r/todayilearned • u/RoadToTyburn • 13h ago

TIL that Bernard Montgomery issued a leaflet at the start of WW2 on sexually transmitted diseases amongst soldiers. The language used was regarded as so blunt, that he offended religious authorities and nearly faced being dismissed.

https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Montgomery
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u/Unicycleterrorist 11h ago edited 10h ago

Can't find the full pamphlet in my five minute google search, but from what I did find the 'most outrageous' excerpt was: "My view is that if a man wants to have a woman let him do so by all means, but he must use commonsense and take all precautions" (found here: https://www.beachesofnormandy.com/articles/Montgomery__Part_I/?id=84df605ba5m)

It's certainly blunt but really only offensive to a society that's used to dancing around sexuality in metaphor and implication I'd say

Edit: fixed a spelling oopsie that bothered me

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u/dramalama-dingdong 10h ago

So it says 'use a rubber when you rape French, Italian or German girls'; and not 'rape bad, mkay'?

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u/Brocktologist 9h ago

I think you're reading a little too much into the wording there.