The Battle of Britain Was The First Defeat For The German Luftwaffe.

[Sternjaeger II]

Originally Posted by bongodriver

Well here is where you prove how resistant you are to understand, the battle of britain is celebrated by the British because we were the ones fighting for our survival, we dont force anybody else to celebrate it, it's significance to us is simply that if we hadn't survived then the war for us would have been over at that instant and we would have been under the control of the Nazis....is that not enough of a 'phew!! christ we made it and were still alive, lets rejoice the efforts our brave lads made getting us therough that one' for you?

of course it is, and I understand this perfectly.

One thing though is mourning the fallen and celebrating their efforts for the defense of your country (a sentiment that should be common to ALL countries), another is celebrating the thing as if it was a victory over a football match.

It's really true that you're obsessed with this: last year for the first time I heard the (in)famous chant "Two world wars and one world cup, doo-dah doo-dah!", which might be silly to you, but it resumes pretty well the blur of it. Have you ever heard any other nation doing banter chants about any war? Probably not, cos it's out of place and context. And I'm sorry, but to me there's no excuse for it, if you really have respect for your opponents.

So yes, I accept an attitude of "well done all of us, let's remember the efforts our ancestors made 71 years ago and learn from it", but "yeeeeeah there you go you boche ba$tards, we won the battle of britain, so you can stick your nazi boots up your ar$es" is something that I could have accepted only in the 40s.

The example made in the article about Fawlty Towers "don't mention the war" (or Blackadder for the matter) skit is another example of how you have used "the war" for everything: celebration, drama, comedy, sport etc..