20mm Painted WW2 Nun and Monks or Fifth Columnists/Spies.

20mm nun and monks from Sgts Mess for my ongoing Operation Sealion project, can be exactly what they are or possibly spies or fifth columnists?

A fifth column or columnist is a group of people or person who clandestinely undermine a larger group such as a nation from within.

The term originated with a 1936 radio address by Emilio Mola, a Nationalist General during the 1936–39 Spanish Civil War. As his army approached Madrid, a message was broadcast that the four columns of his forces outside the city would be supported by a "fifth column" of his supporters inside the city, intent on undermining the Republican government from within (see Siege of Madrid).^[1] The term was used as the title of Ernest Hemingway's only play, which he wrote while the city was being bombarded; the play was published in 1938 in his book The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories.^[2]

In fact, this supposed "fifth column" did not prove very effective, as demonstrated by the fact that Madrid held out until 1939 despite very heavy fighting. Nevertheless, the term caught on and was used extensively, especially by those fighting the Fascists and Nazis.

The term was in wide use in Britain in the early stages of the Second World War where the fear of the fifth Column was used as justification for the mass internment, on the Isle of Man, of German nationals who resided in the United Kingdom. The United States and Canada interned U.S. and Canadian citizens of Japanese, German, and Italian descent around the same time (early 1940s), using similar justification.

Pictures have not turned out that great but there are size comparison pictures..

L to R, Lamercraft, Grubby Tanks, SHQ and Lamercraft again?