The Half Man Half Biscuit Lyrics Project

Letters Sent (6)

1. CHARLES EXFORD

   Achtung, Merry Christmas, war is over (if you want it). Herr Trautmann is one of two winners of The Iron Cross in HMHB’s Legion of the Damned. Both of them very fortunate to be captured by the right side rather than by Stalin, or we’d fairly surely never have heard of either. But I wonder if they’d have given him an Iron Cross if they’d known he would later get an OBE? And an FA Cup Winners’ Medal. And Football Writers’ Player of the Year. Apart from two of England’s most capped players, plus Northern Ireland’s most capped player and Wales’ most capped player, Trautmann is the only other goalkeeper ever to win either the football writers’ or the PFA footballer of the year award.

   And his name wasn’t Bert, but the Englander Schweinhunden found Bert easier to pronounce than Bernhard, or Bernd.

   When people tell you ‘all football biographies are the same’, point them to this one by the way.
   http://www.theguardian.com/football/2010/apr/04/trautmanns-journey-from-hitler-youth

   I loved the fact that the City keeper for Bert’s memorial match (just last month in Prescot) was the blessed Eric Nixon, who apart from his years at City was also one of the key figures of Tranmere’s greatest decade. Anyway last month’s memorial match was Man City Veterans XI v. St. Helen’s Town, Trautmann’s amateur side before he joined City.

   City 4-0 down at half time. Then Eric’s son, Eric errm, Junior, goes in goal and they win the second half 4-1.

   We used to beat City about 3 or 4 nil every Boxing Day. I think it may be a different story tomorrow, but goals and plenty of high art should ensue. I digress. Merry Christmas, Biscuiteers.

   25 December 2013

2. Bobby SVARC

   Interesting Exxo, I was at the Leicester v Tranmere play off in 1994 at Filbo, Speedie got the winner and for some reason the Rovers goalkeeper wanted to kill Speedie and in the resulting fracas Speedie was sent off and missed the Final, I’m pretty sure it was Eric Nixon. And you mention Prescot, was that game at Prescot Cables? I went on a coach load of Prescot fans to Wroxham in the Qtr Final of the vase, My mate from Whiston has a coach firm and I ponced a day out with him, Prescot won 2-0 and we got very, very drunk

   25 December 2013

3. Third Rate Les

   I read that book a couple of year’s ago and it’s a hell of a story.

   The slightly startling thing for me was that Trautmann wasn’t just a German solider, he was a pretty hard core one – he was a paratrooper and,got sent behind lines on the Eastern front where capture meant you were lucky if you just got killed; the war there was a lot different from the relatively civilised western front with its Geneva Convention prisoner-of-war camps. He talks about, ahem, “accidentally witnessing” massacres of civilians in the forest, and he remained an entirely unapologetic Nazi well after the war. All of which makes his popularity with and love for large chunks of postwar Britain all the more astonishing.

   It’s a very interesting view of 1930s and wartime Germany as well as a fascinating study of post-war Britain, and it’s funny to see that if you’re big, lovable and brave as a lion, you can get away with anything at all in life.

   25 December 2013

4. Third Rate Les

   (please forgive the apostrophe in “years”. Been drinking. Happy Christmas!)

   25 December 2013

5. Graeme

   Bert Trautmann would have deservedly merited a name check in ‘All I Want For Christmas Is A Dukla Prague Away Kit’. What better focus for personal bravery, fortitude and teamsmanship than a plastic goalie on the end of one of those uncontrollable handles with a broken neck? As a Manchester United fan I am usually abhorrent to the mention of any City player in any song but Bert is an anomaly, Bert is the catalyst that unites, not just Manchester but football per se.

   29 December 2013

6. GOK WAN ACOLYTE

   Anyone interested in Bert Trautmann might want to look out for this film https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Keeper_(2018_film) which is an Anglo-German production out in early April and (if Wikipedia is to be believed) doesn’t gloss over Bert’s wartime activities

   27 February 2019