Former British General Claims D-Day Landings Worse Than Football Hooliganism

A former general has hit out against the violence he saw in the 1944 Normandy Landings, even comparing the worst of it to “something out of Football Factory”.

Speaking on last week’s Panorama special, Arthur Askey-Atkinson, 92, said “It was just as bad as the violence you see at The Bridge or Upton Park. At least there the OB usually turns up and everyone scarpers. The OB were nowhere to be seen in Northern France that day...”

It is believed that Askey-Atkinson’s shocking revelations could lead to more former soldiers breaking the 'code of silence' over what really went on in World War 2.

War Historian Jefte Klanjsk said “This could open the floodgates. It is widely believed that some of the violence in World War II may have been more brutal than first thought. Think Cardiff vs Milwall in the play offs...then double it.”

Former German soldier Klaus Hofte, 93, confirmed that the violence Atkinson describes is far from exaggerated “The way I remember it, the English soldiers parachuted in mob-handed, and next thing I know it's going off all over the place. There was claret everywhere.”

Hofte, part of the German’s notorious 'Inner City Youth' wing of the German army, said violence was commonplace between English and German mobs throughout the early 40s. “It used to go off all over the place. We’d have it anywhere. Russia, France, Poland, you name it. Then the Americans turn up and start giving it the big-guns to the Japanese. It was a right tear-up.”

It is thought that the majority of these “scraps” were actually meticulously arranged, and often organised with almost military precision by Germany’s notorious top boy, Adolf Hitler.

Football Factory Director Nick Love is said to be “furious” that his on-screen depiction of football violence has been compared to the Second World War, believing that such comparisons “trivialise” the suffering of football hooligans up and down the country.