How the yanks should deal with us

[Krisali]

Thanks for sharing

 

[Loosecannon]

Enjoyed that greatly, thanks!

 

[rebel rebel]

That was a good read, thanks for sharing.

I've read that the USA military also issued its soldiers with a leaflet regarding the differences in how "race" was treated in Britain. It sounds plausible - severe anti-"black" racism was normal in the USA in the 1940s and the relative lack of it in Britain would be at least as much of the cultural issue as the things covered in this leaflet. Does anyone know if there was such a leaflet?

I can remember reading something about that too. One if the things mentioned was that Britain has no segregation.

 

[Zenduri]

An interesting read and nice to see another nations opinion on old blighty during the war

 

[Mark A]

The British Are Tough. Don't be misled by the British tendency to be soft-spoken and polite. If they need to be, they can be plenty tough. The English language didn't spread across the oceans and over the mountains and jungles and swamps of the world because these people were panty-waists.

Sixty thousand British civilians-men, women, and children-have died under bombs, and yet the morale of the British is unbreakable and high. A nation doesn't come through that, if it doesn't have plain, common guts. The British are tough, strong people, and good allies.

In your contacts with the people you will hear them speaking "English." At first you may not understand what they are talking about and they may not understand what you say. The accent will be different from what you are used to, and many of the words will be strange, or apparently wrongly used. But you will get used to it.

Really good read that. I wonder if there was a similar leaflet for the British soldiers? That would be another interesting read.

 

[Begbie]

Great read, also heard Americans used to get handed cards when going to wartime with us. Not sure how true it is mind..

"DO NOT drink with the British troops
DO NOT gamble with the British troops
DO NOT fight with the British troops

YOU WILL lose."

 

[Retromatic]

"You can make just as many boners in their eyes"

 

[panyan]

very interesting - thanks

 

[deuse]

Great find

 

[[TW]Sponge]

HA. Boners.

 

[Cosimo]

An interesting read. Thanks for sharing.

 

[dowie]

I've read that the USA military also issued its soldiers with a leaflet regarding the differences in how "race" was treated in Britain. It sounds plausible - severe anti-"black" racism was normal in the USA in the 1940s and the relative lack of it in Britain would be at least as much of the cultural issue as the things covered in this leaflet. Does anyone know if there was such a leaflet?

I'm not sure if there was a leaflet per say but certainly African American GIs were pleasantly surprised to be treated relatively well over here compared to back home in the US... Not having to be segregated on transport, not being openly banned from certain establishments etc... Most people in the UK had never even seen black people before - we didn't have large scale immigration from the Caribbean etc.. until after WW2.

 

[Sin_Chase]

Awesome read, thanks for the link.

 

[kindai]

Well that was fun to read

 

[godinman]

Cheers, that was entertaining.

 

[FeFiDoh]

That was great thank you! Usually I would get turned away from reading something so long but really enjoyed that. It's amazing to see get a perspective on how things were then and how hard they tried to fit in and to make sure not to offend anyone. Great stuff.

The thing about the cup of coffee and tea made me chuckle as well

 

[Participant]

"You can make just as many boners in their eyes"

Lol was just about to reply with that.

 

[Angilion]

I can remember reading something about that too. One if the things mentioned was that Britain has no segregation.

Yes, but the gist of it was along similar lines to this leaflet - don't offend allies, it's a bad thing to do from a military point of view as well as being rude, especially when you're in their country. It wasn't so much about the differences but about how USA soldiers should react to them.

Imagine, for example, a Briton inviting an American soldier into their home for a social reason and then later that day inviting another American soldier into their home for the same thing. Nothing unexpected about that (note that this leaflet makes some references to this sort of thing, telling American soldiers to be aware of food rationing in Britain when being invited into a British home for a meal). Now imagine that one of those American soldiers is "black" and the other is "white" and from the southern states of the USA. Sitting down and eating and talking together in a social context as equals would be very unlikely to seem normal to either of them and might well seem intolerable to either or both of them but particularly to the "white" one.

A military that distributed this leaflet about the differences between the USA and Britain and how USA soldiers should react to them in order to avoid offending Britons couldn't possibly have been unaware that differences in how "race" was viewed in the two countries would also have been relevant in that context. Rather more so than, for example, whether the currency used a decimal system or not.

 

[Haircut]

Like what a £ actually is

Interestingly if you extend pennies into the £ (i.e. 240p) then 100p = $1.67, in line with today.

You know the pound's value stayed as it was when we became decimal and it was the penny that changed, not the other way round.

 

[Robosapien]

Interesting.

Apparently the inspiration for the novel 'A Clockwork Orange' was the beating of the author's wife Lynne by a gang of drunk American servicemen stationed in England during World War II. She subsequently miscarried.

Dunno why I thought of that...