The D-Day Dodgers is a term for those Allied servicemen who fought in Italy during the Second World War, which also inspired a popular wartime soldier's song (Roud Folk Song Index no. 10499). A rumour spread during the war that the term was publicized by Viscountess Astor, a Member of the British Parliament, who supposedly used the expression in public after a disillusioned serviceman in Italy signed a letter to her as being from a "D-Day Dodger." However, there is no record that she actually said this, in or out of Parliament, and she herself denied ever saying it.
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| - The D-Day Dodgers is a term for those Allied servicemen who fought in Italy during the Second World War, which also inspired a popular wartime soldier's song (Roud Folk Song Index no. 10499). A rumour spread during the war that the term was publicized by Viscountess Astor, a Member of the British Parliament, who supposedly used the expression in public after a disillusioned serviceman in Italy signed a letter to her as being from a "D-Day Dodger." However, there is no record that she actually said this, in or out of Parliament, and she herself denied ever saying it.
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| - The D-Day Dodgers is a term for those Allied servicemen who fought in Italy during the Second World War, which also inspired a popular wartime soldier's song (Roud Folk Song Index no. 10499). A rumour spread during the war that the term was publicized by Viscountess Astor, a Member of the British Parliament, who supposedly used the expression in public after a disillusioned serviceman in Italy signed a letter to her as being from a "D-Day Dodger." However, there is no record that she actually said this, in or out of Parliament, and she herself denied ever saying it. Reference to a "D-Day Dodger" was bitingly sarcastic, given the steady stream of allied service personnel who were being killed or wounded in combat on the Italian front. A "Dodger" is someone who avoids something; the soldiers in Italy felt that their sacrifices were being ignored after the invasion of Normandy, and a "D-Day Dodger" a reference to someone who was supposedly avoiding real combat by serving in Italy, whereas the reality was anything but.
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