill I was about 12 I believed that every war lasted 4 yrs.So when we were learning about wars in our History class and the teacher said that a war lasted for 100 yrs i thought that she was completely off the track

Lemony

When I was much younger (1970's) I was shocked when I saw Germans participating in an international game show (It's a Knockout for the UK readers) after all, weren't we at war with them?

Sharruma

Somehow I made a connection between Jesus and the World Wars, thinking my grandfather who had been a naval officer during WW2 had played some part in rescuing Christ from murder/execution by taking him away on his boat. It was of course all exaggerated by my 'vivid' imagination as my reception teacher clarified for me gently after I bragged to the class about what my grandad had done. Well that was my distorted idea of heroism!

Dana

I used to think the civil war was fought by the Confederacy and the Union (like the Food that makes you cry) Soldiers

Anon

When i heard about Irish Bombers on the news during the 70s i used to think that planes were dropping bombs.

Moose

My grandparents built a bombshelter in their garden during the 2nd World War.When I was a child, I was terrified of it, because I believed that there were rotten remains of dead soldiers from the war in there.I do not where I got the idea from.My grandparents actually never used the shelter for anything else, but to store their jars of homemade jam.

L

When I was small, the war was on and there was a bridge near me tha had a large red sign saying DANGER TROOPS. For years I was convinced that there was a weapon called a 'dang-er' that was used by troops who 'danged' people.

Charles

During World War II we lived in Sydney's harbour suburb Balmain, and government warnings included taking shelter under a staircase or strong piece of furniture in a confined space during air raids. When japanese submarines raided Sydney Harbour in 1942 all sirens went off and our terrified Mum put my sister and me under a heavy table she had dragged to the hallway. At age 7 I thought the japanese must be very exciting people because I was never allowed to play under the table at other times. My belief was strengthened when the Royal Australian Navy buried the recovered japanese bodies with full military honours - which surprised even the japanese, who had not suspected that "barbarians" could behave with such honour!

Swanny