10,000 Spitfires head for Germany!

[Guest guest]

Fears for the worst as

 

10,000 Spitfires head for Germany

By Adam Lusher

(Filed: 04/06/2006)

 

 

The last time they flew across the Channel, they were

32 feet long, with Rolls-Royce engines and wings

bristling with 20mm cannons.

 

Now they measure all of 18 inches, have no engine and

not so much as a peashooter - but their " pilots " still

risk being thrown into German captivity.

 

Inflatable and inflammatory? Fred Arnold, Andy Mitchel

and Terry Dorell plan to sell thousands of planes

 

The Sunday Telegraph has learnt that a " big wing " of

more than 10,000 inflatable Spitfires will this week

cross into Germany and, when the World Cup starts on

Friday, they could face the kind of frosty reception

encountered by their wartime counterparts.

 

England football fans have been warned of arrest by

the British Home Secretary, threatened with " zero

tolerance " by a German police chief, and told not to

mention the war by the creator of Basil Fawlty

himself.

 

Some have responded by packing inflatable Spitfires by

the thousand into their camper vans to sell throughout

Germany and finance their World Cup trips.

 

Alf Ancell, 31, who designed the Spitfires, admitted

he had found plenty of fans willing to sell the planes

in Germany.

 

" I got 10,000 Spitfires in a couple of months ago and

I am now down to my last 2,000 and expecting to sell

the remainder.

 

" It's not a link to the War, " he insisted. " It's just

an English symbol of victory. They look like flags

when you hold them aloft. I don't see how that can be

inflammatory. "

 

Planning to sell them on campsites, in beer tents, and

on beaches, Fred Arnold, Andy Mitchel and Terry Dorell

last week vowed never to surrender their blow-up

Spitfires until the buyer paid £5. The three have

packed their VW camper van with more than 1,000

Spitfires, bought for £3.75 each on a sale-or-return

basis, and will this week be selling them to fellow

fans all over Germany.

 

" They're original and brilliant, " enthused Mr Dorell

about the miniature fighters decorated with St

George's Crosses and camouflage patterns. " They may

not like it in Germany, " he added. " but who gives a

sausage? "

 

The answer, it seems, starts with John Cleese, the

German and British police forces, the Home Office -

not to mention RAF veterans plus television producers

who may not relish deciding what to do when the camera

pans to thousands of Spitfire-waving fans.

 

Cleese, famous for screaming " Don't mention the war "

as a goose-stepping Basil Fawlty, has condemned the

" ridiculous anti-German prejudices " of his comic

creation.

 

Before he was sacked as home secretary in May, Charles

Clarke told the 100,000 England fans expected to visit

Germany that glorifying the country's Nazi past is a

criminal offence and that brandishing inflatable

Spitfires could land them in trouble. " It's not a

joke, it is not a comic thing, " he said.

 

Asst Chief Constable Stephen Thomas, who is heading

the delegation of 82 British police officers in

Germany, admitted that the Spitfire issue was

" tricky " .

 

" The Germans, " he said, " have a sense of humour. It's

not a criminal offence to sell or display these items,

but we have real concerns about how people might

behave once they have a bit to drink. It could step

over into insulting or threatening behaviour. "

 

At the German embassy, optimism was the defensive

strategy of choice. " Let's wait and see, " said a

spokesman. " Maybe they won't inflate these toys. "

 

• Fans have been told not to travel without measles

vaccinations because an epidemic has infected more

than 1,300 people in Germany this year. One area is

North Rhine Westphalia, which includes two cities

hosting the World Cup Cologne and Dortmund.

 

23 April 2006: Germany enlists Basil Fawlty to stop

us mentioning the war

10 March 2006: Don't mention the war, World Cup fans

told

 

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