"After a few days of fighting the consciousness slowly dawned on our soldiers that those Scotsmen were not like the ones we had seen described and caricatured in the comic papers and mentioned in the communiqués"
As the title states I have been researching Hitler's views of the British and came across this reference about the Scottish and was wondering if anyone has any ideas on what exactly it means?
Not my area of expertise but this has been touched upon in a previous askhistorians thread that includes the full quote and this explains the context:
Quote, provided by Magneto88: 'But in Germany, through the medium of the schools, the Press and the comic papers, an idea of the Englishman was gradually formed which was bound eventually to lead to the worst kind of self-deception. This absurdity slowly but persistently spread into every quarter of German life. The result was an undervaluation for which we have had to pay a heavy penalty. The delusion was so profound that the Englishman was looked upon as a shrewd business man, but personally a coward even to an incredible degree. Unfortunately our lofty teachers of professorial history did not bring home to the minds of their pupils the truth that it is not possible to build up such a mighty organization as the British Empire by mere swindle and fraud. The few who called attention to that truth were either ignored or silenced. I can vividly recall to mind the astonished looks of my comrades when they found themselves personally face to face for the first time with the Tommies in Flanders. After a few days of fighting the consciousness slowly dawned on our soldiers that those Scotsmen were not like the ones we had seen described and caricatured in the comic papers and mentioned in the communiqués.' (p.123, Hurst and Blacklett Ltd.)
TL:DR - "Scotsmen" seems to be interchangable with "Englishmen" and the surprise was that they were not cowards.