Second World War: Frozen to death by the Fuhrer

Believing himself to be as much an expert in meteorology as in everything else, Hitler, a world-class know-all, went on to state that "weather prediction is not a science that can be learnt mechanically. What we need are men gifted with a sixth sense, who live in nature and with nature – whether or not they know anything about isotherms and isobars. As a rule, obviously, these men are not particularly suited to the wearing of uniforms. One of them will have a humped back, another will be bandy-legged, a third paralytic. Similarly, one doesn't expect them to live like bureaucrats."

These "human barometers", as Hitler dubbed them – who don't much sound like exemplars of the Master Race – would have telephones installed in their homes free of charge and would predict the weather for the Reich and "be flattered to have people relying on [their] knowledge". These woodland folk would be people "who understand the flights of midges and swallows, who can read the signs, who feel the wind, to whom the movements of the sky are familiar. Elements are involved in that kind of thing that are beyond mathematics." Or parody.