Folklore Fights the Nazis: Humor in Occupied Norway, 1940–1945

9. A Humorous Perspective on War Developments: From the Battle of Britain to the Flight of Rudolph Hess

9 A Humorous Perspective on War Developments: From the Battle of Britain to the Flight of Rudolf Hess Occupation jokes registered war developments with seismographic speed, especially when things were going badly for Germany. This was a valuable aspect of wartime humor given the harmful psychological effects of constantly being bombarded by the pro-German Nazi propaganda, as described in chapter 6. Endless headlines trumpeted former and future German triumphs: NO DOUBT OF WAR OUTCOME. AGAINST A UNITED EUROPE, ENGLAND AND AMERICA HAVE NO CHANCE [Aftenposten, (The evening post) 19 May 1942]1 To these headlines, jokes like the following provided a welcome and powerful antidote: -Do you know why Hitler now wears a diving suit? -Why? -So he can inspect his fleet. [Ellingsen] THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN Many of the jokes about war developments derived from Germany 's abortive attempts to invade England during the summer and fall of 1940. Hitler had decided to attack by air first and to disarm the British air force before attempting a surface invasion, but from the outset the skill of the British pilots took the Germans by surprise. Not only did Germany's concerted bombing raids fail to defeat the Royal British Air Force, but they resulted in substan160 9: A HUMOROUS PERSPECTIVE ON WAR DEVELOPMENTS 161 tially higher German losses than British, and Jossing folk wit reveled: I avisene star bare bilder av tyske fly som skat til England og aldri av dem som reiser tilbake-for det er ingen. [Christerson] (The newspapers show only pictures of German planes on their way to England and never of the ones coming back-because there aren't any.) Gate: Hvorfor bruker engelskmennene dobbelt sa mye bensin som tyskerne? De f1yr frem og tilbake, mens tyskerne bare f1yr en vei. [Schou-Sorensen, ChristersonF (Riddle: Why do the British use twice as much fuel as the Germans? They fly back and forth, while the Germans only fly one way.) On 17 September, Hitler postponed the invasion of Britain "until further notice," and folk wit celebrated with this riddle: Sp: Vet du at Hitler har kjopt radio apparat? Sv. Nei, hvordan det? Sp. Det er den eneste maten han kan "ta" England pa. [Larsen, Christerson, Schou-Sorensen] (Q: Do you know why Hitler bought a radio? A: No, why? Q: It's the only way he can "get" England.) Song-parodies also took up the theme of the German failure; the following one from Slaatto's diary was sung (in English) to the tune of "Tipperary": It's a long way to British IslandIt 's a long way to go. It's a long way for German soldiers in the greatest war they know. They are flying, they are swimming but they never reach the land. It's a long, long way to British Island. It's a long way to go. Another joke, set in Oslo's Viking Ship Museum mocked Germany 's failure to invade Britain while also addressing the Nazis' proclivity at denigrating the national pride of the countries they occupied. En tysk soldat besa Vikingeskipene, men syntes ikke de var noe srerlig a skryte avo Kan sa vrere, sa vakten, at De ikke er noe imponert av disse skipene, men det var na dem vi tok England med. [Schou-Sorensen]3 162 FOLKLORE FIGHTS THE NAZIS (A German soldier was visiting the Viking Ships, but thought them nothing to brag about. "You may not be impressed by these ships," replied the guard, "but with them, the Norwegians did after all manage to attack England.") With annoying persistence, the German soldiers announced their impending invasion of England by marching through the streets singing Wir fahren gegen Engeland (We're on the way to England). Given the failure of the enterprise, this practice inevitably inspired renaming that song as the Die Nie-gelungen-lied (the never-succeeded -song), a takeoff on the title of the famous Germanic epic, Die Niebelungenlied (Schou-Sorensen).4 Numerous narrative jokes like the next two also sprang up to ridicule the aborted mission: Pa bryggene i Bergen star en liten gutt. En tysk bil, full av soldater, kjorer i stor fart utfor brygga. Gutten later som ingen ting, og da de fOrste tyskerne omsider kommer opp, er de rasende pa ham fordi han ikke har hentet hjelp. Hvortil gutten svarer: "Eg trodde dokker skulle til Engeland, eg!" [Ellingsenp (A little boy is standing on the dock in...