[Alexander McKee; post-war Germany] Spearmen of the North. A Record of Public History and Private Opinion in Germany 1945-1954, typescript

60pp., 4to, crude card binding, damp-stained and worn at spine, typescript aged, damp-stained but clear. Sub-title: A Record of Public History and Private Opinion in Germany 1945-1954 | and an attempt at analysis of the German character as it appeared to a soldier of the British Army of the Rhine. || The expressed views of many hundreds of people, British and German, have been put into the mouths of the following: Len and Stan, two British soldiers | Doris, a British wife in Germany | Inga, Gertrud, Father, the German family | German A, who is rather hysterical | German B, who cannot forget what Dr. Goebbels said | German C, who is extremely cynical | And the Voices of the Four Allies - British, American, French and Russian. With MS. corrections and additions. Dialogues interspersed with the occasional song (German nursery rhyme for example) and A Narrator summarising and anticipating, and marking time as the years go by. Issues include civilian ignorance (or repressing thought) of Gestapo and Concentration Camp activities; Russian soldiers rampaging; destruction of German cities - rubble; army of occupation; the Atom bomb; the value of cigarettes as currency; German character and courtesies; destruction of the instruments of war (e.g. U-boat pens, Krupps); Germans still mouthing anti-Jewish propaganda; Irma Grese beastess of Belsen; rationing and starvation; Allies becoming the master race; German women marrying occupying forces; mention of Lord Haw Haw, the Royal Family, Mein Kampf, victims of Concentration Camps - not just Jews, etc. etc. The format was intended to be entertaining (and is!) as well as perceptive concerning post-war Germany, Germans, and occupying troops. Favourite quote: That young man is so rich he can smoke some of his own cigarettes.