Trouble Coming up With Allied Weird War?

[xeoran]

I'm going to be a goit and promote my own efforts but I've got tons of silly Allied units here (and plenty of Axis too): http://secretsofthethirdreich.com/forums/index.php?topic=125.0

 I have read several books lately which brings up that the "united front" was a bit of a myth. It was quite common with conflict because of class, colonial antagonism towards the English, xenophobia, and racial prejudism.

The United Front varies. Soldiers who actually served with their men often became very attatched to them (the old adage about "Indian" officers and "Home" officers holds true). So whilst you get the good (Gifford, Indian Army and so on) you get the bad (racism, paternalism [sadly common to everyone, even the Ghurkas felt paternalistic towards the Burmese!] and so on).

Xenophobia was true for all the units, ragardless of origin. Ghurkas for instance disliked African troops considering them clumsy and lazy. Antagonism towards Britain varied from country to country (India for instance raised the largest volunteer army ever- to defend British colonial posessions!) and even unit to unit. Sadly the Commonwealth has been greatly under examined with the emphasis usually being on the Europeans.

I watched a documentary were  a German countess or duchess remembered British soldiers guarding her castle home at the end of the war. She said they systematically looted the whole place, but they had such lovely manners and were always so friendly!

That reminds me of one of my favorites about a German POW in the UK. He was allowed out of the camp to help one of the locals with her garden and she always said he was a lovely polite man but the year after he was repatriated the flowers he had planted came up- in the shape of a swastika!  ::

I don't think this is an exclusively American theme. The 1944 David Niven film "The Way Ahead" could quite easily be summed up with the above paragraph. Though admittedly, it is (over?) used in films about Americans much more than by other nations.

Don't be forgetting Richard Burton in "The Desert Rats" (Officer takes over squabbling Aussies and sorts 'em out etc.) That sort of thing was also very common in post war British war comics (Commando, Battle, War, Action etc.)

[Plynkes]

That reminds me of one of my favorites about a German POW in the UK. He was allowed out of the camp to help one of the locals with her garden and she always said he was a lovely polite man but the year after he was repatriated the flowers he had planted came up- in the shape of a swastika!  ::

Of course, they weren't all like that. My village is by no means alone in that it had its own resident German POW (sadly now departed) who liked the place so much he never went home. There were many cases of this, amongst Italians as well as Germans. My family had shedloads of POWs work on their farm as labourers, both German and Italian, though it must be admitted, the Italians left a better impression than the Germans.

The most famous example would be Bernhard "Bert" Trautmann OBE, the legendary Manchester City goalkeeper who famously broke his neck in the 1956 FA Cup final, and yet continued playing until the final whistle. Those Fallschirmjäger were a tough breed!






That's my idea of Weird War Two!

[xeoran]

Yup, used to be in Wales you could find loads of ex-Italian POW's who just didn't go home.

[KeyanSark]

I'm going to be a goit and promote my own efforts but I've got tons of silly Allied units here (and plenty of Axis too): http://secretsofthethirdreich.com/forums/index.php?topic=125.0

I forgot that post among the huge quantity of posts in the forum... That's a fantastic and incredible bunch of ideas... Make sure the Spanish Weird Troops make into it!  :wink:

[JollyBob]

My village is by no means alone in that it had its own resident German POW (sadly now departed) who liked the place so much he never went home.

There was a documentary on BBC4 some time ago now called "The Nazis That Stayed" or something very similar.

It was all about POWs who had decided to stay in England after the war.

I particularly remember one tough looking old boy with a thick Geordie accent recalling how he was "captured in Ordennes, like. Ah wis a fallschirmjaeger, y'nah, a paratroopah. I wis dropped in tae woods tae tek on Yanks, but Ah got got, an brung back tae Tyneside. I wis gutted, like." Or words to that effect.

A brilliant programme, and something I never realised had happened, but it was a little bit surreal at times.

[Plynkes]

I saw a programme with a "Geordie" Fallschirmjäger once. This was about Monte Cassino, and I only remember sketchy details.

He was describing the action in his thick Geordie accent and slowly it dawned on me that he had been fighting on the German side. What the...? I thought. He hadn't the slightest trace of a German accent. It was very surreal. Surely it must have been the same chap. There couldn't be two Geordie Fallschirmjäger, surely?

More Weird War Two, then!  

[W.B.Kurgan]

tough looking old boy with a thick Geordie accent recalling how he was "captured in Ordennes, like. Ah wis a fallschirmjaeger, y'nah, a paratroopah. I wis dropped in tae woods tae tek on Yanks, but Ah got got, an brung back tae Tyneside. I wis gutted, like." Or words to that effect.

::
I'm going to get in trouble again! Laughing while I'm supposed to be reviewing terms and conditions is a dead give-away!
 

[JollyBob]

That was exactly what it was like for me too Plynkes. A slow dawning that things weren't quite right somehow, then realising that the was in fact German. Really weird.

It may well have been the same guy, it's a while since the programme was on, and I was paraphrasing, so he may have been talking about Monte Cassino and I've misremembered.

Or, he was a hard old sod, and fought in both places, only getting put in the bag after the Battle of the Bulge. Ye nivver knaa.  :wink:

[twrchtrwyth]

Yup, used to be in Wales you could find loads of ex-Italian POW's who just didn't go home.

Thats right. A farm near where my mother grew up had an Italian POW who everyone liked aparently. Which is strange as my grandfather, her father, who fought in North Africa liked the Germans better due to there cleanliness and education!

[xeoran]

I forgot that post among the huge quantity of posts in the forum... That's a fantastic and incredible bunch of ideas... Make sure the Spanish Weird Troops make into it!  :wink:

Absolutely mate. But lets see a few of your ideas too.  :wink:  I want to see what a native Spaniard can do.

"captured in Ordennes, like. Ah wis a fallschirmjaeger, y'nah, a paratroopah. I wis dropped in tae woods tae tek on Yanks, but Ah got got, an brung back tae Tyneside. I wis gutted, like." Or words to that effect.

 ::

Brilliant.