Monty Python got some good alliterative mileage out of that term in their movie “And Now For Something Completely Different.” One sequence in the movie is a fake WWII British newsreel, in black and white, with suitably bombastic narration that includes the opening line “Yes, the war against the Hun continues – and as Britian’s brave boys battle against the Boche…” By the standards of genuine WWII newsreels, that’s actually not as over-the-top as it sounds to modern ears. And during a real WWII deception operation, the fake letter from General Nye to General Alexander which was the centrepiece of the “Mincemeat” disinformation scheme used such phrases as “We have had recent information that the Boche have been reinforcing and strengthening their defences in Greece and Crete…”
Photos of WWI Landscapes as they are Today
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Some photographs of the landscapes of World War One battlefields as they are today, by photographer Michael St Maur Sheil:
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That’s really cool. It is spooky to think that the landscape is still scarred by man from a war 100 years ago.
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It is spooky to think that the landscape is still scarred by man from a war 100 years ago.
And dangerous. I think that farmers who work the land in the general area of the front still routinely turn up old unexploded shells at plowing time, which then get carted away by ordnance disposal units who are accustomed to being called by the local people for such jobs.
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Amazing pictures.
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That Masurian Lakes photo is absolutely haunting.