Chuckle, chuckle....
Posted on 06/05/2006 6:19:33 AM PDT by Vectorian
The last time they flew across the Channel, they were 32 feet long, with Rolls-Royce engines and wings bristling with 20mm cannons.
Now they measure all of 18 inches, have no engine and not so much as a peashooter - but their "pilots" still risk being thrown into German captivity.
The Sunday Telegraph has learnt that a "big wing" of more than 10,000 inflatable Spitfires will this week cross into Germany and, when the World Cup starts on Friday, they could face the kind of frosty reception encountered by their wartime counterparts.
England football fans have been warned of arrest by the British Home Secretary, threatened with "zero tolerance" by a German police chief, and told not to mention the war by the creator of Basil Fawlty himself.
Some have responded by packing inflatable Spitfires by the thousand into their camper vans to sell throughout Germany and finance their World Cup trips.
Alf Ancell, 31, who designed the Spitfires, admitted he had found plenty of fans willing to sell the planes in Germany.
"I got 10,000 Spitfires in a couple of months ago and I am now down to my last 2,000 and expecting to sell the remainder.
"It's not a link to the War," he insisted. "It's just an English symbol of victory. They look like flags when you hold them aloft. I don't see how that can be inflammatory."
Planning to sell them on campsites, in beer tents, and on beaches, Fred Arnold, Andy Mitchel and Terry Dorell last week vowed never to surrender their blow-up Spitfires until the buyer paid £5. The three have packed their VW camper van with more than 1,000 Spitfires, bought for £3.75 each on a sale-or-return basis, and will this week be selling them to fellow fans all over Germany.
"They're original and brilliant," enthused Mr Dorell about the miniature fighters decorated with St George's Crosses and camouflage patterns. "They may not like it in Germany," he added. "but who gives a sausage?"
The answer, it seems, starts with John Cleese, the German and British police forces, the Home Office - not to mention RAF veterans plus television producers who may not relish deciding what to do when the camera pans to thousands of Spitfire-waving fans.
Cleese, famous for screaming "Don't mention the war" as a goose-stepping Basil Fawlty, has condemned the "ridiculous anti-German prejudices" of his comic creation.
Before he was sacked as home secretary in May, Charles Clarke told the 100,000 England fans expected to visit Germany that glorifying the country's Nazi past is a criminal offence and that brandishing inflatable Spitfires could land them in trouble. "It's not a joke, it is not a comic thing," he said.
Asst Chief Constable Stephen Thomas, who is heading the delegation of 82 British police officers in Germany, admitted that the Spitfire issue was "tricky".
"The Germans," he said, "have a sense of humour. It's not a criminal offence to sell or display these items, but we have real concerns about how people might behave once they have a bit to drink. It could step over into insulting or threatening behaviour."
At the German embassy, optimism was the defensive strategy of choice. "Let's wait and see," said a spokesman. "Maybe they won't inflate these toys."
• Fans have been told not to travel without measles vaccinations because an epidemic has infected more than 1,300 people in Germany this year. One area is North Rhine Westphalia, which includes two cities hosting the World Cup Cologne and Dortmund.
I'm surprised they don't require rabies vaccinations.
Do they come with signs saying "Two World Wars and one World Cup"?
Chuckle, chuckle....
Yeah, right.
Remind me, who won again?
That would be like walking in Hiroshima with A bomb balloons.
Why the st. george cross instead of the RAF roundel? Looks ugly.
Because the RAF roundel encompasses Scotland and Wales as well and those countries couldn't qualify for an under 12 all girls match and are having an anti-English sulk because England can! :D
Today's germans won't even know what a Spitfire is.
Like today's japanesse don't know a thing about nanking.
'That would be like walking in Hiroshima with A bomb balloons.'
Errr, not quite the same really! More like waving F4 Corsair models when the US plays Japan or the japs waving Zeros at you! :D
LOL, yes.
Here's a copy of the official WW2 german schools history textbook in full:
'In the 1930's the nazis came to power but they weren't german and no germans voted for them. A few years later our good friends the Americans and British liberated us from the hated nazis - nothing to do with us, we were just following orders. The end.
:D
Personally I don't care. If they want to sell balloons let them.
Rabies is actually pretty rare in Europe. In Germany it's localized to a few areas in the wild fox population. We have something like 7,000 confirmed cases a year, and they're freaking because they've found something like 50 in one year. In the US we've had 30+ human cases since 1980, Germany 20+. Not too big a difference until you realize that only two of those German cases originated in Germany, the rest brought back from India, etc.
It does make sense, if you recall that the speaker is a Eurocrat who recognizes the continuing nationalistic tendencies that will cause the EU to crumble before too long.....
Welttasse Deutschland 2006
would a bunch of germans with blow up Faulker-Wulfs (sp) be in trouble in England? -Echo
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