‘You stupid boy …’
One of my favourite lines in one of my favourite shows, Dad’s Army.
I love the theme song:
Who do you think that you’re kidding, Mr Hitler,
If you think old England’s done?
Arthur Lowe as Captain Mainwaring—think of that resonant, baritone voice, delivered so often in tones of exasperation with some dithering dolt, usually Pike. Yet the sternness was reassuring somehow. After all, in the world they were fighting for, ‘stupid boys’ such as Pike were cared for instead of being sterilised or euthanised. Pompous as he was, Mainwaring embodied the best of ordinary Brits: that sense of the ridiculous, asperity that wasn’t mean—and matter-of-fact courage when required. His decrepit bumblers were the Home Guard of Walmington-on-Sea. This remnant was the last line of defence against the super-efficient Wehrmacht. If it went bad with the best of the fighting men, they would make the last stand. (They would have been Britain’s Fretilin, I suppose.)
My dad was unable to fight in the war, unlike his brother George. Dad had glasses as thick as prisms and a twisted foot. He kept trying to enlist whenever things took a turn for the worse. ‘Do you need me yet?’ he’d ask. ‘No, not yet, Mr Hughes,’ they’d reply.
Dad was working as an engineering inspector at Fairey’s Aviation in Manchester by day, and worked the night roster as an air-raid warden. The industrial north of England was a prime target for the Nazis, so he saw plenty of enemy action without gaining any uniformed glory. He was one of that unsung army who was prepared to fight them, as Churchill said in those dark days of mid-1940, ‘on the beaches, on the landing grounds, in the fields and in the streets, in the hills’.
Dad’s and Uncle George’s stories come back to me when I consider the upcoming series on SBS As It Happened: Germany’s War. It’s going to organise Saturday evenings at 7.30 here at Emoh Ruo for some time to come because it lasts for nine weeks through May and June. It covers the final two years of the war, when the tide finally began to turn against the Nazis. It’s one of the most compelling war documentaries ever; the product of inspired collaboration between ZDF (the German TV channel), the American History Channel, Channel 4 and Russian TV.
‘Bit of an antidote to Private Ryan, isn’t it?’ says my beloved.
I