Any truth behind this WWII story?

[FRDE]

Actually, if that is true, then the German officer was a bit lucky.

As a kid we did a school exchange to Freiburg, one English girl was taken by her temporary family to visit some relatives - the relatives did not realize that she was English, they thought that she spoke a local(ish) dialect.

You get some pretty heavy regional variations in France, Germany, Spain and the UK - not to mention Italy (I heard that the Italians used Bergamot radio operators, as the USA used Cherokee).

[Khadaji]

@Raguleader

I’ve lived in Texas, Oklahoma, Washington, and Arizona (along with a couple of US Air Bases in Japan), and I’ve never seen anyone over the age of 5 or 6 switching a fork back and forth while eating. Most right-handed folks will keep the fork in their right hand, unless using a knife, in which case the fork stays in the left hand.

I have had Europeans ask me if I was originally from Europe - if my folks were - because of how I use a fork.

[FRDE]

Good point - as a kid in the UK we were never allowed to use a fork in the right hand as a shovel.

Also, you can tell a lot by how knives and forks are held, the handle ‘should be’ gripped inside the palm of the hand - not used like a scalpel.

Personally I like ‘contact eating’ - hands and any available unconventional tools

• crabs feet are good probes and shells are good spoons
• but I draw the line at a fish knife

[Martini_Enfield]

@pravnik

If the story is true, it might be possible it was cleaned up for general consumption, like General McAuliffe’s alleged “Nuts!” response to the German demand that the 101st Airborne surrender. The pilot may actually have said something like "owwwWWW mother%$@&!*.

The actual story in the OP may be slightly apocryphal, but the Gestapo did have an interrogation technique which involved being rather friendly with the prisoner, chatting about the weather, current events, hobbies, etc, and then offering them a cigarette. After lighting their cigarette, the conversation would continue for a minute or two, then the Gestapo officer would suddenly slap the prisoner across the face, hard.

A real Frenchman/Pole/Norseman/German would let out an expletive (or expression of surprise) in their native tongue. An English speaker would say “What the hell?” (or something a lot stronger), giving themselves away.

Another technique would involve waking the prisoner up in the early hours of the morning, with the Gestapo agent saying something like “Quickly, you’ve got to wake up, we’re being rescued by the Commandos” as they shook them awake… sleep fogged brains don’t always process things rationally, causing the prisoner to reply in their native tongue.

[jjimm]

@Chronos

I would suspect so… If you eat the crust end first, the rest of the pie would fall apart. But then, what Americans think of as a pie is uncommon in the rest of the world: Other countries have similar confections, but they’re put together differently. So a non-American pie-equivalent might not even have a point at all: It might be a turnover with two points, or it might be a cobbler cut into squares, or it might be a round single-serving tart, or some other shape.

This is a bit misleading. We have big round pies over here - sweet or savoury - as do the Irish. I’d hazard that the American pie is derived from either country. Also, when in France recently I saw lots of tartes that were round and cut into wedge-shaped slices too.

[Cat_Jones]

@FRDE

I heard that the Italians used Bergamot radio operators, as the USA used Cherokee).

Ah yes, Bergamot is also good at keeping mosquitoes away - the dialect and people of Bergamo however are Bergamasc.

[Raguleader]

@Martini Enfield

Another technique would involve waking the prisoner up in the early hours of the morning, with the Gestapo agent saying something like “Quickly, you’ve got to wake up, we’re being rescued by the Commandos” as they shook them awake… sleep fogged brains don’t always process things rationally, causing the prisoner to reply in their native tongue.

I’ve heard that the French Resistance would do something similar to determine if a downed pilot was actually a German spy or not. Bust into his hiding place in someone’s cellar at 3AM screaming in German and pointing guns at him.

[FRDE]

@Cat Jones

Ah yes, Bergamot is also good at keeping mosquitoes away - the dialect and people of Bergamo however are Bergamasc.

Is the dialect (phonetically) Bergamott ?

For mosquitos I prefer garlic - and a female decoy

[Cat_Jones]

Not as far as I know - in Italian at least … maybe in English if you see what I mean.