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[–]CaelianPost No Toasties 5 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 2 fun -  (4 children)

I would like to recommend "The King of Ypres" by John Buchan, best known for his Richard Hannay novels The Thirty-Nine Steps and Greenmantle. The story takes place in WWI in the Belgian city of Ypres (pronounced "Wipers" by the Brits), the scene of many terrible WWI battles and one Monty Python sketch. The hero is a Scottish private who awakes to find that the rest of his battalion has departed and the city is lawless. Being a Scot, he's not one to back down from a fight and does what he can to restore order. I think it's a really good yarn.

There's a wee bit of Scots dialect, but you'll probably get by. The "Boches" are the Germans -- I've always heard it pronounced the French way as "boash", both singular and plural.

It's the last story in this outstanding Buchan collection, with terrific stories of devilry and fiends, mostly in strong Scots dialect. Wiktionary.org is pretty good for definitions. Here's the collection at Gutenberg: The Watcher by the Threshold.

[–]ageingrockstar 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

The "Boches" are the Germans -- I've always heard it pronounced the French way as "boash", both singular and plural.

I'm being pedantic here but the French pronunciation is /bɔʃ/ (short o and rhymes with mosh). Also, the same pronunciation as Bosch, as in the fancy German whitegoods brand (or the painter).

[–]captainramen🇺🇸🛠️ MAGA Communist 🛠️🇺🇸 3 insightful - 4 fun3 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 4 fun -  (2 children)

Look here buddy, we speak American around here. It's bo-cage. Rhymes with road rage

[–]CaelianPost No Toasties 2 insightful - 4 fun2 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 4 fun -  (1 child)

Ah so desu ka?

[–]captainramen🇺🇸🛠️ MAGA Communist 🛠️🇺🇸 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

Caelian, osuwari!