Dirk Pitt has always been a favorite of mine. Clive Cussler....thank-you.
As a child it was R. Daneel Olivaw from Isaac Asimov's Robot series. As an adult, most recently it is Webmind from Robert Sawyer's Wake-Watch-Wonder series.
When I was younger it was Nancy Drew, now it Eve Dallas from the J. D Robb books.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aloysius_Pendergas... he goes now. I should have stopped him and asked to bum a smoke.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.