The Second World War.

[Mal Hombre]

Originally Posted by scoundrel

The chances are that some of the girls knew plenty of words Bader didn't know.

I suspect that he liked to play to this audience, partly because it is fun to amuse pretty girls even if you are married and take it seriously, as was the case with Bader; and partly because it was useful to make the girls feel closer to the action and more personally involved in it. It was actually a way to show appreciation, by offering some harmless amusement to girls who worked hard and were valuable.

I remember reading one former WAAF saying that They didn't mind the foul language,It was hearing men trapped in burning cockpits screaming over the radio...

[scoundrel]

Originally Posted by Mal Hombre

I remember reading one former WAAF saying that They didn't mind the foul language,It was hearing men trapped in burning cockpits screaming over the radio...

One of the female code breakers at Bletchley Park made a somewhat similar point in a documentary I saw. One of her jobs was to receive and sign for captured enemy documents, to be passed on to the code breakers. These would have been captured code books and similar. She was quite blasé about it all until someone delivered a package which was heavily soaked in blood, and the blood was still fresh. Almost certainly enemy blood; but it made her think about what the British intelligence services were doing in order to obtain such things.

[rotobott]

Here's an interesting article about the origins of radar.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41188464

[Thinkwell]

I have heard that there was a ribald poem circulating in the 8th Army about the danger of getting VD. Is that so? Can anyone post it? I'll be very grateful.

[rupertramjet]

Originally Posted by Thinkwell

I have heard that there was a ribald poem circulating in the 8th Army about the danger of getting VD. Is that so? Can anyone post it? I'll be very grateful.

http://faculty.buffalostate.edu/fish...ongs/les01.htm

Here is a variety of songs and poems, not sure if they are the ones you want!

[Grouchy]

Originally Posted by Rogerbh

Saw this Bader bit and thought I should put it here.

In fairness to Bader and many others, the article attributes to story to Bader but in fact it is one of the oldest "jokes" about the war in circulation..

Every "flying ace" of the day has had the story associated with him at some time.

I don't doubt the stories surrounding Bader's use of questionable language at the time but I wouldn't read too much into it actually been said by him..

Take the article with a pinch of salt.

[Dr Pepper]

Originally Posted by Thinkwell

I have heard that there was a ribald poem circulating in the 8th Army about the danger of getting VD. Is that so? Can anyone post it? I'll be very grateful.

There is also a book entitled 'Kiss me Goodnight Sergeant Major' that is a fairly comprehensive compendium of songs, poems, limericks and ditties like this-sourced largely from the British Commonwealth and predominantly from WW2-this may have what you're looking for.....


https://www.amazon.com/Kiss-Me-Goodn.../dp/0246107480

[haroldeye]

Originally Posted by Dr Pepper

There is also a book entitled 'Kiss me Goodnight Sergeant Major' that is a fairly comprehensive compendium of songs, poems, limericks and ditties like this-sourced largely from the British Commonwealth and predominantly from WW2-this may have what you're looking for.....


https://www.amazon.com/Kiss-Me-Goodn.../dp/0246107480

I have a copy of that book and can't find anything that fits. Some good songs though.

[Thinkwell]

Originally Posted by rupertramjet

http://faculty.buffalostate.edu/fish...ongs/les01.htm

Here is a variety of songs and poems, not sure if they are the ones you want!

Thank you for an excellent link. There are two poems or song-lyrics which are, at least, relevant.

One begins:

Land of heat and sweaty socks,
Sin and sand and tons of pox,
Streets of sorrow, streets of shame . . .

The other speaks of:

. . . Susan and Tarzan and Lulu,
They did it this way and that,
They copied the gestures of animals,
Even the dog and the cat.
They lay on their backs and their bellies . . .

[scoundrel]

On 5th November 1944, the last remaining German defenders of Walcheren Island gave up the fight. They were located in the town of Middelburg, which is the main settlement on the island. They had resisted pressure from Dutch, British and Canadian commandos for several days, directed from the southwest of their hardened defensive positions and had inflicted severe casualties. But the Allied force found a route for amphibious landing vehicles through the desolate and flooded fields during the night of 4-5 November and began a simultaneous attack from the southwest and from the previously secure north of the town. The German defenders decided to concede defeat rather than fight to the bitter end in what was now a pretty hopeless situation.

In fact, though they had not realised, the Germans outnumbered their attackers and their position had been much better than they knew. When over 2,000 prisoners were rounded up in the town square and saw that they had surrendered to only 140 men, they were extremely annoyed and they attempted to change their minds. But the British and Canadian side had expected it and had set up multiple machine guns covering all sides of the square; the Germans backed down when they saw the blizzard of tracers fired as a warning, and no one had to be killed. It would have been a miserable slaughter had they not had the good sense to back off, and I am glad it didn't come to that. As it was, the Allied side lost nearly 500 killed and nearly 1,000 badly wounded; the German side suffered about 1,200 killed and wounded in the fighting*, plus of course the 40,000 who were captured during this sideshow. The fighting on Walcheren was the end game after various other battles had cleared both landward sides of the Scheldt and it had gone on for six days, the Allies making landfall on Walcheren on 31 October.

When Walcheren surrendered, minesweeping operations began in the Scheldt estuary at once, and the port of Antwerp began to handle cargoes on 25 November 1944.



Altogether, around 40,000 troops belonging to the German 15th Army surrendered to units of the British Commonwealth Second Army during the course of the fighting on Walcheren. The remainder of this field army suffered further losses against US forces in the Battle of the Bulge and ultimately were cut off and lost in the Ruhr Pocket in April 1945.

*These are the losses only at Middelburg: there were 12,000 Allied killed and wounded over the whole of the Scheldt campaign.