It was said in the United States after Pearl Harbour that Japanese workmen near the naval base had cut huge arrows in the fields to guide Japanese aircraft towards their targets. Pure fantasy, of course, but the home front everywhere was a breeding ground for rumour. With censorship in operation and everyone strained by anxiety, people's imaginations filled in the details whenever something strange or disastrous occurred. Many wild reports like the one above played on fears of the enemy's fiendish ingenuity. So, for example, Britons spoke in hushed voices of a German bomb so advanced that it could chase you round corners; and of a nun seen in a railway carriage who had apparently shown her ticket to the inspector with a big, hairy hand she was really a Nazi paratrooper in disguise ... or so the story went. Wild rumours circulated about foreign spies, bungling by the government and an imminent invasion. Keeping public morale high was an obsession of the authorities in world war two, so that even a calamity of the withdrawal from Dunkirk was reported in Britain as if it were a triumph. A person good go on trial for spreading alarm or despondency. Addressing his anxious readers in Britain in May 1940, the comic poet A P Herbert wrote: Do not believe the tale the milkman tells; No troops have mutinied in potters bar. Nor are their submarines in Tunbridge Wells. The BBC will warn us when they are. Edginess on the Home Front created an ideal climate for enemy propagandists to exploit, and the Nazis spread disquiet in Britain through the son of an Irish-born American, William Joyce. Jarmany calling, "Lord Haw-Haw" made slanted remarks about coming air-raids that some of his British audience found deeply upsetting. Nicknamed 'Lord Haw-Haw', Joyce was a former British Fascist who broadcast to Britain from Berlin. His sinister, hectoring voice announcing, "Jarmany calling, Jarmany calling", became well known to 6 million listeners. Some found his show amusing, others tuned in the hope of learning facts that the Ministry of Information was withholding. Japan produced an equally notorious broadcaster in the shape of Iva Ikuko Toguri, nicknamed Tokyo Rose. Her I5-minute radio show, broadcast to GIs in the Pacific, interspersed music with news and comment delivered in a flirtatious American accent (she was, in fact, an American born Japanese). GIs in Italy were meanwhile tormented by the sexy voice of a lady known as Axis Sally. "Hullo suckers", was how she began her Front Line Radio show, which mixed scratchy boogie woogie tunes with tales of Allied setbacks and the names of POWs held in Rome. There were stories of draft dodgers fooling around with GIs' girlfriends on the home front, and of hideous injuries sustained by American fighting men. Think it over, a show would end. "Why should you be one of those rotting carcasses?" These and similar themes were worked over in the countless propaganda leaflets showered from the sky by Axis aircraft. Some were fairly gruesome; others were downright obscene. The more attractive served as pin-ups, but for multitudes in the ration hit nations, propaganda leaflets served above all as a handy source of toilet paper. Voice of the Enemy: Tokyo Rose's radio shows, transmitted across the Pacific region, were designed to demoralise the American GI's and naval crews who were serving in the region. After the War she was put on trial in the USA.
The Axis powers were by no means alone in exploiting these methods. Allied agencies set up their own "black radio" stations to spread despondency in enemy territory, and a British body which became known as the Political Warfare Executive (PWE) was responsible for inventing "sibs", plausible stories that were likely to damage enemy morale. Designed for export, they were first tried out in London clubs and canteens before being passed on to Occupied Europe. Hitler was mad his generals had seen him chewing the carpet in one of his rages. Invading Britain was pointless the Allies had invented a means of setting the sea ablaze. Furthermore, a colossal tonnage of propaganda leaflets was distributed across the Axis countries by Allied bombers. Friend or foe: The Germans portrayed themselves as friendly occupiers and innocent victims. Below: Victory becomes a game. Dunkirk two views German and British newspapers gave very different accounts of Dunkirk: "The great battle of annihilation, altogether more than 1.2 million prisoners have fallen into German hands, besides limitless amounts of war material ... France's and Britain's finest troops are annihilated. England is now separated from France and exposed to a direct German attack. On June 4 this battle of annihilation came to an end with the fall of Dunkirk." German wartime picture magazine, 1940 "Bloody marvellous, for days past thousands upon thousands of our brave men of the B.E.F. have been pouring through a port somewhere in England, battle-worn, but, thank God, safe and cheerful in spite of weariness. We may hope that already at least half of that gallant force has been withdrawn from the trap planned for them by Nazi ruthlessness ... Praise in words is a poor thing for this huge and heroic effort. But praise we must offer for all engaged, and for the brilliant leadership in the field ... Praise, then, for him and for them! "A bloody marvellous show", says a high officer." Daily Mirror, Saturday, June 1, 1940. On the air, American boys take part in a two-way radio exchange with their war was having on their lives.
Lol great Topic! Did you notice about the two sides' accounts of Dunkirk, that in neither are there any lies ! Every single statement from Germany and from Britain is absolutely true !! That is some quality journalism ! (And Britains sinister-sounding "Political Warfare Executive", spreading lies and misery with the best of 'em no doubt ! ) On the flipside there were some terrible lies involved in these kind of stories. There was something lengthy on radio 4 the other week about "Tokyo Rose". I think someone's released a biography or maybe a play about Iva Ikuko Toguri, I forget the details. The point, though, was that this poor woman was hounded into ill health and an early grave by these persecutions that she was Tokyo Rose. Their evidence is that there were at least twenty Tokyo Roses, but there is no doubt that this woman was not one of them.... Really sad if true.
OK slight correction. She died just a few weeks ago at the age of 90. She was not Tokyo Rose though: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5389722.stm
Thou she lived to the good old age of 90 Dave, it must of been hell living a life where you could be mistaken for such evil.
