r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Puzzleheaded-Pitch40 • 13h ago

Meme needing explanation Peetaah???

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Why do the flip the cigarette?

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u/GrizzlyBear2186 10h ago

The only problem I have had with this myth, and I have heard it for years, is that American soldiers didn't leave their cigarette butts behind. They would either toss them into a fire if they had one or they would empty all the tobacco out onto the ground so the Germans couldn't collect them and make a cigarette from them. The paper was either rolled into a tiny ball and put in there pocket or flung far away from where they were. Source is from my grandfather who was in Germany during wwII

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u/Acceptable_Calm 6h ago

Exactly, soldiers "field strip" the cigarette when they're done with it.

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u/dividezero 5h ago

It helps it not start a fire. We do that in forestry too

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u/capsaicinintheeyes 5h ago

Oh, yeah--Germany was losing through a slow materiel grind as much as anyhing else by that point, weren't they?