Prohibited photos of British soldiers

Hello ATS!

I accidentally came across some photographs of British soldiers during World War 2. To be honest, they caused me bewilderment and confusion, a feeling of some kind of oxymoron. Here are these photos, you can judge for yourself.








Is it possible that during the fighting 80 years ago, LGBT ideas were already being cultivated in the English army, since this is more typical for the modern English army? But after a detailed study of the issue, everything fell into place. These photos were actually taken at the Royal Artillery Battery base, established at Shornemide Fort as part of the coastal defences.

Photographer John Topham arrived to photograph the soldiers' party. These soldiers performed in a charity performance at Christmas.

However, during the rehearsal, a Luftwaffe bomber raid began. The soldiers did not have time to change clothes, and they went to the battle post in what they wore. We managed to put on helmets and belts with cartridges.

These photographs were banned by the British government during World War II. It was believed that they would be bad for morale, reducing the masculine image of the British soldier. Most of all, the British were afraid that the photos would get to the Nazis, who would begin to ridicule the Allies.

As the Steemit resource reports:

"After the war, Topham himself revealed that the images were censored because the British Ministry of Information was concerned that these images might undermine the morale of the troops. There were fears that the British troops were not as masculine as the public thought, or that Nazi propaganda would use the photographs to ridicule them."

Although, jokes and laughter aside, such dress-up parties are, in my opinion, clear evidence of the use of such technology as Overton Windows. We can judge how this process began, how it progressed and what it ultimately turned out to be.

Thank you.

Oh geeze ... just soldiers having fun and breaking up the stress.
WHO CARES? This is a nothingburger.

a reply to: RussianTroll

🤣🤣🤣🤣

You're getting desperate RT.
Still, gave me a bit of a titter.

a reply to: RussianTroll

Concert parties.



It Ain't Half Hot Mum.

It's called boosting morale.

Much like how the Japanese used to have men perform female roles in theatre back in the old days.

Nothing to see here.

*clutches pearls*

My husband has some rather wild Navy stories himself, although they don't follow this vein.

In fact, he left the Navy because he was an intellectual in A school and his company thought he was gay for some reason.

He got depressed, dropped out, went AWOL to take care of his Grandmother, turned himself back in without a fuss, served his time in the brig and got Other Than Honorable Discharge.

He's one of the smartest toughest fighting spirits I've ever met and a brilliant tactitian when it comes to game theory.

Oh well, brute force lost something special.

A shame really, he would have have been happy doing chocks and chains but everyone was so closeminded because he wasn't as "buff".

Personally, I think he was better suited for the Air Force but he was a high school drop out and enlisted at 17.

He's still studying and serving his Country by being a better citizen by expanding his knowledge base every day.

Maybe his work will help Space Force or the Cybersecurities Industries one day.

Maybe he already is.

Don't ask, dont tell.

He's a straight as an arrow and loves Rocky Horror.

*clutches pearls even harder*

Peace.

a reply to: RussianTroll

Firstly the photos where not prohibited.

However, some of the images, showing the soldiers joyfully rehearsing for a Christmas charity performance and a close-up of the men while in action but not revealing much of the anti-ship gun, were published in 'War Illustrated' on 7 February 1941 with the headline 'Miss Ack-Ack had a date with Jerry'.

www.forces.net...

Secondly this was not unique to British soldiers. The Americans and probably others did the same.

Here's a vid of Americans dressed in drag.

publicdomainreview.org...

As Freeborn stated, you are digging the depths of desperation.

a reply to: RussianTroll

Well if that's what floats your boat RT.

You project away.

According to the laws of successful brainstorming, 3 components are needed to solve any problem: an idea generator, a critic and an analyst. The idea generator produces a huge number of sometimes the most absurd thoughts. The critic subjects each such idea to constructive criticism (not bullying, but criticism), the analyst catches the rational link from the discussion and proposes a solution to the problem based on it.

Unfortunately, on our forum, as in my opinion and in Western society as a whole, all these 3 components have been destroyed and replaced with simulacra.

Hence the conclusion: Western society has lost the ability to successfully solve any problems in any industry.

I’ll end this commentary with Hamlet’s last words before his death from William Shakespeare’s tragedy of the same name:

"The rest is silence..."

It is sad.

a reply to: RussianTroll

I'm just as disgusted with the West wrt the current political situation as you are RT, but this OP truly won't have the effect you are hoping for.

If anything, it's a cool bit of history I didn't know about and speaks to the human spirit more than anything else.

Do better.

Major Denis Rake MC, of Special Operations Executive (SOE) lived undercover in Nazi-occupied Paris, performing as a drag queen .

A spy dressed as drag queen in Nazi-occupied Paris doing very important work as wireless operator.

Well, it only took me less than a minute to find this.....

and from the link.....

Russian soldiers in drag, posing very close together, in front of a plain background. Photographic postcard, 191-.

The actors are dressed in a variety of fabrics and pose almost like a human-pyramid. Most unusual Russian-published photograph of five men in stylish drag, World War I period. Military concert parties involving drag were an international phenomenon

Part of James Gardiner Collection: photographs of military, naval, and prisoner-of-war camp drag.

Link

People in glass houses and all that....
Thread closed

a reply to: angelchemuel

I've come across some sites that claimed even the Higher Ranks of the NAgiRegime were into some pretty wild burlesque behind closed doors. Never seen any imagery to confirm from the era though, so I think it's propaganda. The most I've come across is pics of the Wermacht acting like dorks like some soldiers are prone to do to stay in god spirits inbetween assaults and forward movements and so forth, but from what I understand the Reich was pretty strict about some things, even putting people to death over "whisper jokes" or any lighthearted jabs at the Furher or his policies.

Fortunately, the Nazi's lost that war....

We just have to outsmart them again, and we're gonna need some seriosu old school manpower or some sort of agreement about what can and cannot be broadcast in the interest of National Security and a bit more of a filter on Mister Trump if he gets in office again because Im telling ya, we might fund it ludicrious but some people are really taking things at face value with all the free speech on the internet and it's whipping up the sheep into a frenzy.

The horror.



I make light of it for sanity's sake, but there is a very real danger out there of people thinking God can just snap his fingers and the Kingdom of Heaven miraculously appear overnight, everywhere, all at once.

It's things ike that that cause naive and devoted peoples of faith to travel long ardouous journey's to America, and if we don't quit laughing about the situation and demand better infrastructure, education, and so forth we're gonna have an even bigger dytopian nightmare on our hands.

Maybe someone can talk to Jeff Bezos and Musk and get them in the game providing financial help to get contractors and qualified laborers to work building sustainable housing communities, may get congress to provde funding for mental health and naturalization, language classes and so forth without cutting funding or services to Americans doing their best to be a good and conscientious citizen and so forth, but Americans are so diverse it seems an impossible dream.

I could get ruthless and suggest unsavory solutions, but I'd rather not.

Instead of treating ATS like a private club to laugh and celebrate our fortunate statuses as a predominately White Community, woudln't it be better if we started treating it like the think tank it SHOULD be and work towards tsolving the issues congress can't seem to wrap it's damn head around?

Im pretty sure we could do a pretty good jon coming up with some ifnrastructure, law and order, rules and regulations, private clubs and so forth if we all used our collective brainpower in a dedicated forum instead of just sitting back like a bunch of frat guys at a kegger havign a laugh at those poor unfortunate souls and the media circus, because really, doesn' that make us just as bad as those we criticize in Power and Behind the Scenes?

I'm willing to add my own mix of weird solutions as well as serious ones if that's the case.

I propose a Dedicated Forum for a Problem Solving Think Tank here on site.

If the CIA can try some of the provernial # theyve tried in the past (tryust me some of them worse doozies, lol...I'm sure ya'll know about wiring cats up to be secret agents and the joke that Birds Arent Real) why the hell not?



Enough with the crony capitalism taking the forefront, let's TRUELY MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.

Just a suggestion, not an ultimatium.

If ya wanna sip your tasty beverages and continue to spill your drinks on the ATS rugs, by all means, rugs can be replaced, human beings, not so much.

Just a little empassioned speech by a former moderator who still thinks ATS (and America) could be so much more.

Peace be with you and your spirit(s), may God Bless You, May You Live Long and Prosper, I gotta log out and Pray for the protection of the innocents caught up in all this mess.

Thank you guys so much for putting up with me.

PEACE.



Forever in serivce of the Homefront.

Love ya.

a reply to: RussianTroll

Still no comment on Putin's 'friendship' with Dmitri the Bulgarian ballet dancer?

a reply to: Freeborn

As long as NATO has such defense ministers, Russia has nothing to fear.

a reply to: Freeborn

I dunno, are we privy to your private life in exchange?

Fair trade or no deal.

a reply to: RussianTroll

Just looking at that lot puts the fear of God up me.
Insanity.

But I suspect if things really get on top and we have to roll our sleeves up they'll be nowhere near any positions of command or influence.
Its political posturing.
I don't think many on here agree with it, be they Russian, British, American or whatever.

Don't swallow the garbage being pushed on you, we aren't all like that.....far from it.

Anyway, any comment on the photo Jane posted?
Or Dmitri?

a reply to: GENERAL EYES

We all have our foibles.
Mine don't entail messing about with gender roles.....but they make shock and surprise some!

originally posted by: Freeborn
a reply to: GENERAL EYES

We all have our foibles.
Mine don't entail messing about with gender roles.....but they make shock and surprise some!

Hey, as far as I'm conerned what you do in the privacy of your own life is yours to do as you see fit.

The only law I'm aware of on this subject is public indecency laws and I ain't no cop.

a reply to: RussianTroll

I accidentally came across some photographs of British soldiers during World War 2.

I'm sure it was accidental RT...
Lets just hope your partner doesn't check your browser history and sees what you're looking at??

Women for a long time were not permitted to perform in theatre, so men had to 'dress the part' for many years, some of that carried over into other careers where woman weren't allowed.

It's also a shame that you're so inscure in your masculinity that you feel the need to try to shame soliders fighting against Nazis trying to invade Great Britain in WW2 whilst also having a 'laugh', but then you do support a facist invading other countries....

Your attempt at trying to show your disdain for Great Britain (even though we know you secretly love it because of all the threads about us Brits you post) only puts you in a bad a light here.

You need to check your sources RT instead of lying as you're making yourself look really foolish now....

This is from a tabloid newspaper, which also posted the 'Prohibited' photos back in 2018...
www.dailymail.co.uk...

British soldiers were interrupted during a drag show rehearsel when the Germans attacked, in 1940.

Hilarious images have revealed one of the lighter-hearted moments of World War Two as British soldiers man anti-aircraft guns in full panto-drag, which the wartime government banned so they did not damage the image of the 'butch' British soldier.

The amusing pictures capture the home defence troops in drag when their Christmas charity performance was interrupted by a coastal alert near Gravesend, Kent forcing them to wear the dresses with compulsory helmets on the field.

Other funny photographs show the men applying makeup to each other, running up steps as their dresses blow in the wind and show off their under garments on stage in 1940.