"Don't mention the war."

[Debbie]

When I first read The Adventurous Four I didn't "join the dots". I would have been about 6 or 7 at the time. Ds did at a similar age, but he was very interested in aircraft and WWII so that's not surprising.

I think it works well for the age of children it would have been aimed at. It doesn't blatantly date the book either in a way that if it was clearly WWII it would, and it leaves it with a more mysterious enemy which in a lot of ways is less scary than a real one.

[Hannah]

Enid shied away from using terms like “Nazis”, “Germans”, and “swastika”.

''The Enemy' and 'The Crooked Cross' were probably enough for most to join the dots.

Given the popularity of Enid's books In Germany though, I wonder how these books might have been translated (post-war obviously).

The German "translation" has changed the story line to gun smuggling ("Die Arnoldkinder/verwegenen Vier jagen die Waffenschmuggler") . It's part of a series that has been combined out of the Secret series and the Adventurous Four books. But this book is barely recognizable with many, many changes and much of the original book missing. It's much worse than the changes in most other books.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Like Debbie, I read The Adventurous Four when I was about six and had no idea that it was set during a real war which was being fought at the time the book was written. I assumed that the war in the story was a made-up one, and that "the foe of half the world" and their "crooked cross" were fictional. It did feel strongly menacing though, especially as it was the first full-length adventure story I'd ever read.

[Courtenay]

I always found it interesting that in the Adventurous Four, explicitly set in WW2, Enid shied away from using terms like “Nazis”, “Germans”, and “swastika”.

”Let’s get up and shout and wave.” begged Jill. “I’m sure they will love to rescue us.”
”Haven’t you seen the sign on the wings?” asked Tom, in a curiously angry voice. The girls looked. The sign of the crooked cross was painted on each wing-the sign of the enemy, the foe of half the world.

That reference definitely went right over my head as a 6-year-old first-time reader in the 1980s! But as others here have said, it gives the book a more timeless feel and makes "the enemy" more mysterious.

Incidentally, referring to the Nazi symbol as the "crooked cross" is, I believe, a lot closer to what it's most usually called in German — the Hakenkreuz ("hooked cross"). Hopefully some of our German speakers here can either confirm or correct this! The swastika (which is its Sanskrit name) was originally a symbol meaning good luck and prosperity in Hinduism and Buddhism, and it's a nasty irony that it was appropriated by the Nazis to the point where it now symbolises nothing but evil to most of us outside those Asian cultures. Years ago on a school tour of Japan, we visited a Buddhist temple that had a prominent swastika symbol on it, and I instinctively winced in horror until someone explained to us that it actually dated from long before the Nazis and was a symbol of good luck!

[Hannah]

Incidentally, referring to the Nazi symbol as the "crooked cross" is, I believe, a lot closer to what it's most usually called in German — the Hakenkreuz ("hooked cross"). Hopefully some of our German speakers here can either confirm or correct this!

I've only ever known it as "Hakenkreuz".

[Courtenay]

Thanks, Hannah. I looked up the origin of the term "swastika" and it seems it comes from Sanskrit words meaning something like "there is good", so it does seem unfair to use that name for the version of it used by the Nazis. (We always call it "swastika" in English, including in the WW2 context.) However, I doubt Enid was thinking of that and trying to free the original Sanskrit term from those hate-filled associations! I would guess she wrote "crooked cross" simply because her young readers, in the 1940s, would definitely recognise the Nazi symbol but wouldn't necessarily know the term "swastika". She did have a tendency not to use too many unusual or difficult words if she could avoid them — I remember in her "Teachers World" letters to children (most of which are available on this website, and Anita posts a link to one every week), she consistently refers to the "animal-doctor" rather than "veterinarian" or even "vet" for short, which is the usual term in English!

[GloomyGraham]

a series that has been combined out of the Secret series and the Adventurous Four books. But this book is barely recognizable with many, many changes and much of the original book missing. It's much worse than the changes in most other books.

Thanks Hannah. Sounds horrible

[Wolfgang]

Thanks Hannah. Sounds horrible

It is. Not to forget, that the first book (Secret Island) is also extremely altered in the German edition.

[Hannah]

Killimooin is not a good example for "what is a translation" either.
I think there are much more changes in this series than in most others. Especially real and big changes, not "just" omissions like especially in some of the school stories (the most prominent example is Last Term at Malory Towers where the whole story line around Jo is missing; but in some other books whole chapters are missing too).

[Stephen]

I would have been somewhat older when I first read The Adventurous Four - certainly after most of the Adventure and Famous Five series - and the "foe of half the world" reference did stand out for me. Maybe not as much as someone who actually experienced the war. But while Nazis for me at that age were "mostly" baddies you saw in films and television, I was also aware that they had actually existed, which made this book all the more real and frightening.

My boss is of Indian origin and has several ornaments incorporating swastikas over her front door and in her porch. I know why they are there, but it definitely looks unusual to Western eyes and I suspect it would startle someone who didn't know her who came to the door for the first time.

[Boatbuilder]

Stephen, your mention of your boss having several ornaments incorporating swastikas reminded me that before Hitler and WW2 my mother had made a small rug, about 30 x 12 inches in size, which incorporated a swastika in the middle of the design. When the war broke out she thought she had better un-knot and remove all the pieces that formed the four 'tails', which she did, and she replaced them with the main background colour which was blue. This just left a '+' sign in the pattern. Of course the rug had been made many years before so the blue of the pieces she had put into the 'tails' were slightly different as the original background blue had no doubt faded slightly over the years. I didn't know all this until many years later when, as a child in the 1950s, I noticed the colour differences and asked my mum why it was different and so she explained.

[Anita Bensoussane]

My 1924 Macmillan copy of Rewards and Fairies by Rudyard Kipling has a swastika on the front cover and spine. Kipling was familiar with the sign as an Indian symbol of good fortune.

[dsr]

I've heard that the Nazi crooked cross was a mirror image of the good-luck swastika. Is this true or just an urban myth?

[Yak]

It was a Hindu good luck symbol yes and then the Nazis stole it. Unfortunately, I do not think that it will be possible to recover it any time soon.

[Hannah]

I've heard that the Nazi crooked cross was a mirror image of the good-luck swastika. Is this true or just an urban myth?

I've heard that too, but if I look at the article in wikipedia there seem to be both versions of the "non nazi" swastika.