Comments on: The Germans are coming! — II http://airminded.org/2008/06/04/the-germans-are-coming-ii/ Airpower and British society, 1908-1941 Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:41:03 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Major H. R. V. Jordan - WW2 Forum http://airminded.org/2008/06/04/the-germans-are-coming-ii/comment-page-1/#comment-93653 Major H. R. V. Jordan - WW2 Forum Thu, 18 Dec 2008 04:57:13 +0000 http://airminded.org/?p=506#comment-93653 [...] to him here ...... Ten Days to D-Day: Citizens and ... - Google Book Search and here ..... Airminded ? The Germans are coming! — II __________________ Be who you are and say what you feel - because those who mind don't matter and [...] [...] to him here …… Ten Days to D-Day: Citizens and … – Google Book Search and here ….. Airminded ? The Germans are coming! — II __________________ Be who you are and say what you feel – because those who mind don’t matter and [...]

]]> By: Brett Holman http://airminded.org/2008/06/04/the-germans-are-coming-ii/comment-page-1/#comment-75300 Brett Holman Thu, 05 Jun 2008 03:40:01 +0000 http://airminded.org/?p=506#comment-75300 How familiar would the average BEF soldier have been with the rhythms of rural life? They would have been mostly city or town lads, I think. It might be easy for them to misinterpret activities they didn't know much about, if they were already primed for suspicion. In one direction I'm reminded of the German army's fear of Belgian francs-tireurs in 1914 (Horne and Kramer, <em>German Atrocities, 1914</em>), in another, of the 'great fear' of 1789, when nervous townsfolk saw the clouds of dust from cattle etc being drive to market, and thought it was the noble/brigand alliance coming to get them (Lefebvre, <em>The Great Fear of 1789</em>). How familiar would the average BEF soldier have been with the rhythms of rural life? They would have been mostly city or town lads, I think. It might be easy for them to misinterpret activities they didn’t know much about, if they were already primed for suspicion.

In one direction I’m reminded of the German army’s fear of Belgian francs-tireurs in 1914 (Horne and Kramer, German Atrocities, 1914), in another, of the ‘great fear’ of 1789, when nervous townsfolk saw the clouds of dust from cattle etc being drive to market, and thought it was the noble/brigand alliance coming to get them (Lefebvre, The Great Fear of 1789).

]]> By: Gavin http://airminded.org/2008/06/04/the-germans-are-coming-ii/comment-page-1/#comment-75265 Gavin Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:36:18 +0000 http://airminded.org/?p=506#comment-75265 It seems like they'd heard rumours about secret signs and were so freaked out that they just assumed that anyone ploughing a field must be a fifth columnist. I wonder where the idea came from in the first place, but it could just be as bizarre and random as the parachuting nuns. It seems like they’d heard rumours about secret signs and were so freaked out that they just assumed that anyone ploughing a field must be a fifth columnist. I wonder where the idea came from in the first place, but it could just be as bizarre and random as the parachuting nuns.

]]> By: Brett Holman http://airminded.org/2008/06/04/the-germans-are-coming-ii/comment-page-1/#comment-75253 Brett Holman Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:12:52 +0000 http://airminded.org/?p=506#comment-75253 Very nasty indeed -- thanks for that. So it would seem that no airborne observers were involved there. I wonder if stories of these supposed markers in France came back to Britain with the BEF, and then passed to the RAF? Very nasty indeed — thanks for that. So it would seem that no airborne observers were involved there. I wonder if stories of these supposed markers in France came back to Britain with the BEF, and then passed to the RAF?

]]> By: Gavin http://airminded.org/2008/06/04/the-germans-are-coming-ii/comment-page-1/#comment-75241 Gavin Wed, 04 Jun 2008 07:06:01 +0000 http://airminded.org/?p=506#comment-75241 Something similar also happened in France/Belgium in May 1940, but things got nastier: scared British soldiers sometimes summarily executed farmers for supposedly making signs to help the Germans. See: Glyn Prysor, ‘The 'Fifth Column' and the British Experience of Retreat, 1940’, War In History, 12 (2005), pp. 418-447. Something similar also happened in France/Belgium in May 1940, but things got nastier: scared British soldiers sometimes summarily executed farmers for supposedly making signs to help the Germans. See:

Glyn Prysor, ‘The ‘Fifth Column’ and the British Experience of Retreat, 1940’, War In History, 12 (2005), pp. 418-447.

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