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Posted

I suppose that these "French institutions" in German-occupied areas kept on working, for the fullest entertainment of Landsers and Junkers. But the army who had the toughest problem was them was of course the American one, in an era of the most churchy puritanism: it was okay to send boys being smashed for the Noble Cause, it was not to allow them to experience forbidden pleasures (death is Good, sex is Evil). Here in Le Havre where most of the Doughboys landed, General Pershing put pressure on the authorities to have the streets cleared from any "loose woman". The other source of concern for the Americans was that in this loose country, many of their black soldiers were to experience sex with white women, an aberrancy not even imaginable in many States.

Posted

Interesting points, Capitaine - that war certainly ploughed not only Flanders' soil,

but also the crusts of social classes in several ways.

Black men from America met white women in intimate ways for the first time;

and handcraftsmen without A-levels (Abitur) could for the first time achieve to become

officers - at least in the Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte (German Air Forces).

Nobility lost even more of it's status; Kingdoms became Republics.

 

The American Civil War, and the Great War in Europe were the doorsteps for modern

industrialised, democratic societies, IMHO.

Posted

...the army who had the toughest problem was them was of course the American one, in an era of the most churchy puritanism...

On the whole, not much has changed.

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