The victory of England over Germany in the friendly football international this week brought back memories of this odious memory: the England team giving Nazi salutes when England played Germany in Berlin in May 1938.

According to some versions it was Sir Nevile Henderson, HM Ambassador in Germany, who applied pressure to achieve this ghastly PR own-goal for civilisation:

… Sir Stanley Matthews insisted that there was bedlam in England’s dressing-room when the decision was made known. "Everyone was shouting at once," he wrote. "Eddie Hapgood, normally a respectful captain, wagged his finger at the official [presumably Rous] and told him what he could do with the Nazi salute… In fact, Eddie offered a compromise, saying we would stand to attention but the offer fell on deaf ears. We were told that the political situation between Great Britain and Germany was now so sensitive that it needed ‘only a spark to set Europe alight’."

A fateful example of a senior diplomat not grasping that in sending a polite message to the Nazi regime, he was sending a calamitous message to almost everyone else?