In the summer of 1938 Villa toured Nazi Germany.[1] The day before their first match, the England football team bowed to pressure from the British Foreign Office and performed the Nazi salute during a friendly match on 14 May 1938.[2] Despite this diplomatic protocol the Birmingham Gazette reported the performance of Villa's Frank Broome beside headline, “GESTAPO”, in which it detailed the surveillance of 20,000 Germans in England by the German Secret Police.
The atmosphere in the Villa's first match against a German Select XI was in marked contrast to the England game with continual jeering and whistling. Villa's use of the offside trap was frustrating to the unfamiliar German players and fans.
When future Villa manager, Alex Massie fouled Camillo Jerusalem, the referee needed to separate the teams. Hostility from the 110,000 crowd intensified when the Villa players left the pitch without the required Nazi salute and Joseph Goebbels was called to suppress subsequent hostile German press coverage.[3]
The second game, in Düsseldorf, passed without incident but, following the third match, in Stuttgart, SS guards and Stormtroopers were needed to protect the players from the crowd.[3] During the war TIME Magazine reported that the Villa reserve team, all captured at Dunkirk, thrashed their captor SS guards.[4]
There were debuts for Frank Shell, Bill Carey, Tommy Clayton and Jeff Barker.[5]
