# Seeking a source for a half-remembered WWII anecdote **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 20, 2026, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604 "2026-03-20T06:09:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2026, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/1 "2026-03-20T06:09:24Z")
When I was in high school in the '90s, I did three years of Navy JROTC - partly because it got me out of having to take gym, and partly because I was considering going into the military after high school. (I wound up graduating a few months after 9/11, and decided not to.) JROTC cadets hold ranks as if they were actually in the military - you start as an E-1, up to E-7, after which you join the officer corps, and can make it as high as O-5 by your senior year if you’re chosen as the student company commander (we had one O-6 in the entire school district, who was the student batallion commander). I never made it higher than E-6 myself. Anyway, as part of the process towards advancing to E-3, you had to complete “seaman correspondence”, which was an older version of the self-guided course actual sailors had to complete to earn the same rank. I believe the version we used was written either during or just after the Vietnam war. I found myself recalling a story earlier today that I’m pretty sure I read in that course, and I’m wondering if it sounds familiar to anyone else out there. The point of the lesson was how to survive if stuck behind enemy lines, and this section of it emphasized that, if you found yourself in a civilian area, it was important to act like a local. It supplied an anecdote from a soldier who’d served in World War II and had somehow got stuck either in Germany itself or in occupied France, and found his way to an urban area, and needed to urinate. He asked someone where the nearest bathroom was, and they pointed him to an open-air urinal that was just mounted on the wall of a building or something similar to that. Ultimately, his being too embarrassed to expose himself in public tipped someone off that he didn’t belong there and lead to him being captured. Does this anecdote sound familiar to anyone, in particular Navy veterans of a certain age? I’m trying to find a source for it online and so far I’ve come up empty. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2026, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/2 "2026-03-20T15:55:44Z")
The term you might look up is: > **[Pissoir](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pissoir)** > > A pissoir (also known in French as a vespasienne) is a French invention, common in Europe, that provides a urinal in public space with a lightweight structure. The availability of pissoirs aims to reduce urination onto buildings, sidewalks, or streets. They can be freestanding and without screening, with partial screening, or fully enclosed. > The name comes from Middle French, pisser, to urinate; itself from Old French pissier. > In the spring of 1830, the city government of Paris decided to insta... I noticed that: > **[Paris open-air urinals: Feminists FURY at sexist urinal experiment](https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1011634/Paris-open-air-urinals-Why-feminists-are-furious-at-sexist-urinal-experiment-france-news)** > > PARIS’ new open-air urinals have caused an uproar in the French capital. Earlier this year Paris officials introduced the urinal experiment to tackle public urination. ---
**Author:** ![Dark\_Sponge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dark_sponge/32/121_2.png) [@Dark\_Sponge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dark_Sponge)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2026, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/3 "2026-03-20T16:18:38Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > if you found yourself in a civilian area, it was important to act like a local. It supplied an anecdote from a soldier who’d served in World War II and had somehow got stuck either in Germany itself or in occupied France, and found his way to an urban area, and needed to urinate. He asked someone where the nearest bathroom was, and they pointed him to an open-air urinal that was just mounted on the wall of a building or something similar to that. Ultimately, his being too embarrassed to expose himself in public tipped someone off that he didn’t belong there and lead to him being captured. It seems like having an American accent (or not being able to speak French/German at all) would have been a bigger giveaway. When I was last there the lines for public toilets in Paris were often very long. I never saw an American-style, multiple-stalls-with-men-on-one-side-ladies-on-the-other restroom. They were nice self-cleaning single-person toilets, but not many of them. Even the bathrooms in the airport were single person. So I guess using open air urinals to combat public urination in other areas makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2026, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/4 "2026-03-20T16:49:48Z")
Yeah, this is what I thought too. His uniform, accent, etc. would have been bigger problems for him than his unwillingness to pee in public. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2026, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/5 "2026-03-20T17:13:00Z")
Definitely has “did not happen” written all over it. That doesn’t mean it hasn’t been retold as fact though. I can imagine this starting out as a joke about uptight Americans being shocked by a pissoir, but ended as ancedote that allegedly happened. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2026, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/6 "2026-03-20T17:25:55Z")
> [@Dark\_Sponge](#): > > It seems like having an American accent (or not being able to speak French/German at all) would have been a bigger giveaway. Definitely! ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2026, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/7 "2026-03-20T17:32:56Z")
I thought perhaps it could be that to indicate _two_, Americans would hold up their pointer finger and the middle finger, like Churchill’s V for Victory sign. Germans would hold up the thumb and the pointer finger. So you could give yourself away by saying _I have to go number 2_. (Isn’t that a plot point in **Inglourious Basterds**?) ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2026, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/8 "2026-03-20T17:34:47Z")
Seems like being unable to piss in public would be a big problem for a soldier regardless of whether he’s behind enemy lines. What did he do in combat situations or on long marches? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2026, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/9 "2026-03-20T18:03:50Z")
Churchill’s V for Victory has the palm of the hand towards the signer and the back of the hand towards the audience. Americans signal 2 (and Peace, brother!) with the palm facing the audience. As to the OP’s contention: I went through USAF survival school in the early '80s. Much of which curriculum was informed by Viet Nam era experience with survival, evasion, and if unsuccessful at that, with POW captivity. Rule #1 was never get near civilization. As the saying went, “Only people capture people”. If you never encounter a human, you’re safe from capture. There’s essentially zero expectation anyone could “pass” as a local anywhere. To be sure, passing might have been a bit more possible during WW-II in Europe for more white American (or Commonwealth) soldiers than it has been in wars elsewhere before or since. But I rather doubt that USN training materials from the Viet Nam era would be talking about wandering around European cities or towns trying to blend in. Not even as a cautionary tale about why not to try. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2026, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/10 "2026-03-20T18:10:56Z")
Sounds apocryphal, unless someone here can actually sleuth out the source. But perhaps inspired by the [rumor that dogged Sir Richard Burton](https://www.elisarolle.com/queerplaces/pqrst/Richard%20Francis%20Burton.html) “A story that haunted Burton up to his death (recounted in some of his obituaries) was that he came close to being discovered one night when he lifted his robe to urinate rather than squatting as an Arab would. It was said that he was seen by an Arab and, in order to avoid exposure, killed him. Burton denied this, pointing out that killing the boy would almost certainly have led to his being discovered as an impostor. Burton became so tired of denying this accusation that he took to baiting his accusers, although he was said to enjoy the notoriety and even once laughingly claimed to have done it” ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2026, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/11 "2026-03-20T18:20:55Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > To be sure, passing might have been a bit more possible during WW-II in Europe for more white American (or Commonwealth) soldiers than it has been in wars elsewhere before or since. I recall a book I had in history class back in highschool. They had a bit about how some British or Canadian bomber crews had uniforms that could be altered to look more like civilian clothes if they had to bail out over Europe. I recall a picture of a pair of boots, in which the foot portions looked like regular shoes, and you were supposed to cut off the upper parts after you’d landed and evaded any initial pursuit. Googling around, it seems like these were the boots: > **[Original WW2 RAF 1943 Pattern Escape Boots](https://www.blightymilitaria.com/en-GB/ww2-raf-flying-equipment/original-ww2-raf-1943-pattern-escape-boots/prod_58532?srsltid=AfmBOorXuSTDwMR8cN7IUsONWAtO0xBWbJyj1H4dCqrYTRnFHk1hM2P4jdE)** > > A very good pair of original RAF 1943 Pattern Escape Boots which date from the Second World War. This pattern of boots was introduced in 1943 and saw widespread issue with the RAF. They also saw use with a variety of American flyers serving with... ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan\_myers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@aruvqan\_myers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan_myers)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2026, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/12 "2026-03-20T18:22:40Z")
Sort of, ordering 2 beers in the bar=) I always just said Noch ein with a hand up. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2026, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/13 "2026-03-20T19:35:01Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Ultimately, his being too embarrassed to expose himself in public tipped someone off that he didn’t belong there and lead to him being captured. It sounds more like advice to avoid being seen as overly shy among peers, like in the locker room, than evading capture by foreign enemies. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2026, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/14 "2026-03-20T20:51:21Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#): > > I thought perhaps it could be that to indicate _two_, Americans would hold up their pointer finger and the middle finger, like Churchill’s V for Victory sign. Germans would hold up the thumb and the pointer finger. So you could give yourself away by saying _I have to go number 2_. (Isn’t that a plot point in **Inglourious Basterds**?) I thought it was 3 fingers, where Americans would hold the pinkie against the thumb, leaving the other three fingers for the number, while Europeans would hold the first finger against the thumb and the 3rd, 4th and 5th fingers would show the number. It’s been quite a while since I saw that scene. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2026, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/15 "2026-03-20T20:56:19Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > But I rather doubt that USN training materials from the Viet Nam era would be talking about wandering around European cities or towns trying to blend in. Not even as a cautionary tale about why not to try. I mean, I didn’t _imagine_ the story. It may not be true, but I definitely read it, and it was presented as a first-hand account of what not to do. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2026, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/16 "2026-03-20T21:18:17Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > Definitely has “did not happen” written all over it. I don’t find it altogether unbelievable. There is the true story of the WWII German spy Carl Meir who landed in England, and was immediately caught because of his lack of knowledge of British pub opening times. Other spies were caught by cycling on the wrong side of the road. So, a foreign agent, or an escaped prisoner not knowing about pissoirs is plausible. > **[Secrecy and firing squads: Britain’s ruthless war on Nazi spies](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/28/britain-nazi-spies-mi5-second-world-war-german-executed)** > > During the second world war, the government fought a secret campaign against German spies. Now, new letters from the MI5 archive reveal the true story of Jose Waldberg, one of the men who was executed > **[Failed Nazi spy mission in UK ‘was sabotaged by German dissidents’](https://intelnews.org/2014/08/25/01-1540/)** > > A new book authored by a German historian argues that a botched Nazi spy mission in World War II-era Britain was deliberately sabotaged by anti-Nazi intelligence officials within the ranks of the T… ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2026, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/17 "2026-03-20T21:43:18Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > I don’t find it altogether unbelievable It’s true there are plenty of examples like this (e.g. the fake XX spy Agent Garbo sending the Germans back stories of plying English dock workers with _wine_ not beer for information) But that’s not why I think it never happened. There would be so many other reasons a naive airman would get caught before encountering a pissoir, and there is absolutely no member of any branch of any armed forces during WW2 who wouldn’t be happy peeing wherever they want. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2026, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/18 "2026-03-20T22:00:09Z")
I don’t doubt that the OP is misremembering, and getting some details wrong. They openly say as much. I suspect it isn’t a case of being too shy to use a pissoir. It’s a case of needing to use a pissoir, but not recognizing the one that’s right in front of him. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2026, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/19 "2026-03-20T22:06:14Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > It’s a case of needing to use a pissoir, but not recognizing the one that’s right in front of him. I’m skeptical as it still relies on speaking perfect accentless French but not knowing what a pissoir was. Also the person he was asking not just assuming he needed to do something you couldn’t do in a pissoir (I’m assuming even the French do not get into the specifics of why they need the toilet when asking for directions 😉 ) ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2026, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/20 "2026-03-20T22:08:44Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > I’m skeptical as it still relies on speaking perfect accentless French but not knowing what a pissoir was. I mean, considering the era, the soldier could very well have been the child of immigrants and able to speak French/German well enough to sound like a native. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604.md?page=2)