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many international players. Towards the end of the war, Hagan spent time in Germany and was part of the Army contingent who liberated the Belsen-Bergen concentration camp, a task that he described as special but emotionally difficult. Following the war Hagan rose to the rank of Major in the APTC and continued playing until 1958.
Bert Sproston was acknowledged as one of the best defenders in England and made his name with Leeds United, playing for England 11 times and winning 2 wartime caps. He served as a Physical Training Instructor at Aldershot and saw active service in India. As well as representing the Army and Combined Services he also guested for Millwall, Aldershot and Wrexham. Sproston was part of the inexperienced England team that arrived in Berlin to play Germany in 1938, a game widely considered to be a propaganda exercise orchestrated by Hitler. Having arrived just two days earlier after a long boat and rail trip, England were expecting a baptism of fire, especially as the Germans were on a 16 game unbeaten run and had spent a fortnight training in the Black Forest. The game is historically remembered for the
controversy of the England team being asked to give the Nazi salute as the teams lined up before the game which, looking back, must have been a shameful moment for all the England players on that day. Stan Cullis, a man with strong moral foundation, was the only player who refused to comply and was subsequently dropped from the team. Hitler was not present at the match but prominent Nazis such as Hess, Goebbels, Ribbentrop and Goering sat in the Führer’s box as the teams took to the pitch in front of 110,000 spectators. England won the game 6-3; a moral victory over political manoeuvring that initially defused the consternation over the England team’s Hitler salute. However, when war finally became reality 14 months later, the match came to be seen in a different perspective. Stanley Matthews relates that the day before the game he and Bert Sproston had gone for a stroll and saw Hitler’s cavalcade drive past with passers-by springing up to salute the Führer. Sproston turned to Matthews and said: ‘Stan, I’m just a working lad from Leeds. I know nowt about politics and the like, all I knows is football. But t’way I see it, yon ‘Itler feller is an evil little twat.’ Sproston crudely but prophetically expressed what would become the final verdict of history.
Tommy Lawton APTC, Everton and England