Submodule handling broken when changing branches?

[Nico -telmich- Schottelius <nico-linux-git@schottelius.org>]

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Good morning devs,

I'm wondering whether it is the intented behaviour that after
adding a submodule one is unable to change branchen?

Steps to reproduce

   ( mkdir sm && cd sm && touch a && git init && git add . && git commit -m "init" )

   ( mkdir -p project/smdir && cd project && touch smdir/a  && git init && git add . && git commit -m "init" && git branch second ) 

  ( cd project && git rm smdir/a &&  git commit -m "remove file that will be replaced by sm")
  
  ( cd project && git submodule add ~/temp/git/sm smdir && git submodule update --init && git commit -m "add submodule" )

  ( cd project && git checkout second )
  error: Untracked working tree file 'smdir/a' would be overwritten by merge.

It seems that the contents of a submodule are not cleanly moved away
when switching branches, I also see that in other places where the directory
is not known to the other branch, it will just stay.

If that is intented, what would be the clean way to switch the branch?
If so, shouldn't it be documented in the manpage?

Nico

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