According to my mother, this is a very accurate portrait of the atmosphere generated by the arrival of the US troops in Britain in 1942. She was living on the access road to a US airbase during the war, and says the US troops were like nothing the British had ever come across before and were indeed greeted with suspicion if not outright hostility by many of the locals. The sergeant's outburst is no more than a plot device. And while he would most certainly not have been allowed to get away with it in real life, he's merely being used to voice the opinion that was held by many of the men who arrived after the US joined the war. And "late to the last war, late to this one" was a mantra heard frequently at the time, like it or not. The portrayal of the US troops is, in fact, very even handed and Kieffer in particular comes across as a quiet, thoughtful and civilized man - a perfect friend for Foyle, in fact. In common, I think, with a lot of other people, I hoped at the time that he might become a semi-recurrent character and was pleased to see him reappear in 'All Clear' - albeit severely traumatized. A fine and thought provoking episode.
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