Lodgeroom UK

An 83 year old British gentleman arrived in Paris by plane.
As he was fumbling in his bag for his passport, a stern French lady asked if he had been to France before.
He admitted he had been there previously.
The lady sarcastically said, then you should know to have your passport out and ready sir.
The gentleman said "I didn't have to show it last time".
Impossible! The woman said, you British have always had to show your passports to get through here.
The man responded quietly ”Well, when I came ashore on the beach on D-day in 1944 I couldn't find any f***ing Frenchman to show it to!"

There weren't any Swedes either!

Brother, I realize you're joking. I take no offense. But there were actually Swedes in the allied troops on D-day in Normandy.
For example:
Georg Nilsson, born at Ljungby, sapper in the Swedish coast artillery, emigrated to Canada where he was a farmer. Volunteered in 1942. Killed on Juno beach.
Jan Guettler fell for German machinegun fire, a lieutenant in British uniform (King's own Scottish Borderers) 16 july 1944.
Several others are also known, e.g. two paratroopers and one commando (who survived).
(Source: Svenskar i krig 1914-45 by Lars Gyllenhaal & Lennart Westberg)

But then, if you wanted to show a passport on D-day, you would have needed to ask the Germans. Don't know if there were any Swedes among them, but it's possible. Swedes volunteered in the German army, not because they were nazis but because they wanted to fight the Soviet invasion iin Finland. Most of them had a clause in their papers saying that they had only volunteered for the Eastern Front.

Åke

Of course I was joking Brother.

I was thinking in the official sense that Sweden was a neutral country and of course some of its citizens, like those of other neutral countries such as the then Irish Free State, joined Allied forces and thus took part in the fighting but not as representing their own country but another. If you have seen the film Pearl Harbor you will recall that part of the plot is that one of the Americans joined the RAF whilst the US was still neutral and was thought to have been killed, only to return to Pearl just before the Japanese attack to find his wife now having a relationship with his best friend as both thought he was dead.

I am fully aware that there was some strange bedfellows at that time and of the position that Finland found itself in. Certainly they were not natural allies of Germany but compared with the Soviet Union whose horrors they had experienced first hand they saw a friend in Germany, whose horrors they had not.

Just my twisted sense of humour, I apologise for any offense caused.

Brother, I was in no way offended. You just happened to kick my "besserwisser" button so I went into "history lesson mode".

Åke

I take no offence either but, without the work done by the French Resistance prior to the Landings, D-Day may not not have gone according to plan everywhere...

I love these Dday stories specially at this time of year and when told by/ of brethren who were involved
My Father (MM 314 Saltcoats and Ardrossan St Johns Royal Arch lodge ) was helmsman of landing craft in very first wave to land on Sword
BUT he didnt like talking about it , despite continuous and continuing reminders
as he had Canadians abord with film crew and its work is show often on Dday programmes
WHY NOT? the next three weeks he kept going back and forth to the beaches with supplies food ammo
and bringing back bodybags and wounded soldiers
But he did get to meet some French brethren at a museum in Arromanches before he died and was made very welcome
(Then I found out they were Grand Orient so we couldnt take up invitation to meeting)

GLoS tomorrow 12/6 with hopefully recognition of GLNF returned

Fraternally
Eckywan