I found this article about allied 'occupation' of Iceland during the war. I don't know quite how true this article is, there was a lot of propaganda flying about on all sides during the war, but some bits are quite amusing. I can sympathize with the Canadians as I too have had a similar experience in a shop.
From Time Magazine 13th Jan, 1941
Among geographers, historians, and men of letters, Iceland has not fared well. Pliny barely admitted the place was anything more than a myth. An anonymous 10th-Century English poet called it "a gallows of slush." Hakluyt said: "To speak of Iceland is little need; save of stockfish." Shakespeare thought of the Icelander as a "prick-eared cur." Socially conscious Poet Hugh Wystan Auden, visiting in 1936 and 1937, wrote: "There's handsome scenery but little agricultural machinery."
Last week came a distinctly new angle on the forbidding duck-shaped island of the north. Source: 16 unpoetical Canadian soldiers who, after a stint in Iceland, had deteriorated to Class E, unfit for active service (mostly stomach ulcers), and had been repatriated to Canada, accidentally by way of the British Isles.
Life in Iceland the soldiers reported, was not cordial. When a British expeditionary force took over Iceland at the time of the Nazi invasion of Norway, their reception by the natives was anything but warm. The Icelanders so resented the British that soldiers had to go out in parties of three, well-armed and on their guard against stabbings and shootings. When the soldiers bought eggs, they had to pay $1.20 a dozen, and then the Icelandic grocers had to be watched as they would put only ten in the bag. Icelandic diet was narrow. Mutton appeared in nearly every dish, stewed, boiled, broiled, roasted, fried. The weather was harsh, and the soldiers lived in tents which they ironically named
"Cozy Apts.," "Queen Mary Arms," etc.
But the soldiers' greatest problem was the stubborn womankind of Iceland. About the only word of Icelandic they learned was the word for girl, stulka. They would lounge in the streets, calling "Hi, stulka" to every blonde. But they got no response.
If they went to one of Reykjavik's three dance halls, the girls would consent to dance with them, but would not be escorted home by them. If a girl were in discreet enough to accept an Englishman, she would have all her hair shaved off, like Maria in For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Soldiers were not admitted into Iceland homes. Reykjavik, which was supposed to boast that law & order were natural to it, called up an unprecedented police force of 65 men. Icelandic workmen charged the invaders high wages.
All this uncordiality, said the soldiers, was the result of patiently spread German propaganda to the effect that Iceland and Germany were brother States. Three years ago Poet Auden reported seeing Herman Goring's brother in Reykjavik and hearing that Nazi Mystagogue Alfred Rosenberg was soon to come. British found large areas where the shale had been scraped away apparently for landing fields. The occupation of Iceland, uncongenial though it might be, seemed worth the price as a preventive.
Last week came a distinctly new angle on the forbidding duck-shaped island of the north. Source: 16 unpoetical Canadian soldiers who, after a stint in Iceland, had deteriorated to Class E, unfit for active service (mostly stomach ulcers), and had been repatriated to Canada, accidentally by way of the British Isles.
Life in Iceland the soldiers reported, was not cordial. When a British expeditionary force took over Iceland at the time of the Nazi invasion of Norway, their reception by the natives was anything but warm. The Icelanders so resented the British that soldiers had to go out in parties of three, well-armed and on their guard against stabbings and shootings. When the soldiers bought eggs, they had to pay $1.20 a dozen, and then the Icelandic grocers had to be watched as they would put only ten in the bag. Icelandic diet was narrow. Mutton appeared in nearly every dish, stewed, boiled, broiled, roasted, fried. The weather was harsh, and the soldiers lived in tents which they ironically named
"Cozy Apts.," "Queen Mary Arms," etc.
But the soldiers' greatest problem was the stubborn womankind of Iceland. About the only word of Icelandic they learned was the word for girl, stulka. They would lounge in the streets, calling "Hi, stulka" to every blonde. But they got no response.
If they went to one of Reykjavik's three dance halls, the girls would consent to dance with them, but would not be escorted home by them. If a girl were in discreet enough to accept an Englishman, she would have all her hair shaved off, like Maria in For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Soldiers were not admitted into Iceland homes. Reykjavik, which was supposed to boast that law & order were natural to it, called up an unprecedented police force of 65 men. Icelandic workmen charged the invaders high wages.
All this uncordiality, said the soldiers, was the result of patiently spread German propaganda to the effect that Iceland and Germany were brother States. Three years ago Poet Auden reported seeing Herman Goring's brother in Reykjavik and hearing that Nazi Mystagogue Alfred Rosenberg was soon to come. British found large areas where the shale had been scraped away apparently for landing fields. The occupation of Iceland, uncongenial though it might be, seemed worth the price as a preventive.
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