On June 28, 1919, the day this was printed, the Treaty of Versailles was signed in France ending the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers of World War I. That’s the context for the “hun mine-layer” comment.

    • Rayquetzalcoatl@lemmy.worldEnglish
      441·
      3 months ago

      I am pretty sure “Hun” was a way to refer to the Germans in WW1, so a Hun Mine-Layer would be a German who laid mines… But could be totally talking out of my arse so will look it up 😂

      • Tar_Alcaran
        44·
        3 months ago

        Lots of fishing boats and merchant men were used (by all sides) to secretly drop off naval mines during WW1, it became synonymous with someone who is being treacherous and secret sabotaging.

        All sides would constantly accuse eachother of secretly laying mines with civilian vessels, and all sides would constantly blame the other for accusing innocent people of laying mines. It was probably a constant source of news articles.

        • OhNoMoreLemmy@lemmy.ml
          26·
          3 months ago

          Other way round. The nickname/insult was saying Germans are warlike barbarians like Atila the Hun and the rest of the the Huns.

          • topherclay@lemmy.world
            4·
            3 months ago

            That’s a little unfair because “daddy” is already a diminutive version of “dad” so you are double dipping on diminutives. It’d be more accurate to say that “atilla” is either like “little dad” or “daddy”.

    • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
      26·
      3 months ago

      The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th centuries AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part of Scythia at the time.[1] By 370 AD, the Huns had arrived on the Volga, causing the westwards movement of Goths and Alans.[2] By 430, they had established a vast, but short-lived, empire on the Danubian frontier of the Roman empire in Europe. Either under Hunnic hegemony, or fleeing from it, several central and eastern European peoples established kingdoms in the region, including not only Goths and Alans, but also Vandals, Gepids, Heruli, Suebians and Rugians.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huns

      Mine layer I think means laying explosive mines? I dunno.

      • tenshukun@discuss.online
        12·
        3 months ago

        It sounds to me like this is more referencing their nomadic aspect. A nomadic people laying mines would be a great idiom.