Denmark in 1940 and boxing

[Jeppe Locht]

The German occupation of Denmark in 1940 happened after little resistance.
So little, in fact, that it was a joke internationally, apparently.

My interest is in a U.S. newspaper, where a boxer got the following review:
"He lay down and fought like a Dane" (or words to that effect). This paper
am I very interested in locating and getting a copy of.

The match must have been between april 1940 and september 1940 and was in
the U.S. Maybe in Washington or a great title match since it was covered in
the newspapers?

Maybe a boxing expert remembers this scandalous match? Or there is an
archive I can e-mail specializing in sports? Or you have a better idea of
where I should look?

I hope...

Thanks in advance
Jeppe Locht (in Denmark)

PS Any other info on reactions internationally to Denmark and the Danes
would also be appreciated.

[Cub driver]

>"He lay down and fought like a Dane" (or words to that effect). This paper
>

>The match must have been between april 1940 and september 1940 and was in
>the U.S. Maybe in Washington or a great title match since it was covered in
>the newspapers?

Doesn't ring true to me. 1940 was a bit before my time but I certainly
remember no scorn directed at the Danes during WWII, as there was for
example toward the Italian army.

Joe Louis was the great heavyweight boxer of the 1940s. After he beat
Max Schmelling in an anti-Nazi grudge match--I mean, *really* beat
him, as Louis rarely did--a long parade of "white hopes" were put up
against him, and they were routinely laid on the deck. There was a
curious mixture of pride and shame that the greatest American boxer
should have been black. All the kids I knew loved Joe Louis, but we
all cheered for the latest "white hope". Then we went back to loving
Joe.

So your Dane, if he existed, probably lost to Joe Louis. Most people
did.

all the best - Dan

Nothing New About Death: http://www.danford.net
Annals of Military Aviation forum: http://www.delphi.com/annals
newsletter: nothingnewabout...@topica.com

[Jeppe Locht]

Cub driver <cubd...@eudoramail.com> skrev i en
nyhedsmeddelelse:8ji72p$qc0@beast...

>
> >"He lay down and fought like a Dane" (or words to that effect). This
paper
>

> Doesn't ring true to me. 1940 was a bit before my time but I certainly
> remember no scorn directed at the Danes during WWII, as there was for
> example toward the Italian army.

Danish seamen who steamed towards allied ports after the occupation of
Denmark by Germany were not popular in the UK. They came to sail in the
Merchant Navy for the allies but were regarded as a kind of half-germans by
the authorities and not trusted with passes to leave the harbour area when
ashore. The general public wasn't too keen on them either, and the MN
Norwegian sailors were the worst, apparently, because their country fought
where Denmark didn't.

This I know from several first hand witnesses. Later in the war the attitude
changed but that was the situation immediately after the occupation, or so
my sources tell me.

> So your Dane, if he existed, probably lost to Joe Louis. Most people
> did.

I have not made myself clear: The boxer was probably not a Dane. He only
_fought_ like one... The newpaper qoute "He lay down and fought like a Dane"
comes from the Danish ambassador in the US but I haven't been able to trace
the source.

Thanks for your post.

j.

[Sistersara]

>PS Any other info on reactions internationally to Denmark and the Danes
>would also be appreciated.
>
>

I don't know the boxing reference.

There was a vast difference between East Coast papers, such as the Times
and
the Herald Tribune that led in international coverage in that period, and
the
stories in the Chicago Tribune and the Des Moines Register, both of which
were
much more isolationist, and in both instances had much better connections
to
Denmark and Scandinavia in general, given the existence of Danish (and
Norwegian) communities in both Chicago and Iowa.

[Andrew Clark]

Jeppe Locht <lochtRE...@bigfoot.com> wrote

> The German occupation of Denmark in 1940 happened after little resistance.
> So little, in fact, that it was a joke internationally, apparently

This is true, although I haven't seen your boxing reference. Only 12 Danish
solders were killed when the Germans attacked Denmark on 8 April 1940, and
the country was overrun in a single day. The government surrendered before
the German troops even reached the capital.

The lack of Danish resistance was so marked that, for some years, the phrase
"to fight like a Dane" was synonymous with a hasty surrender. O'Connor used
the phrase about the Italians in the desert. Of course, after a while, the
phrase "fighting like an Italian" was synonymous in the Middle East with the
act of running away...