webofevil: (Default)
webofevil ([personal profile] webofevil) wrote2007-06-25 12:25 pm

Teeth At War

It is now well documented that in the early stages of the Second World War the British government contemplated using human teeth as ammunition, but recently a correspondent to this journal raised the question of how the population’s teeth would actually have been requisitioned if the plans had gone ahead.

The War Office proposed that when people registered to sleep in bomb shelters, as well as giving their details and showing identification, they would then have to line up at a separate desk to be punched hard in the mouth. The resulting windfall would have been rushed to the front line. Posters were printed and distributed, ready for the campaign (see below). Only after Churchill insisted that some kind of tests be conducted first was the scheme halted.

    

[identity profile] lifesizemonkey.livejournal.com 2007-06-25 11:29 am (UTC)(link)
Um i am being thick - but this is satire, right?

[identity profile] webofevil.livejournal.com 2007-06-25 03:47 pm (UTC)(link)
“Satire” is too strong a word, but I gather it qualifies as “whimsy”. Originals are here (https://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/iss/archives/cartoons/image/indexpic1.jpg) and here (http://www.homesweethomefront.co.uk/images/jpeg/hshf_img_potpete.jpg).