有名无实之战(英中对照)

古德明《征服英语》之英语军事故事，古德明，香港英语教育作家，他开了一个《征服英语专栏》，在专栏中专门用英语写了世界近代史上的军事小故事，用英语讲述历史中那些惊心动魄的战争。
有名无实之战
germany's invasion of poland in september 1939 led to the second world war, but the invasion was followed by a period of comparative peace. for seven months, german and french troops confronted one another along the border without doing anything worse than trading insults. on one occasion, one side pelted the other with rotten potatoes. that was all.
the skies were also quiet. the raf sent bombers over germany, but they dropped propaganda leaflets rather than bombs. when the conservative mp leo amery suggested dropping incendiary bombs on the black forest, the shocked secretary of state for air replied,"are you aware that it is private property? why, you will be asking me to bomb essen next!"

no wonder that this phase of the war is referred to as the phoney war.
一九三九年九月，德国入侵波兰，引起第二次世界大战，但入侵之后，局势一度颇为平静，德、法两军隔边境对峙，彼此止于辱骂。有一次，一方向另一方投掷腐烂的马铃薯。如此而已。
而天空也很平静。英国皇家空军派轰炸机到德国，但投下的不是炸弹，而是传单。保守党国会议员利奥．埃默里提议向德国黑森林投燃烧弹，空军大臣愕然回答：「你知道那是私有土地吗？嗳呀，你下一次恐怕要我轰炸埃森市了！」
难怪这个阶段的战争称为「有名无实之战」。
【附注】埃森是德国西北部工业城市。