----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Ed Jahiel writes: "Some days ago I posted a message re: Dr. Strangelove's song at the end (Vera Lynn's "We'll Meet Again") & its significance in World War II. I mentioned in passing that the German song "Lili Marlene" had been appropriated by the Allied Forces, so both sides sang it. Bravo is showing the great Czech film Closely Watched (in the UK "Observed") Trains (which, among other bizarre ratings, gets only *** in Maltin).The scene with the German munitions train shows the common practice of the Germans in WWII to put a huge V (as in Victory) on the front of the locomotive. Now that's the Germans' appropriation of the V-sign, made famous by the Winston Churchill salute as well as by its being painted on walls by underground people in Nazi-occupied countries." I'm not sure if the V on the trains stood for victory, although I know ther was a kind of propaganda one-upsmanship going on between Churchill and Goebels. The Allies appropriated German Beethoven's 5th Symphony because a) it represented the "good" Germany that the Allies could redeem and b) the opening notes (Da Da Da Dummmm!) strangely replicated Morse Code dot dot dot dash--for V--for Victory. The Germans named their V-1 and V-2 rockets to represent "Vengance." You might be able to get more permutations on this theme from the PYNCHON-L list, since Pynchon of course has played with these initials in at least 3 of his 4 novels (V., GRAVITY'S RAINBOW, and VINELAND). On the song "Lilli Marlene," see Fassbinder's interesting take on its history in the film of the same name. Does anyone know how freely Fassbinder played in his biopic of the German singer who first made it famous for the Germans before Marlene Dietrich and others appropriated it for the Allies? --Don Larsson, Mankato State U., MN