# 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:** 2
**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, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/21 "2026-03-20T22:16:05Z")
Nope, Germans in particular use their thumb to indicate “one”. My dad told me this when I was a kid. He was in Germany for a conference, and was trying to figure out why the bartender kept bringing him two beers when he kept asking for one. Someone finally clued him in that the index finger was for two in Germany. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2026, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/22 "2026-03-20T22:17:53Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > 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. As I recall the movie, a German would indicate 3 with the thumb, index, and middle fingers. Whereas an American would use index, middle, and ring. That matches what I’ve seen during the Tour de France. When a rider is preparing to start a time trial stage, there’s an official counting down the last five seconds before the rider can start, and he uses his fingers to display the count. 5, 4, 2, and 1 are just as I would signal them, but 3 is with the thumb, index, and middle. It seems rather awkward to me to extend your thumb on 5, retract it on 4, extend again on 3, then retract again on 2. But it seems to work for them. ---
**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, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/23 "2026-03-20T22:44:04Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > , 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 I’m not sure. There is a fairly short window where you can have a completely accentless French yet no actual memory or knowledge of French culture ---
**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, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/24 "2026-03-20T22:47:04Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > There is a fairly short window where you can have a completely accentless French yet no actual memory or knowledge of French culture My paternal grandma was the child of an Italian couple who immigrated in 1913. She had a distinctly Italian accent and could speak it flawlessly as far as I could tell. ---
**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, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/25 "2026-03-20T22:59:31Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > She had a distinctly Italian accent and could speak it flawlessly as far as I could tell But if she left young enough to have no memory of iItaly or Italian culture directly, to a native Italian from Italy would she have sounded american? Genuine question, I know lots of “0.5 gen” (i.e. came to America as a young child) immigrants who speak English with an American accent, and also (as far as I know) a second language flawlessly. But would an actual native of their home country detect an accent when they speak the language? ---
**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, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/26 "2026-03-20T23:02:28Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > But if she left young enough to have no memory is Italy or Italian culture directly, to a native Italian from Italy would she have sounded american? She was born in the US. > [@griffin1977](#): > > I know lots of “0.5 gen” (i.e. came to America as a young child) immigrants who speak English with an American accent, and also (as far as I know) a second language flawlessly. But would an actual native of their home country detect an accent when they speak the language? That is legitimately a good question. I suspect that there are so many regional accents in European countries that a first-generation American returning to their parents’ country might pass for “they’re not from around here, but they might be from up north” or something like that, but that’s just speculation. ---
**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, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/27 "2026-03-20T23:18:58Z")
Quebec … though there is a bit of a dialect difference - sort of like the difference between say Boston and New York [say Brooklyn] He simply could have been from a French colony that ended up in Paris from the Asian colonies. A Vietnmese born and raised French officials kids would be fluent in French but probably never saw a pissoire ‘in the wild’ ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2026, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/28 "2026-03-20T23:25:04Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > As I recall the movie, a German would indicate 3 with the thumb, index, and middle fingers. Whereas an American would use index, middle, and ring. Generally true, but I know from experience there must be some regional or cultural variation (because into early elementary school in Texas, coming from southeastern Michigan, I would indicate 3 the “German” way—is it German, or is it continental?). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2026, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/29 "2026-03-21T00:05:49Z")
It’s perfectly plausible for a spy to be caught via some subtle cultural nuance. Less so for a downed airman trying to make it back to the friendly side of the front lines. Spies are trained in all of the obvious ways to fit in (speaking the language, clothing styles, obvious cultural differences, etc.), so if they’re caught, it’ll be from something subtle enough for their trainers to miss (like, say, learning too many verses of the nation’s national anthem). A downed airman, though, wouldn’t be trained in any of that. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2026, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/30 "2026-03-21T00:15:36Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > That is legitimately a good question. I suspect that there are so many regional accents in European countries that a first-generation American returning to their parents’ country might pass for “they’re not from around here, but they might be from up north” or something like that, but that’s just speculation. That’s also one of the plot points about that bar scene in _Inglourious Basterds_: The English spy spoke flawless German, but with no accent that any of the native speakers in the bar could place. That set off the suspicions of the SS officer. They managed to bull through that (whew! what a relief!) and then blew it woth English finger counting instead of German (rats, almost pulled it off!). ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2026, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/31 "2026-03-21T00:16:27Z")
> [@ASL\_v2.0](#): > > is it German, or is it continental?) Good question. It’s done that way in _Inglorious Basterds_, which is hardly an authoritative source, and TdF time trials. Beyond those two occasions I couldn’t tell you how widespread it is. If only there was a place to get answers to questions like that. ---
**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 21, 2026, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/32 "2026-03-21T00:25:51Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > A downed airman, though, wouldn’t be trained in any of that. It’s entirely possible that the character in the story I read was a spy and not just some unlucky paratrooper. As I said in the OP, I only vaguely remember the story, which is why I was hoping that describing it might ring a bell with someone. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2026, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/33 "2026-03-21T04:05:07Z")
I recall a story about the underground helping airmen escape after they parachuted. (Dutch? French?) One point they made was that when eating in public, Americans would switch their fork to the right hand for some eating, while Europeans never did. ---
**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 21, 2026, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/34 "2026-03-21T04:23:02Z")
There’s a possibly-apocryphal tale in Taiwan about an undercover police officer who was embedded in a gang/mafia as his assignment. What blew his cover was when he went to a movie theater with the gangsters to see a film together, and when the ticket-selling cashier asked him, “Any particular discount benefits to claim?” the cop reflexively said, by habit, “Yes, the police discount please.” ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2026, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/35 "2026-03-21T07:33:13Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Churchill’s V for Victory has the palm of the hand towards the signer and the back of the hand towards the audience. He did it that way, but it’s not clear to me if he understood that, that way round , it’s the British equivalent of the US middle finger. ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2026, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/36 "2026-03-21T13:49:24Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Churchill’s V for Victory has the palm of the hand towards the signer and the back of the hand towards the audience. Didn’t somebody clue him in fairly early on about the F\*-u significance, and he reversed it thereafter? ---
**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 21, 2026, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/37 "2026-03-21T16:15:01Z")
Not a question I can answer. All I know is the famous pic. I assumed he was culturally clueful about the country he was leading at the time and so his gesture was typical of his countrymen. Seems I was wrong in that assumption. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2026, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/38 "2026-03-21T16:41:22Z")
I think that might have been an Encyclopedia Brown mystery. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2026, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/39 "2026-03-31T11:55:12Z")
ISTR that my parents told me they thought he knew fine well the vulgar significance and meant it as a kind of unspoken in-joke, along the lines of “The V-sign _really_ means ‘Cobblers to Hitler’ but we’ll officially claim to be high-minded”. Footnote: my father had been taken POW on Crete before the V campaign started and therefore knew nothing about it. He told me that, when his party of released POWs got back to the UK, and were being transported by the lorry-load to their reception centre, they couldn’t believe how many passers-by - especially women - were greeting them with the V-sign: to which they responded enthusiastically in kind. Of course he might have been exaggerating. ---
**Author:** ![Thumper668](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thumper668/32/20803_2.png) [@Thumper668](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thumper668)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2026, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604/40 "2026-03-31T12:19:30Z")
I was a Sea Cadet in high school and served in the Navy from 1986 - 1992, so I did a lot of those correspondence courses. I’m not at all familiar with the anecdote, but it may have been in one of the air crew related courses and not the one for Seaman (that one was primarily about life aboard ship and survival at sea). As for the anecdote itself it sounds like pure made-up bullshit. There was a lot of that in the correspondence courses of the era. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-a-source-for-a-half-remembered-wwii-anecdote/1028604.md?page=3)