U.S. Army prohibition on fraternizing with German women

The U.S. Army prohibition on fraternizing with German women is presented as a G.H.Q. order governing officers in the occupied area. Its immediate significance is personal and disciplinary: after a party with German girls, Richard Ellsworth Savage worries not about a confrontation already under way, but about whether anyone saw conduct that could be considered unbecoming to an officer and gentleman.

The Order in Practice

In the middle of May, Richard Ellsworth Savage returned from Cologne after a party with a couple of aviators and some German girls. The book states that going out with German girls was strictly against G.H.Q. orders. The prohibition therefore reaches beyond the party itself: it shapes his apprehension on the journey back and his concern about how his behavior might appear to others.

Exposure and Consequence

At the Gare du Nord, Richard Ellsworth Savage is still nervous that he and the others may have been seen behaving in a manner unbecoming to officers and gentlemen. Colonel Edgecombe notices that he looks pale and shaky, teases him about the good time the officers must be having in the occupied area, and sends him home to rest. The scene shows the order operating as a constraint and a source of unease, but it does not establish that Richard Ellsworth Savage is formally accused or punished for violating it.