Italy, in this case, was perceived and represented
rhetorically, not as a threatening fascist country, but was consistently
marginalised, and their war efforts deprecated.
Italy couldn’t make war, it was claimed; Italy makes ice cream! The publication of this June 14, 1940 article
in the Times entitled, “Sugar Hoarded
by Italians” certainly didn’t do anything to counter entrenched views. This scandalous report exposed that “during
examination of some Italian premises food executive officers discovered in some
cases up to 24cwt [approximately 192 stones] of sugar hidden in cellars and
back rooms.”[1] This
image of Italy as the ice cream man was often directly compared with the idea
of Germany as, at the very least, a worthy foe and a fighting nation, even if
Hitler’s pedigree was somewhat in question.
A ‘working class’ mother overheard by a Mass Observation listener in
June 1940 voiced her opinion of Germany’s mustachioed leader in no uncertain
terms: ”And wot is ‘e? A corporal! In the last war we were at least fighting a
throne!”[2] A
Lancashire shopkeeper commented, “What galls me is Italy’s part in it. I could bear knuckling under to the Germans,
for after all they are a fighting race, but I can’t bear the thought of having
to give in to the ice cream man.”[3] Permanent Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs,
Alexander Cadogan, referred in his diary to the Italians as “the ice cream men”
or “the dirty ice creamers.”[4]
Of course, representations of self and others as a
‘fighting nation’ were far from straightforward. Britain itself self identified as a ‘nation
of shopkeepers’, and maintained a steady rhetoric that served to justify and
explain any set backs: we may not win every battle, and we may bumble our way
through at certain points, but in the end, we ALWAYS win the last battle. Constructions and definitions of national identities
contributed to a powerful sense of self and others during the Second World War,
and in the Italian case at least, contained at least an ice crystal of truth:
Italy does make excellent ice cream.
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