davidgillon: A pair of crutches, hanging from coat hooks, reflected in a mirror (0)
David Gillon ([personal profile] davidgillon) wrote in [personal profile] sovay 2017-11-18 02:40 pm (UTC)

You would need a touch of the surrealist, however, to imagine that the German invasion would arrive in the guise of British Tommies, like being occupied by your own mirror universe.

The fear of the fifth column is something it's difficult for us to understand at this point in time. It may have passed into farce as huns disguised as nuns, but the German Brandenburger commandos did operate extensively in civilian and foreign military clothing. (As later did Otto Skorzeny's Panzer Brigade 150 during the Battle of the Bulge). In fact the first hostilities of the war were carried out by German agents disguised as Poles launching false flag attacks on various German border installations.

ETA: You have to presume "Went the Day Well" is a very conscious source for Deighton's "The Eagle Has Landed".

Post a comment in response:

This account has disabled anonymous posting.
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting