Note:In 2017, images and text from this article were used as a source in the Italian philatelic monthly magazine "Il collezionista." The International Spy Museum in Washington D.C. requested the use of images of V-weapon propaganda leaflets in this article for a new exhibit at their Museum. In 2018, the Historical-Technical Museum Peenemunde [in the Power Station] requested the use of our images for a special exhibition titled: Destructive Progress. Mass production and wartime deployment of the Peenemünde V-weapons, 19431945. Data from this article appears in "Marketing the Third Reich – Persuasion, Packaging and Propaganda": Nicolas O’Shaughnessy, Routledge, NYC, NY, 2018. This article was featured on the British website: WORLD WAR II ENGLAND - Recollections of The Homefront in Lancashire. In 2020 the model rocket company LOC requested the use of images from this article to use as the logo on the flash card for their V2 rocket kits. In 2020, images from this article were used in the publication of a British railway "Brickie's Mate" wartime diary.

Aerial propaganda leaflets have been disseminated by a host of weapon systems and other means. The most common is the airplane; other popular methods include balloons, artillery, mortars, grenades, and small rockets.

During WWII all the combatants fired leaflets at each other by artillery. At the height of the Cold War period the air between mainland China and the offshore island of Quemoy was filled with propaganda shells. In 1962, The London Telegraph stated that 1,700 gun positions faced Quemoy, but all they fired was the occasional leaflet shell.

General Walter Dornberger, head of the V2 program (center)

with Dr. Todt (right), Hitler's armament minister, at Peenemünde in 1941.

In 1966 I published a letter from WWII German General Walter Dornberger that said his department of the Board of Ordinance, Rocket Development (WaPruef II) designed and developed small solid-fuel rockets that could carry propaganda leaflets about 6-7 miles. The rockets had a container tightly packed with propaganda leaflets that were fired against front-line Allied troops in Italy. Dr, Max Kronstein, writing in The Falling Leaf of June 1962, adds, "These small rockets were called Flugblattgeschoose. In the Diary of a German Soldier Wilhelm Pruller says, "We got a new gun today with a barrel made of cardboard. And it shoots too, as far as two kilometers. The bullets are propaganda bombs which comprise more than 100 leaflets."

In this article, we are going to talk about much larger and more dangerous rockets.

During World War Two, Germany distributed leaflets over the Allies in Great Britain, Belgium, and Holland using their vaunted "Vengeance weapon," the V1 rocket. These are among the most extraordinary leaflets of the war and on the rare occasion when a genuine V1 leaflet is auctioned for sale, the price can be as high as $400 dollars.

I first became interested in the field almost 40 years ago. I wrote an article entitled "WWII V-1 Bomb Leaflets--World's Rarest Missile Mail?" in the 5 July 1965 issue of Linn's Stamp News. In that article I illustrated a POW letter leaflet and a cut-away drawing of the German V-1 "Buzz bomb." I mentioned that that among the various leaflets delivered by the V1 were letters from POWs, magazines, newspapers, and stories of atrocities caused by the Allied bombing of German residential areas. The POW letters are interesting because they contained a number of letter from actual prisoners held by the Germans. The leaflets "explained that the same letters were being sent through official Red Cross channels, and there was a request that the leaflets be forwarded to the prisoners families to expedite delivery. British Intelligence immediately became suspicious. They did not want the Germans to know where the rocket bombs had fallen." Remember, at the very same time the British were passing fraudulent target information to the German high Command through their double agents. They believed that if the families wrote back to the prisoners, there might be some way for the Germans to determine where the bombs fell. As a result, all the leaflets were confiscated. Only a few of the leaflets were taken for souvenirs and as I said earlier, they are very rare today.

German V1 Rocket

What was the V1? Because of the tremendous losses to the Luftwaffe during the "Battle of Britain" Germany was looking for a way to terror-bomb London without the loss of valuable pilots and aircraft. In June 1944, the German army began the use of what would called the V1. The 'V' stood for Vergeltungswaffe which meant "vengeance weapon." The V1 was designed by Argus Motorenwerke and the Fieseler Flugzeugbau companies. They developed this small, unmanned aircraft that could carry a one-ton warhead, and powered it with a new pulse-jet engine design. The pulse-jet engine had just one moving part, a shutter assembly in the front air intake. The flying bomb could reach more than 400 mph. The range of the flight was predetermined and set inside the bomb before it was launched. A tiny propeller on the nose of the bomb was attached to a counter. Every 30 rotations of the propeller would count down one number on the counter. When the pre-set counter reached zero, the air hose from the servo to the rear elevator was automatically cut, a spring mechanism would snap down the elevators, and the V1 would dive to the ground. The V-1 was manufactured at various sites in the Reich, but the main production facility was the notorious underground SS slave-labor complex known as "Mittelwerk" at Nordhausen in the Harz Mountains. An estimated total of 24,000 V-1s were built in 1944, with as many as 10,000 built in 1945, though quantities tend to vary from source to source.

The Allies were aware of the secret weapon and their agents in Germany searched for any information about the new rocket bomb. We find numerous mentions of the aerial bomb in secret classified reports from American agents to Allen Dulles of the Office of Strategic Services in Switzerland . A report dated 5 February 1943 says in part:

A new German secret weapon is being tested but the machine is not yet satisfactory. According to 490, it is perhaps kind of aerial torpedo, or some other flying contraption. Exact nature of device not disclosed, although small parts are being manufactured in factories in Germany .

Craters surround a site at Peenemunde in Mecklenburg-Vorpommem,

Germany, where the V weapons were designed and tested,

following an Allied bombing raid on on September 2, 1944



Peenemunde was bombed four times during WWII. The first was on 17 August 1943 when an attempt was made to destroy or delay the production of the secret weapon. On 9 September 1943 another secret report says in part:

The rocket bomb should be taken seriously, according to 643. A delay of one to two months in assemblage work was caused by bombing of Peenemunde but much remains there to be destroyed. Important objectives above ground have not been damaged and there are also underground assembly plants.

By 11 December information seems to have been coming in regularly:

From contact 496: Experiments with rocket still going on at Karlshagen near Peenemunde .

On 13 December they knew what the rocket looked like:

By 8 February the OSS seems to have identified the firing platforms.

How were the leaflets distributed? They were placed in a small canister, which ejected automatically from a hole near the wing as soon as the engine turned off. The V1 was equipped with a revolution counter, which shut down the engine after a pre-arranged number of turns. The bomb then went into a steep vertical dive and impact was almost instantaneous.

I should mention here that in three places in this story I discuss vertical dives. That is what most news stories report. Terrence Lane begs to differ. He told me:

I also saw a number of V2 bomb explosions but not nearly as many as there was no noisy engine noise to announce their arrival, just the explosion and a pillar of smoke. We always felt the V2 was far less frightening than the V1 because you did not have this sense of anticipation of something terrible about to happen as was the case when the V1 engine suddenly stopped overhead.

The flying bombs did not always fall straight to earth. When their engine stopped, some flew in a long, slow, straight shallow dive; some spiraled down to earth while the others dropped directly out of the skies, tumbling over and over like a stone. It was this unpredictability that made them frightening. When you heard the motor stop overhead you had no idea whether a V1 was going to land close to you or far away because of this varied pattern of descent.

In 1943, I moved to Purley, Surrey, not far from Croydon Airport, at that time the main London airport. The first V1s in 1944 dropped south of London including one which struck some 150 feet from the house, breaking many of our windows and damaging the roof. We saw a great number of V1s flying southeast to northwest across the blue sky and watched many come down north of where I lived, the cloud of smoke where they landed, then counted the seconds until we heard the explosion to get some idea of distance.

V1 flying bomb on its launch ramp in France, 1944

Greg Goebel discusses the various forms of the V1 in an article entitled "The V1 Flying Bomb." He says, "Some of the V-1s were fitted with a radio transmitter and a trailing antenna wire so that their flight could be monitored. In some cases, the bombs were "shadowed" by fast aircraft like the Messerschmitt 410 to observe their flight. A few were also fitted with a cage to accommodate 23 one-kilogram incendiary bombs, or a paper carton full of propaganda leaflets, with the contents scattered by the force of the blast."

At the height of the V1 blitz the British government printed a "restricted" document entitled Instructions to R.A.F. Bomb Disposal Units.

The document identified the inner-workings and explosive mechanisms found in the V1. In regard to the propaganda leaflet ejector, the bomb disposal personnel were told:

If the leaflet ejector is fitted, the igniter is functioned on launching, probably be means of a static cord. The safety fuse burns during flight, eventually igniting the gunpowder charge. The gases formed blow the propaganda leaflets out through the rear end of the cardboard tube.

C. The rear end of the tube accommodates a sheet metal cylinder. A wooden plug closes each end of the cylinder; between the plugs is a bag of gunpowder. The safety fuse passes through the inner plug to the gunpowder bag.

B. It is formed of a cardboard tube, 30 inches long, and 2.5 inches in diameter, the rear end of which is sealed by a wooden plug. To the outer face of the plug is attached a pull igniter. A 56-inch length of safety fuse, one end of which is attached to the pull igniter, passes through rolls of pamphlets contained in the tube.

A. The ejector, when fitted, is housed in the extreme rear of the fuselage, with approximately one-third of its length projecting.

The British knew about the propaganda leaflets in the V1s and watched for them. The British Post Office Bulletin of 3 January 1945 said:

PRISONER OF WAR LETTERS IN V BOMBS

If such leaflets or letters are tendered loose at a post office by the public, not as postal packets but as something found, they should be accepted and handed to the local police authorities. Any which are posted as properly addressed and prepaid packets should, of course, be forwarded by post to destination the usual way; but information that this will be done must not be given to the public.

A Leaflet entitled V POW POST is said to have been found containing such letters, both in Photostat and printed form, with a request that the finder should cut out or copy the letters and transmit them to the addressees.

According to press reports letters purporting to be from British prisoners of war are being sent to this country in V bombs.

This is a strange document and shows once again the strength of the British source of legality and order. There was some belief that these leaflets were espionage documents meant to help the Germans discover where the V1s fell. The British properly handed most of the leaflets to the police, but cannot bring themselves to remove a properly addressed and stamped document that could be German espionage from the mail.

Civil Defense Letter on V-1 Leaflets

A letter dated 17 December 1946 from the Civil Defense Department to an individual mentions the leaflets. It says in part:

After 28 August 1944, a proportion of all flying bombs sent over this country were found to carry propaganda leaflets where were therefore scattered round the scene of explosion in almost every district subjected to this form of attack after that date

On 15 August 1965, I wrote an article for the Space Craft Explorer. In that article I went into great depth. I identified each type of leaflet in more detail. For instance, The types of "atrocity" propaganda; "A Splendid Decision," "This is an Experiment, Let's Try it," and "Do You Like That, Do you?" I mentioned The Other Side, a miniature newspaper that gave Germany's view of the war. I discussed the Signal Magazine, a small propaganda publication filled with defeatist propaganda to weaken the British will to resist.

V1 at the end of its flight, about to impact near Drury Lane, London, 1944

There are many other reference documents that discuss the V1 leaflet operations. The very first mention of the V1 leaflets was probably an article entitled "German V-1 Rocket P.O.W. Air Mail Leaflets." By David W. H. Pickard in the Airpost Journal, July 1947. Pickard illustrated a Signal magazine and a P.O.W. Post leaflet. His article was reprinted in Linns Weekly Stamp News of 10 November 1947, with the addition of a photograph of a V1 pulse-jet. The V1 leaflets are mentioned in a number of The Falling Leaf issues, the journal of the Psywar Society, an international association of psychological warfare historians. In January 1990, R. G. Auckland of the Psywar Society published a booklet entitled V1 Rocket Propaganda leaflets 1944-1945. Those readers who want to know more about these leaflets should purchase the booklet through the Psywar Society. I also want to thank a number of the members of the Psywar Society who sent leaflet images for this article. Among them are Rod Oakland, Freddy Dehon, William Robinson, Michael Rivkin and Lee Richards who allowed me to show some of the leaflets from his www.psywar.org site.

Frontal view of German V1 Rocket

In this article we are going to study three phases of the V-1 PSYOP campaign. The first will be a look at some of the actual leaflets carried and disseminated by the V1 flying bomb. The second will be a look at some of the German leaflets and postcards that threaten the Allies with death and destruction by the V1. The final phase will be the Allied response, the leaflets that tell the Germans that they have lost the war and their vengeance weapon is too little, too late.

E 121/b12

This leaflet pictures a Hamburg street with dead bodies scattered about. It was found at a V1 launching site at Watten in northern France in early 1945. The text on the back is:

Do you like that?

You don't?

Then tell Mr. Churchill!

AIR-RAID ON HAMBURG

July 27/28 1943.

Specimens of the Hamburg leaflet were also found in southeast England and at a launch site in the Pas-de-Calais in 1944. The Germans produced similar leaflets that mentioned the Allied air raids on Cologne and Berlin. The photographs were different but both showed stacks of dead bodies. The text is also slightly different from the Hamburg leaflet. The main text is identical on both leaflets, "Do you like that? You do? You may not in a months time!"

E.121/4a

E.121/9a

Leaflet E.121/4a says "AIR-RAID ON COLOGNE" and was found in southeast England. Leaflet E.121/9a says "AIR-RAID ON BERLIN" and was found in Kent, England.

The V1 campaign against Great Britain commenced on 13 June 1944. Ten missiles were fired across the English Channel and just four reached their target. Auckland says that during the course of the war 10,000 were aimed at London and another 3000 at other parts of the UK. The rockets could be fired from both fixed ramps or from or various Heinkel bombers, not unlike the current Tomahawk cruise missile in the American inventory. A letter from The Home Office, Civil Defense Department, dated 17 December 1946 says:

German propaganda Leaflets Carried in Flying Bombs

Sir I am directed by the Secretary of State to inform you in reply to your further enquiry of 13 December on the above-mentioned subject that after 28 August 1944, a proportion of all flying bombs sent over this country were found to carry propaganda leaflets which were therefore scattered round the scene of explosion in almost every district subjected to this form of attack after that date. Many of the leaflets were damaged or destroyed by the bomb and as only a small number were carried in each case, few were found intact.

As I said earlier, many of the V1 leaflets fall into identifiable categories. The first we will discuss are the P.O.W. Post. Each of these leaflets contained a number of letters from British prisoners-of-war. There are a three general types of P.O.W. Post leaflets. We illustrate one from the major variation coded V1/4.

V1 P.O.W. Post  V1/4 Vertical Format

The text at the top of all of the major variety is "V1 P.O.W. Post." Directly below there is a comment in red, "The finder is requested to cut out or copy the letters printed here and to transmit them to the addresses so that they receive them as early as possible. The original letters are being sent through the Red Cross in the usual mail channel."

A letter on the front of the leaflet is handwritten in black ink at the right and typed in red ink at the left. It says:

My dearest darling, Mother and Father. My thoughts are forever of you and this day of memorance I write you these cheering words, knowing you will both have the respects for me and enjoy yourselves who be level headed. I am a soldier and must expect these hardships that are bestowed upon us, but we must not be down-hearted, or it's not playing the trump card. I am making the best of a good hiding, so to speak, and am now getting along very nicely and hope to get a nice be parcel from you some time or other. On my return to England after the war we will have an excellent drink and laughter and joy. Also let me say the Germans are very much like us regards to ways, and have become friendly with quite a few, they are not what the paper reads, it's difficult to tell the difference in ways and manner. Also I say again you must not worry. I am well and have good health and warm clothing, good bed with sheets and your photographs at my side. What more can one wish for! We, work and are paid. We, my dearest ones, Happy Christmas, and Dad don't drink all that glorious beer and Mother don't forget the plum cake. So, dearest ones, cheerio for now, lots of love.

The new weapon is a typical product of German inventive genius. The flying bombs are made of steel and they are as good as invulnerable. The pilot of a fighter who should dare to fly near them would take a great personal risk.

The whole of Southern England is one big storehouse. Into this vast area, crammed with troops, munitions and supplies, thousands of the super heavy flying bombs have fallen. They have caused a series of terrible explosions which have devastated the countryside and serious hampered the flow of supplies to the invasion front.

Another leaflet in the Shadow over England  series depicts just that. A single V-1 flies over the British Isles and casts a shadow over the nation. This leaflet was dropped on Allied troops near San Marino , Italy in August 1944. The back is all text:

This is another leaflet that suddenly appeared with a different message on the back some 70+ years after the war. It could be the German trying different messages on the V1 leaflets, or it could be modern forgeries being made very well on aged paper. This latest oddity has the text of German leaflet 126/4 44, which normally depicts an American soldier with an undressed British woman and the title: Indeed, an amusing war  for the Americans.

The family life of millions of Britishers has again been thoroughly upset, and danger is lurking everywhere at any moment. After 9 weeks of the "Doodle bug" offensive the average Englishman is talking about nothing but robot bombs.

The London telephone system has been wrecked by the bombardment. The few lines still functioning cannot cope with the rush. Telephone mechanics have been brought from Manchester for urgent repair work.

Leaflet AI-092-8-44 shows a close up formation of three V1s flying side by side. This leaflet was dropped on Allied troops near San Marino , Italy , in August 1944. Text on the back of this leaflet is:

Even today, after more than two months of persistent bombing, the Allies still have no correct information about the new German secret weapon. The Germans are using bombs of different types filled with explosives of enormous effect, weighing at least two tons each.

One million Londoners have left the city. The evacuation of a further two million women and children from London and southern England is being prepared by the government. Even women employed in war plants are now allowed to leave London in order to have a rest, as many of them have collapsed from fatigue and strain.

AI-091-8-44 depicts four V1s flying overhead in the clouds. This leaflet was dropped on Allied troops near San Marino, Italy, as they broke through the Gothic Line in August 1944. The back is all text with clippings from Yorkshire Post and the magazine Aeroplane .

Note: I have also seen a copy of this leaflet front with the code number AI-102-9-44 on the back and the message shown on that leaflet (102) further down in this article. Assuming that the second variety is genuine, it might indicate that the German mixed and matched several different front and backs trying to get the best mixture of image and text before actual dissemination.

Flying bombs are reported to have already come down in Scotland. This shows that no part of Britain is any longer safe.

There is a deep change of public sentiment in England and people are uttering their fears about the other German secret weapons that have already been announced.

The devastation in London and southern England surpass anything hitherto witnessed. The terrific air pressure causes whole blocks of building to collapse. The giant Doodle Bugs raze everything to the ground within a radius of a thousand feet.

Another series of "AI" leaflets is entitled "Shadow over England." These leaflets have perhaps the most interesting images of all. For instance, AI-090-8-44 depicts five V1s diving on British factories. In all of the leaflets of the series that we depict here the back is all text with articles about the war and the V1 from various British and foreign publications. In the above leaflet there are clippings from the New York Times , the Stockholm Veeka Journal , and the Daily Herald .

This leaflet was fired against Allied troops near San Marino, Italy, as they broke through the "Gothic Line" in August 1944. It was disseminated by a small propaganda rocket.

Most of the German leaflets dropped on Italy are from the "AI" series. This code indicates that the leaflets were used in Italy for Allied Troops during 1944-1945. The meaning of the "AI" is Propaganda Abschnitts Offizer Italian. Most of the "AI" leaflets were printed in Berlin and shipped to the front, other were printed in Verona, Italy. There are numerous examples. AI-077-6-44 shows a hand making the British "V for victory" sign while in the background a giant "V1" stands among the burning ruins of London. Dropped on Allied troops near Rome, Italy, June 1944. AI-078-6-44 is similar, but the hand has now turned "thumbs down" in the Roman death signal, and over the burning city the Germans have placed the word "London." Leaflets AI-079-6-44 and AI-080-6-44 are similar, but in the latter the giant "V1" is now in a burning depiction of the British Isles.

CHANCES ARE THAT IT WILL STILL GET YOU.

Churchill may say it makes no difference to Englands war effort. You know better. Perhaps you now understand why the Germans are not laying so much stress on the secondary front in Italy.

You soldiers know what it means for your forces fighting in France when behind them their supply bases in England are being systematically smashed up.

Large part of London and southern England have already been devastated or set ablaze. The conflagration can be seen for more than 150 miles. British officials had to admit that nothing can be done about the monstrous new weapon.

But while your divisions are fighting and dying on the coast of northern France the Germans are striking back at England with their

...that the First Lord of the Admiralty, Alexander, made it clear that England is facing hard times and that the new German weapon is the most modern and most deadly form of attack from the air."

...that according to the testimony of eye witnesses the effect of the new German weapon surpasses everything hitherto experienced in England. To make things worse, the air raid shelters, up to know considered as absolutely bombproof, no longer offer any protection against this new type of explosive.

This colorful leaflet has a long propaganda message on the back entitled "NEWS FROM THE CENSORED BRITISH PRESS." There are news reports from three British newspapers and one politician. I will just quote the first news report from the Daily Telegraph.

But YOU will learn the truth just the same. you will also find out why Germany has just begun to play one of her trump cards.

The entire British press was immediately muzzled by rigid censorship. What a nice job your politicians do have now in hiding the truth about the disastrous effect of

Since June 16th, London and southern England are being continuously blasted day and night by those mysterious flying meteors.

Your armchair strategists have always claimed that the new dreadful weapon is an invention of German propaganda." But out of a clear sky it struck.

What good are all your planes, warships and tanks against the new German weapon.

You fellows on the Italian front are lucky to be far away from the hell turned loose over England.

Regarding V Number 1 the First Lord of the Admiralty Alexander made it plain that England is facing hard times, that the new German weapon is the most modern and most deadly form of attack from the air.

V Number 1, those roaring monsters of the air, are smashing London and the supply bases in England with dreadful precision.

However, since June 16th, your so-called free press has been put under the most rigid censorship.

For months politicians have been telling you that the new German secret weapon is just a bluff of propaganda, a mouthful of bombastic talk.

Just prick up your ears to this and guess what?

In 2015, reproductions of several of these V-1 leaflets were offered for sale in Germany starting at the very low price of $1.12 US. Besides SW-18, I see the following leaflets that I show below offered at the same price: AI-077-6-44, AI-078-6-44, and AI-080-7-44. Surely more such items exist, and it is possible they are being copied from this article. The dealer states in his advertisement: Falsch, Fälschung, Reproduktion, Lückenfüller. This item is a FANTASY / Reprint / Forgery / Souvenir item and has NO philatelic value.

The new German secret weapon is, there is no doubt about it, the beginning of a new era in war-history of the world.

Since midnight June 15th a new German long-range weapon of the most terrible explosive effect is continuously engaged in massive large-scale raids over London and South-East England . We hate this war against the defenseless population, but you have forced this fight upon us.

For two years Allied bombers tried to wipe out one German city after the other, killing or wounding millions on innocent women and children. In spite of all German warnings and the confession of responsible Anglo-American authorities, that German industries could not be stopped to increase their output steadily, the massacre continued.

Another code is "SW" which also indicates that the leaflets were dropped on the invasion forces at Normandy. These leaflets were also probably used in Italy about June 1944. Examples are SW18 which depicts death with a torch over symbols of Berlin and London and the text, "Berlin and now London." Text on the back is:

Other German leaflets in this same AW series were printed in the French language. For instance, all-text leaflet AW45, entitled Frenchmen of Normandy , reprisals are also done in your name mentions the new secret V-1 weapon. Leaflet AW46, entitled Today London was attacked, discusses constant V-1 attacks on England.

"No air combat in history has ever been of so desperate a character as that of the British fighter planes against the new German weapon."

"It is ridiculous to claim that the German attacks on Southern England by means of flying bombs are without military significance.

But what is, in spite of strict censorship, the English press compelled to admit?

Is it not to be wondered at that the utmost efforts are being made in England to draw a veil of silence over the appalling effects of the "V1."

that since 16th June, the new German weapon of retaliation which bears the name "V1" is pounding on London day and night, and above all on the harbours of Southern England?

German aircraft dropped AW 44 over Allied troops of the invasion force near Caen, France in July 1944. AW leaflets were printed by the Germans for use against Allied troops and French civilians around Normandy. The text of this leaflet is:

One of the codes used on these leaflets is "AW," which indicates that the leaflets were dropped on the invasion forces at Normandy. Examples are AW43 "The deadliest form of attack," and AW44 "Soldiers of the Invasion Army!" Both of these leaflets mention the pounding that London is taking under the V1.

Meanwhile the Robot-planes, flying low, scatter over London and Southern England explosives, the power and incendiary efficiency of which are without precedent. They spread death and destruction in the towns and harbors, which should be sending you much needed supplies.

You are using up an enormous amount of men and huge quantities of material.

You're fighting at present on a very narrow strip of coast, the extent of which has so far been regulated by the Germans.

It looks very much as though after waiting for you to cross the Channel, he had set a trap for you.

Why has Jerry waited ten days after the landing to use his so called secret weapons behind your back? Doesn't that strike you as queer?

One of the earliest German leaflets to threaten the Allies with the flying bomb is entitled "CAUGHT LIKE FOXES IN A TRAP." This leaflet bears no code but is known to have been dropped over the Allied invasion forces in Normandy in June 1944. Some of the text is:

At the same time that Germany was firing V1 flying bombs at the allies, it was also dropping leaflets telling the troops what their home front was going through under the bombardment. There are probably between 50 and 75 such leaflets, almost all dropped on allied troops in fighting in Italy and in Western Europe. Some of these leaflets are very colorful, depicting swarms of V1s in formation over London, or diving into clustered homes. Others are all text, sometimes with a large ominous "V1" overprinted over the text. The following leaflets are just a small representation of the types and number of leaflets that rained on allied troops in the latter stages of the war.

This leaflet was carried by V1 flying bomb to southeast England on 28 August 1944. The back depicts a photograph of air raid victims. Although the leaflet is numbered "4," no numbers 1, 2 or 3 exist.

Perhaps it is wiser if you keep your personal opinions TO YOURSELF about this "SADISTIC OLD CHURCHILL GANG" who have always been so solicitous about your freedom and civilization that they are continually offering you up as a sacrifice to their 

and on pages 73/74 they proudly write  "We offered London as a sacrifice in the cause of freedom and civilization. Retaliation was certain if we carried the war into Germany. There was no certainty, but there was a reasonable probability, that out Capital and our industrial centers would not have been attacked is we had continued to refrain from attacking those in Germany. Yet, because we were doubtful about the psychological effect of propagandist distortion of the truth that it was we who started the strategic (bombing) offensive, we have shrunk from giving our great decision of May,1940, the publicity it deserved. That, surely was a mistake.

"BOMBER COMMAND" started this in May 1940! Now it is a commonplace scene in almost every German city and town. The Churchillian Government are proud of it! They call their official book on the bombing war 

Curiously, the Germans used this book in a propaganda operation in Sweden . They prepared what appears to be an advertising brochure for the British book Bombing Vindicated . This black brochure features passages from the book where Spaight claims that the British initiated the bombing of German civilian populations and defends those actions. His comments were manna from Heaven for the German propagandists who for 5 years had tried to disseminate the very same message throughout Europe with dubious results.

The bomber saves civilization: my first chapter heading may strike some readers as a paradox, possibly as a perversion of the truth, at best as an overstatement made for the purpose of calling attention to what I have to say. It is nothing of the kind. I am not trying to shock or to bamboozle the reader. I am stating the truth as the truth appears to me. The bomber is the saver of civilization. We have not grasped that fact as yet, mainly because we are slaves to pre-conceived conceptions about air warfare. Air warfare is the dog with a bad name...It was the bomber aircraft which, more than any other instrument of war, prevented the forces of evil from prevailing. It was supposed to be the chosen instrument of aggression. Actually, it was precisely the opposite. Aggression would have had a clearer run if there had been no bomberson either side. And the greatest contribution of the bomber both to the winning of the war and the cause of peace is still to come.

Another V1 leaflet using the atrocity-bombing theme is interesting because it claims to name and quote a book that brags about the bombing of Germany. The book that the Germans quote is Bombing Vindicated , by J. M. Spraight, L ondon , 1944. This book is almost a song of praise for the heavy bomber. Spraight, Principal Assistant Secretary to the Air Ministry during WWII opens with:

The leaflet was carried by a V1 against Allied troops in the Antwerp, Belgium area on 10 March 1945.

The concept of the "white feather" is interesting because it is not an American tradition. Readers who have seen the movie "Four Feathers" will remember that in England the white feather was given to a coward as a form of insult and humiliation. A strange way to attack an American general.

The German propaganda organization Skorpion prepared a similar leaflet coded SKJ 2014 that was fired by artillery and attacked General Doolittle for the bombing attack on Dresden.

The back of this V1-carried leaflet depicts a white feather on a field of yellow and castigates the Americans for the bombing of Berlin.

hereby award The Order of the White Feather the symbol of THE YELLOW HEART to Lieutenant-General SPAATZ UNITED STATES AIRCORPS for conspicuous cowardice and conduct thoroughly becoming a sadist.

A good deal of the German V1 leaflets seem to have the theme of Allied bombing atrocities. Like many bullies, the Germans saw no evil in bombing civilians in the glory days when they rolled over Holland, Belgium, France and occupied most of Europe. They got very testy when the chickens came home to roost and the Allied air forces retaliated. This letter is a case in point. The text on the front is:

The Skorpion units operated on all fronts; Skorpion East (East Front), Südstern ( Italy ), Skorpion-Adria (Balkans) and Skorpion West ( Western Europe ). They all produced propaganda for the enemy under the command of the SS Standarte Kurt Eggers . Skorpion West not only produced propaganda for the enemy, it was also tasked with boosting the morale of German troops. It regularly produced leaflets and newspapers for German forces, and the Allies quickly produced black editions of the leaflets with defeatist propaganda cleverly hidden among the news.

The chain of command of the Propaganda organization was on a direct line from Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler, to SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler, to Kurt Eggers Commander Standartenführer GunterdAlquen to units such as the German Skorpion propaganda group. The Skorpion units were supplied by regular Army commands but not supervised by them. All guidance came down through the SS.

In January of 1940 an SS-Kriegsberichter-Kompanie (Waffen-SS war Reporters Company) was established, each equipped with still and movie cameras, and its platoons were attached to the four main Waffen-SS combat formations that fought in the Western Campaign of May and June, 1940. These platoons remained with their respective divisions for the Balkans Campaign in the spring of 1941. During August 1941, the SS-Kriegsberichter-Kompanie was expanded to Abteilung (battalion) strength. Waffen-SS expansion continued to grow throughout the war and in December 1943 the reporters unit again expanded, this time to regimental size. It also received an honor title at this point, becoming known as SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers . It also received a cuff-title bearing the same name. Kurt Eggers was the former editor of the SS magazine Das Schwarz Korps (The Black Corps). He was killed in action west of Kharkov while serving as a tank commander with the 5th SS-Division on 13 August 1943

All of the film shot by the PK was for the exclusive use of the Propaganda Ministry. Adolf Hitler always worried about the loyalty of the Army and eventually moved all of the propaganda sections to the Schutzstaffeln (Protection Squads  SS).

Propaganda is recognized as an essential means of war, equal to armed struggle. The Wehrmacht is responsible for conducting the armed struggle: the propaganda war will be conducted by the RMVP. In the home district, the RMVP carries it out completely independently; in the operations area, in coordination with the OKW.

We should take a moment to discuss the German propaganda organization. The German Propaganda Kompanie Einheiten (PK Units) was comprised of two light reporting teams consisting of a few writers and photographers, and one heavy team with additional movie and radio personnel. Starting about 1938 they were appointed by propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels Das Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda (The Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda - RMVP), but when at the front they came under the command of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (Armed Forces High Command  OKW). The arrangement that was agreed upon in 1939 said:

Over the years many wartime propaganda leaflets have been forged. In 2020 I saw a group of six V-1 leaflets for sale at auction with the description: Germany WW2; 6 rare aerial propaganda surrender leaflets - modern reprints of rare English-language leaflets - Like New condition; two have been folded . The prices was a rather reasonable GBP 4.99 (US $5.87). Buyer beware!

This full-color V1 leaflet in the form of a two-page travel brochure was found near a Pfalz, Germany, V1 site in December 1944. The leaflet is coded SK 467. "SK" represents "Skorpion West," the organization in charge of German propaganda for the western front. The front depicts a beautiful girl in a bathing suit and the text, "Go south to sunny Germany. A land of sun and smiles awaits you. Travel P.D.Q." The back of the leaflet depicts a happy man and woman enjoying the winter sport of skiing. When opened, The leaflet has two vertical columns. The one at the left is entitled "Germany from without," and has five paragraphs telling of the dangers to be expected by the invading Allies. It ends with "See Germany and Die." The column on the right is "Germany from within." It has seven columns telling of the good life of a prisoner-of-war and ends with "Winter in Germany is the perfection of the beautiful (according to Mark Twain).

Jan de Groot, a deceased member of the Psywar Society said about this attack, "On the evening of the mistaken bombing, the German domestic radio said that the French Air Force was responsible for the air-raid. Much later, however, it appears that after France had fallen the blame for the Freiburg incident was passed on to the shoulders of the British. The allegation was further repeated in the propaganda leaflet "This is an Experiment  let's try it - W. Churchill" dropped by V.1 "doodle-bug" over southeast England in the weeks following D-Day. In it the Germans said that the RAF "began the air war against civilians" by bombing the town, and claimed that the German air attacks on Warsaw and Rotterdam (two days after the Netherlands surrendered) could never be recognized as a pretext for British attacks because both cities then lay "in the front line and were defended by enemy troops."

The bombing of Freiburg has become a bit of a mystery. Although the Germans were quick to blame the British, Andrew E. Mathis, Ph.D. stated in an article entitled "The 1940 Bombing of Freiburg and Historical Revisionism" that it was really the Germans who were to blame. He says, "The first non-military target to be bombed during World War II was Freiburg, Germany, but the perpetrators were not the British (or in earlier versions, the French), as Nazi propagandists and their believers have maintained for the last sixty years. Freiburg was bombed by the Luftwaffe in a mistaken attack on what they believed was a French town. This conclusion is based on a series of inconsistencies in the original reports that have since been cleared up by a number of historians. First, Freiburg was bombed on May 10, 1940, and not May 11 (or February 10). Second, the blame was initially placed on the French for the bombing and then shifted to the British. Third, and most importantly, May 10, 1940, marked the beginning of a massive offensive on the part of Nazi Germany against the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg with simultaneous bombings of French targets. Freiburg was no surprise attack on a quite university town by British bombers looking to kill children; it was the unfortunate consequence of Nazi Germany's policy of aggressive war against anyone who stood in her way of continental domination."

We are bombing Germany , city by city, and ever more terribly, in order to make it impossible for you to go on with the war. That is our object. We shall pursue it remorselessly

Both of the inside pages have long propaganda messages. There are four newspaper quotes regarding the bombing of Germany on the left page and a statement by Air Marshall Sir Arthur (Bomber) Harris on the right. Some of his comments are:

The right inside page features two pictures with more dead women and children on the street and on the steps outside a building. The captions are:

When opened, the left inside page depicts dead women and children on the sidewalk and the caption:

The German air attacks on Warsaw and Rotterdam could never be recognized as a pretext for these British attacks, because both cities then lay in the front line and were defended militarily by enemy troops. In spite of the foregoing facts, the Luftwaffe did not hit back at once, but instead, Adolf Hitler gave a warning as to the consequences of the British bombing. It was not until September 1940 that the Luftwaffe began to attack British towns.

On May 10, 1940, the RAF began the air war against civilians with a raid on the open town of Freiburg, although the German air force had never carried out a single raid on a town in the British isles. 57 civilians, including 29 children, died in that attack on Freiburg. After that, more and more German towns were bombed by Bomber Command.

As early as 1933 and several times in 1935 Adolf Hitler suggested an international pact with a view to make an air war on the civilian population impossible. The British government turned down his proposals.

This is another in a long list of German leaflets attacking the Allied for the bombing of Germany. The back of the leaflet shows the same woman now picking among the dead, perhaps for her child. The leaflet is coded E-120. The caption is:

This is a very impressive visual 4-page folded leaflet by the Germans. It pictures a woman looking at a line of dead children on the sidewalk. The title is:

The final known Signal, E.1/1945 depicts a parachutist on the front that seems to be wiring a telephone pole and the caption, "Parachute troops can do anything." The back page shows a pretty girl on a bicycle near a scenic hotel and the caption, "Rendezvous at the Belvedere."

Signal E.19 was found in the Netherlands. The front depicts a modern submarine next to an old sailing ship and the caption "War and peace meet together." The back page shows a smiling woman and the caption "After her days work "

Signal E.18 has been found in the Netherlands and possibly Belgium. The front page depicts a scene of a German manned torpedo and the text "A German one-man torpedo setting off against the enemy." The back depicts women shopping and the caption "A new Willi Forst film "

Signal E.17 was found in both England and the Netherlands. The front cover depicts an astrological clock with the time at 5 minutes to twelve. We should mention here that both sides constantly used this same image, the meaning being that one should not be killed in the last moments before the war ended. It was a plea for surrender that both the Allies and the Fascists used regularly. The back depicts athletic looking women rowing a boat.

Signal E.16 has been reported but there is no published data on the cover or contents. Since the miniature magazines distributed by the V-1s were identical to the genuine Signal magazines, the cover surely depicted two German soldiers on watch in a deserted urban street. A number of people who were aware of the miniature versions have stated that they were exact shrunken copies of the regular version, with the only difference being that the inner color pages were removed. Auckland makes the same assertion in his booklet on V-1 leaflets.

On Christmas Eve, 1944, a V-1 flying bomb fell on Owaldtwistle during a raid aimed at northwest England. It was reported that some of these bombs carried propaganda leaflets. One was a leaflet named 'Signal,' and the other leaflets headed "V1 P.O.W. Post.

Miniature copies in English were prepared to be carried by the V1. The issues numbers known are E.16, E.17, E.18, E.19, E.1/1945. Auckland states that only six copies are known to exist in Great Britain. He discusses one raid that occurred on Christmas Eve of 1944:

Signal was published by the Deutscher Verlag, the former Ullstein publishing house, renamed after its Jewish owners had been ousted, under the auspices of the OKW and the Auswärtiges Amt (Foreign Office). The Propaganda Ministry, though frequently said to have exerted influence on and maintained control over Signal, was driven out by the Foreign Office as early as 1940, and never succeeded in securing any significant influence -- much to the dismay of Goebbels.

Signal was a genuine German propaganda magazine that was produced all through the war years from April 1940 until March 1945 [some sources claim April], ending with issue 6/45. It was authorized by the German High Command and Foreign Office. The page count of single issues varied greatly. Early issues had 48 pages, the last being issue 2/44, published in January 1944. Toward the end of the war the usual number of pages was 40.

Germany is making use of secret weapons! The First U.S. Army has been smashed to pieces. The majority of its soldiers have been killed.

Notice that the newssheet above mentions the destruction of the First U.S. Army. This uncoded German leaflet uses the same theme. Some of the text on the back is:

Two other issues are known. The first is number 2 (December 1944) and the second is number 11 (March 1945). Both are known to have been dropped by German aircraft. It is not known if they were also carried by V1.There is some confusion about this newssheet. Both Joe Nagl the Specialist-collector and Reginald Auckland of the PSYWAR Society call it a four-page newssheet, so it might have been published in two formats. We know for sure that it exists in a two-page format, so an early error might have crept into the initial reports.

"Facts Figures Faces" is a two-page news-sheet. Issue number 3 (29 December 1944) was found by a crashed V1 near Pfalz, Germany in January 1945 with the launching ramp aimed toward Liege, Belgium. Issue 3 obviously was timed to be used with the German Ardennes offensive called the "Battle of the Bulge." The main story claims that the First U.S. Army has been smashed. A second story states that 274,549 Allies were lost in the first three weeks of November 1944.

This leaflet was found in both Antwerp and ZeeuwsVlaanderen, Eefde, Arnhem, and Eerbeek in the Netherlands

The lead story, Nobody tells you but you ought to know accuses the Allies of mass murder of civilians with the bombing of German cities. . Other stories include Roosevelts Brain Trust, which points out that many of the people around the American President are Jews, and Your airmen did this, listing 17 special hospitals in Germany that treat children who have been disfigured and lost limbs in Allied bombings.

This leaflet was found in Almelo, Holten, and Eefde, in the Netherlands in 1945.

The lead story Is there a mystery, explains that the Germans are still a major fighting force with soldiers in reserve and a civilian population dedicated to victory. Other stories include News of the Volkssturm  which tells of how the older Germans called up to help the Wehrmacht took part in defending the Siegfried line, and Farewell to heavy arms about the vast number of U.S. Sherman tanks but how the German genius and inventiveness will still win the war. There is a brief mention of the V-weapons, 15,000 workmen who came to London from the Midlands to clear away debris, have not returned from their Christmas holiday. 800,000 homes have to be rebuilt.

This leaflet was found in Antwerp, Belgium, and ZeeuwsVlaanderen, Renkum, Tholen, Helvoirt, Teteringen, Tilburg, Eefde, and Arnem, in the Netherlands.

Issue four insults American troops in an article entitled THE YANKS TAKE IT EASY. General Field Marshal Model is quoted as saying that All their attacks start with a terrific barrage. They then begin feeling their way forward very carefully, sometimes extremely timidly with tanks. Hardly ever do they come to grips in close-in infantry fighting. Another article says that 87% of German troops in new infantry battalions want to fight in the West where Weve got a score to settle with the Tommies. We want to pay them back for their bombs. The leaflet depicted above was dropped on Allied troops at Kloosterzande, Holland , near Antwerp , Belgium in early 1945.

This leaflet was found in Antwerp, Belgium, and Gorssel, Loosebroek, Arnhem, and Wageningem, in the Netherlands in 1945.

The first story, Roll on, old war, talks of peace and an Allied victory, then goes on to say No, thats where youre wrong and points out that the Germans are still fighting bitterly. Other stories are Christmas greetings, which tells of a German woman worker carrying on in the home front, and Your bath, sir, which talks about the Allied belief that they would be in a warm tub by Christmas, but instead are on the front taking an ice-water bath. A fourth story is entitled Like sliding around on a sunbeam and tells of flying the new German jet fighter which is superior to anything the Allies can put into the air.

Copies of this leaflet were found in Hertford Heath on 19 November, Hoddeson on 25 July and 24 October, and Radlett on 18 December 1944, all in Hertforshire, Britain, and in Antwerp, Belgium, and Helvoirt, and Anger lo de Pol, the Netherlands.

There are two sizes on this leaflet, a smaller version for troops on the continent, 15 x 21cm, and a larger size fired at England, 20 x 24cm.

In general, The Other Side is a clever propaganda leaflet. It is nicely illustrated with interesting stories that entice one to read on. Buried within the articles are pro-German propaganda designed to sap the will of the reader to fight on. For instance, issue two has "Some Tips for House-to-house Fighting." Not really tips, the text explains that the Germans have learned from the partisans they fought and the fighting will be horrific. There is a prophecy from a Swedish psychic, "Biggest-Ever allied defeats in 1944  says Swedish Prophet." Curiously, because the British believed that Hitler and many top Nazi leaders believed in prophecy and astrology, they were also producing black literature where various psychics claimed that the predictions of Nostradamus foretold Nazi doom. A third article explains how the German night-fighter pilots take Noctan B, a marvelous wonder-drug that allows them to see in the dark. A final article depicts a German fighter pilot and says "He has shot down more than 300 Soviet planes." All of these subjects are interesting and difficult to ignore. This would seem to be one of the better German V1 series. The leaflet depicted above was in the collection of the late Mr. Geoff Gorrod of Lowestoft . He found it at the site where an air-launched V-1 fell on cottages at Low Farm, Carlton Colville, ( Suffolk ), England , on 19 November 1944. Mr. Gorrod took several pictures of the aftermath of the incident, in which two people were killed.

This leaflet was found in Frant, Sussex, on 5 November, East Grinstead, Sussex, on 9 November, and Great Bentley, Essex, on 25 November 1944.

The Other Side is the title of a pamphlet dropped over southeast England by the V1. The pamphlet was four pages long and only six issues are known to exist. Number one depicts a V1 on the front and the heading " V1 - Those last few shots." It also depicts a British Lancaster bomber with the caption, "This is a Lancaster bomber, one of the machines used by the R.A.F. in terror raids on Germany . Thousands have been shot down." The back page bears a story about The Tragic Fate of Warsaw . Number two depicts Americans marching into Germany and the heading " How much longer will it last?" The main article on the back page is Biggest-Ever allied defeats in 1944. Number three depicts wounded troops and the title,  ROLL ON , OLD WAR! The back page is entitled Christmas Greetings. Number four is entitled "All of this Got you nowhere," with cartoons of the German and American home front. On the German home front, civilians fight along with the armed forces to protect the nation. Meanwhile, British and American troops run low of ammunition in the second cartoon while an American worker reads a newspaper. Another featured article is What is going on in the Scheldt ? That story implies that some sort of secret weapon is destroying Allied shipping in the River Scheldt. The major story on the back page is entitled INSIDE GERMANY . Number five depicts a German tank factory and the heading "Is there a Mystery?" News stories on the back page are News of the Volkssturm and Farewell to Heavy Arms! The final issue depicts a German mother and children and the title "Nobody tells you...but you ought to know." The text claims that indiscriminate bombing of Germany is the same as mass murder. The back page features a Soviet octopus swallowing Europe and the articles, The Glitter of the West and  Roosevelt s Brain Trust. Issue one was dropped over England . Issue two was dropped over England and the Continent. Issues three, four, and six were found in the Netherlands and Belgium . Issue number five was found only in the Netherlands . When they were dropped over both Europe and England , the Continental version is 15 x 24cm, while a larger 20 x 24cm pamphlet was used against the British.

We know the British were very strict about the German leaflets, but apparently the Americans were not. A GI who found the leaflet, probably in Belgium, sent it to his parents in the USA, who promptly forwarded it to Phillips parents. This was the first indication to Phillips father that his son was still alive.

Joe Nagl says that this leaflet was dropped by V1 missile on Allied installations in Belgium in September, 1944 and Matsbos , Holland, early in 1945. A copy was also found by a V1 launching site Nijrees in the Netherlands on 4 April 1945. Joe told me an interesting story about this leaflet. Phillip was a member of the 103rd Infantry Division of the 7th Army in France. About 1 December 1944 his entire company was captured by the Germans at Schlettstadt . He was sent to Stalag XII where all his belongings were confiscated.

The Germans seemed to love to use letters from Americans in their leaflets. In this leaflet they quote a letter taken from POW PFC Phillip Lombardi from his father. Naturally, the Germans selected an anti-War, anti-Soviet letter to reproduce. Curiously, the father talks about America helping Russia so that they will be able to sell cheap goods to the United States and hurt the American economy. That did happen, but it was not the USSR; it was Germany and Japan that were rebuilt by the USA and later dumped cheap products.

Found in the Netherlands; location not known; but it is confirmed by the Rijksinstitut in Amsterdam that this leaflet was carried by a V1. This uncoded leaflet is also known to have been dropped by aircraft over Allied troops in Northwest Europe  probably about the same time, March 1945. An identically worded leaflet, code SKJ 2012, but in a different format was shelled to American troops in Northwest Europe. A few days after the V1 version was dropped it was reproduced on another uncoded leaflet with additional text and a prominent NO ANSWER dropped by aircraft. The reverse of this last leaflet featured the famous WWI cartoon Cest sa main.

This leaflet above was in the Nagl collection with the caption:

Stalag XII A was formed on 29 January 1940 from Gulag G and contained 42,202 POWs, 216 of them officers. On the night of 23 December 1945 the camp was mistakenly bombed by the Royal Air Force who missed a German Luftwaffe base adjacent to the camp. 81 POWs were killed. The bodies were buried in a common grave dug by other prisoners. The Germans had the wounded survivors write letters which were later placed in V1 missiles and fired at Antwerp, Belgium. The photographs were forwarded to me in 1985 by former Stalag XII A prisoner David Schneck.

This American prisoner of Stalag XII A was photographed on 27 March 1945. He had lost 68 pounds after three months as a German prisoner. The POWs got one bowl of thin soup and one piece of bread daily.

Notice that the buildings are clearly marked P.O.W. However, the British RAF bombed at night so this sign would be of no use in the dark.

On the back of the leaflet are eight more letters addressed to relatives of wounded Allied prisoners.

The finder of this leaflet is requested to cut out or copy the letters printed here and to transmit them by air-mail to the addresses, so that the patients relatives may get this information as early as possible

Like the POW Post leaflets, this leaflet bears letters from prisoners-of-war and it was probably hoped by the Germans that the leaflets would be forwarded to the families so that where the V1 landed might somehow be determined. In fact, the Leaflet asks:

A third variety is entitled "Post for USA." These were found in Belgium and are intended for U.S. Army personnel.

A second variety of the letter leaflet is somewhat similar but with the "P.O.W. Post" at the bottom of the page with no mention of "V1." It bears an added issue number. So far, only issue number 22 has been found. There may or may not be more editions. Both we and the Germans sometimes used random numbers on our leaflets to force the enemy to waste time searching for issues that did not exist. These were found in the Netherlands at launching sites and may have never been disseminated.

There are believed to be six of the standard types such as we depict above. They are numbered V1/1 to V1/6. They come in both a horizontal and vertical format. No example of V1/1 and V1/2 exist. Numbers 3 and 4 are in the vertical format. Numbers 5 and 6 are in the horizontal format. My copy of V1/6 was dropped on Brindle, near Manchester on 24 December 1944 from a V1 missile launched from a German Heinkel bomber. There are two letters on the front. The letter at the left is dated 20 November 1944 from Sgt. J. W. Cooke in Stalag V11A, to his mother, Mrs. J. Cooke in Lancashire , England . The letter at the right is from Sgt. S. Horrohen to Mr. and Mrs. T. Cannon, in South Devon , England .

William also enclosed a photocopy of his brother's original letter on a Kriegsgefangenenpost folded lettersheet with the imprint of Stalag XI B. This proves that the letters were not German propaganda, but were in fact genuine letters written by prisoners of war. It is surprising that William first heard that his brother was alive because of the V1 leaflet, and received the actual letter months afterward.

wounded but the German doctors made an excellent job of him and he is now completely fit and well. I will pass on the leaflet to him the next time we meet, so thank you once again for the trouble you have taken on our behalf.

Many thanks for your kindness is sending the reproduction of my brother's letter. I received the original some months afterward which by the way, was the first communication after being taken prisoner at Arnheim. We got an official notification the day after the flying bomb dropped at Tottingham near Buny, and this was the first news we had of my brother's whereabouts after he had been posted missing. He was badly wounded but the German doctors made an excellent job of him and he is now completely fit and well. I will pass on the leaflet to him the next time we meet, so thank you once again for the trouble you have taken on our behalf.

William Goodwin was located after the war and sent a copy of the V1 leaflet bearing his brother's letter. In January 1959 William wrote back and said:

William Goodwin was located after the war and sent a copy of the V1 leaflet bearing his brother's letter. In January 1959 William wrote back and said:

The back of V1/5 depicts two letters, one from a Arthur Goodwin of Lancashire , England , and the other from a James Swanston of Peeblesshire , Scotland . The Goodwin letter to his brother William is particularly interesting because this is one of the rare cases where we know exactly how the Germans obtained it.

Just a line to assure you that your husbands case is progressing very satisfactorily. The fracture in his arm is well healed and he is now doing a course of exercise to strengthen the musculature. His general health is very good.

Darling this is an extra letter form we are allowed for Christmas greetings, a short one. I hope this reaches you in time for Christmas. Whether it does or not, you will know I am thinking of you as I shall know you are thinking of me. And although we must be apart, we both know it is our last Christmas apart. I shall be thinking especially of you, too on our wedding anniversary knowing that we shall celebrate all and future ones together. So have a happy Christmas darling, knowing that I am still all right, completely cured and thinking of you and that we shall be together soon. I love you. Always your own.

Although leaflet V1/5 was printed in a horizontal format, the intent of the leaflet is the same. The text of one of the letters on the front includes a letter from a POW to his wife, followed by a short note from the Camp doctor assuring the wife that her husband has received good medical treatment and is doing well. The text of the letter is:

Two more P.O.W. letters appear on the back of V1/4, again handwritten in black and printed in red. This leaflet was dropped near Huddersfield , England , 24 December 1944 from a V1 missile launched from a German Heinkel bomber.

The V1 left a crater 33 feet in diameter and around 5 feet deep. About 130 houses, the village church, the school, the Methodist Chapel, the working mens club and the only pub in the village were all damaged but no one was hurt. Had the bomb travelled another 80 yards or so half the village would have been wiped out.

I believe that the letters were intended to get to the families of the POWs so that the families could write to their loved ones in the prison camps in Germany. The Germans would then intercept the letters and hopefully find where the bombs had landed so they could work out more accurately the distances of their intended targets. I understand that the British intelligence service had been feeding false information to Germany regarding distances of important areas of the country; hence the MPs offering such a substantial amount (10 Shillings) for the letters to be destroyed.

My grandfather kept this leaflet which was ejected from a German V1 bomb that landed on a small village (Grange Moor) Near Huddersfield in West Yorkshire on 24th December 1944, despite the Military Police collecting them from the residents and offering a fee of 10 shillings each! The bomb had been intended for the steelworks in Sheffield but overshot by about 30 miles.

Nicolas Booth wrote to me in 2015 to say that a copy of the above leaflet was in his grandfathers papers when he died in 1986. He said:

This same text appears on the back of a variation of the above leaflet. It bears no code so I suspect this was never actually printed and disseminated during the war. It comes from a collection with many legitimate leaflets so perhaps this was an early German version that they did not approve.

The same leaflet on what appears to be very thin paper that allows the front to show through has also been seen with a different back. This might be another case of the Germans trying to find the best match of front and back. The Germans prepared another leaflet coded AI-167-11-44 (see below) with the text:

AI-094-8-44

Leaflet AI-094-8-44 depicts a single V-1 falling on two huge smokestacks, obviously a factory complex. The back is all text with clippings from News Review and News Chronicle.

V1 Information

News Review:

Dont underrate the pilotless planes; they are far more terrible than expected in the first few days. Reliable and level-headed military experts are of the opinion that the German Supreme Command is killing 3 birds with one stone with their new weapon.

1 - A large part of the Allied Air Force must stay in England for defense purposes. 2 - A large part of Allied bombers must engage in costly but rather ineffective raids against the launching ramps. 3 - The Germans can save their bombers for the big continental battles.

News Chronicle:

Churchills statement that London most likely would soon become for intensified robot attacks has already resulted in mass evacuations of the battered metropolis.

AI-095-8-44

The text on the back of this leaflet is:

V1 Information Magazine "Flight": We must admire the German technical genius which has again produced an entirely new and formidable weapon. "Daily Express":

Our fight against the P-Planes (pilotless planes) has now become a major military operation which is tying up at least one hundred thousand men of the air force and a thousand planes. London correspondent of magazine "South Africa": It is incomprehensible why these robot attacks continue, and even grow in intensity from week to week, although it was claimed that thousands of tons of explosives had been dropped on the launching ramps of the robot planes. The situation is now such that the people in various parts of London are arguing as to which district has suffered the most. This Poplar is fighting against Putney, Hackney against Hampstead, Camberwell against Camden Town, Wimbledon against Willesden. One thing, however, is experienced by every Londoner: He cannot move along the streets without encountering veritable mountains of broken glass and debris.

AI-081-7-44

A number of the German leaflets simply showed the phrase "V1" on the front. Apparently the Germans believed that the very sight of such a phrase was enough to terrify the Allies. One such leaflet is coded AI-081-7-44. The "V1" is in red. The title on the back of the leaflet is "FACTS CONCERNING V NUMBER 1." There is a long 5-paragraph propaganda text below the title. The first two paragraphs are:

1. No AA barrage and no fighter planes can prevent the gigantic "Doodle Bugs," as the Londoners call them, from coming over. The "Doodle Bugs" travel at a tremendous speed making them invulnerable to attacks. 2. "V Number 1" does not depend on weather, time season, or visibility. It is an "all weather" and "round the clock" weapon of deadly nerve-wrecking regularity. It is robbing Britishers of their sleep, keeping them down in the shelters and away from their work benches and desks. A British Spitfire about to use the Wing Tip-Over on a V-1

(Photo - Hanger 7 Art)

Of course, the Germans were very wrong in their estimation of the V1. In fact, once Churchill moved his anti-aircraft guns to the coast, a great number were shot down. The Royal Air Force also discovered that by stripping down their Spitfire and Hawker Tempest fighters they could catch the V1. At night, British Mosquitoes joined the fight. There was no need for radar because the flames from the V1 engine could be seen from 10 miles away. The pilots would sometimes fire on the flying bombs, other times use their wing to tip it over, causing the V1 to crash into unpopulated woods and meadows. Between June and mid-August 1944, the handful of Tempests shot down 638 flying bombs. By August 1944, the threat of the V1 was mostly eliminated by the sudden arrival of two electronic aids for anti-aircraft guns, both developed in the USA. The use of radar to aim the anti-aircraft guns, and the proximity fuse. Of the 30,000 V1s manufactured, about 10,000 were fired at England. Of these, about 7000 were "hits" in that they landed somewhere in England. About half, 3876, landed in the Greater London area. An almost equal number were shot down or crashed into tethered barrage balloons.

AI-102-9-44

The Germans seldom used humor in their leaflets, but this one is a rare exception. The front shows the phrase "V1" in a red circle, surrounded by four cartoons. One compares Winston Churchill's "V for Victory" sign with "V1," a second shows London journalists keeping mum about the death and destruction, a third depicts civilians being reminded of V weapons when they see a British corporal's V-shaped stripes, and the final one depicts a British Tommy with his hands in the air in the shape of a "V." The message on the back of the leaflet is:

V1 - THE DEADLY BLUFF Britain built up an air defense of enormous proportions, sparing neither cost nor exertion in employing the most modern technical means. With one stroke this whole system of air defense has become worthless with the introduction of flying bomb V-1. V1 has upset all known methods of aerial warfare. Other equally revolutionary new weapons will follow. They will prove to you that V1 FLYING BOMBS AREN'T THE LAST BLUFF.

AI-089-8-44

Leaflet AI-089-8-44 is all text with a bright red "V1" on both the front and back. It was prepared by the Germans to be dropped on the British troops fighting in Italy in August 1944 and hints at the V2 that is to be aimed at England next. The text is:

Do you know the answer to these questions? 1. Are the German "V1" rocket bombs just a "propaganda bluff" of Goebbels? 2. Why are London and southern England being evacuated? 3. Did you government make ample preparation for housing and feeding your families after evacuation? 4. Do you know whether the Midlands and northern England will be spared similar attacks by secret German weapons? 5. What will England look like after the war in view of the tremendous and progressive devastations inflicted by secret new weapons? Do you know the answer to these questions? 6. Have you got any idea what "V Number 2" will be like? 7. Do you know to what extent the supply bases for the invasion and the armament plants have already been smashed? 8. Is there any official and binding assurance that you and yours are going to get an adequate compensation in case you lose your home, your furniture and your clothing? 9. Are you sure that your family and your home have not already been affected and that your loved ones are out of danger, out of distress and misery? 10. Which M.P. would have the courage to ask these questions in the House and which minister would have the courage to answer them?

Kr-027-7-44

Leaflet Kr-027-7-44 also depicts the V1 in red, but has a long propaganda message discussing a speech made by the British Prime Minister on 1 November 1943. The Kr code is one of the several different ones used by the SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers on their propaganda leaflets. This leaflet was aimed at British and American troops fighting in Italy . Some of the long message is:

Mr. Churchill, Originator of Indiscriminate Bombing, Speaks About V Number 1

Churchill prepared the English people for the fact that this battle might be protracted. The introduction of this weapon by Germany faced England with grave problems. Churchill admitted that there were districts where the damage through explosion was so great that it could not be dealt with by the local organizations.

A Giant Target Indeed!

154-/9,44

Another leaflet that uses Churchill as a main theme is coded with a tiny triangle that we usually call Delta. We dont know much about the unit German involved but it is known that the leaflets were dropped on Allied troops in Italy during late 1944. The leaflet depicts Churchill pointing at a clock with the hands pointed at V1 and V2 and the text:

Hurry up boys  I am afraid we may be too late!

The back of the leaflet is all text and the entitled 4 Questions. Some of the text that mentions the vengeance weapons is:

1 Answer: The answer was given by Churchill himself when replying to the question put by a labour delegate as to whether anything was known in England of new German secret weapons. He said: I have knowledge of a lot of horrible things.

AI-167-11-44

Leaflet AI-167-11-44 is all text and prepared by the Germans to be dropped on the British troops fighting in Italy in November 1944. The V2 is no longer just a bluff now. This leaflet discusses the rocket weapon in much greater detail:

Death from the unknown. Secret Explosions rocking London. Nothing can be seen. Nothing can be heard. But it's there: V2

The back of the leaflet is all text and says:

Churchill in the House on Nov.10, 1944: Already for weeks England has been subjected to the bombardment of German long-range rocket projectiles. They are filled with approximately the same quantity of high explosives as the flying bombs (V1); however, they have a greater striking power and cause heavier damage in the vicinity of impact.

V1 - They Don't Lie

Another interesting German leaflet is a 1944 folded piece to the British Army in Italy with text on both the front and back. The leaflet has no code number.

The front is entitled "They Don't Lie!" The leaflet depicts about a dozen stamped and addressed British airmail envelopes that allegedly were taken from captured or dead British soldiers. The back of the leaflet shows excerpts from those letters. Two such examples are:

Tell all the boys out there to hurry up and finish off Jerry as things are bad back home. Mummy says they get no rest at all and the other night. They had bombs going off every 20 minutes. Who says the war will end soon, I can't see it. The only excitement we have are these ruddy flying bombs, and that is the wrong kind of excitement.With the sirens going continuously all day, one is almost afraid to go outside the door. Majority of people are sleeping downstairs, either in their Morrison or Anderson and on made up beds on the floor. Indeed, London is having a Hell of a time. We only hope Jerry hasn't anything more deadly up his sleeve for us.

Note: The Morrison shelter was an indoor shelter, basically a metal box for people. The idea was that a family could sleep in it and would give them protection if the house collapsed around them. The Anderson shelter is a small homemade bomb shelter that people built in their back yards. The Anderson was a curved piece of corrugated sheet steel with brick ends. It offered no protection from a close bomb hit but it was safer than sleeping in your bedroom where a nearby explosion might cause your home to collapse.

When opened, the inside of the leaflet depicts a red scale with a British bomb on one side and the symbol "V1" on the other. The scale indicates that the V1 is far more dangerous than the bomb. The title of the leaflet is the Biblical, "He who soweth wind...reapeth storm." A long propaganda text with blurbs allegedly from various world newspapers follow. Two examples are:

London has got the jitters. Day and night hundreds of thousands are rushing the barriers at Waterloo Station, Paddington, and other stations trying to escape from the Chaos.

Nya Dagligt, Allehanda, Stockholm , 29 July 1944.

The Germans have still further improved their method of letting off the robot bombs in groups. When such a stream comes roaring along it seems as if the end of the world has arrived.

New York Times, 25 July 1944.

The V3 Demon

This uncoded German leaflet attempts to terrify Allied soldiers by implying that the third generation of secret terror weapons will be able to follow an individual. The front bears no text and shows the missile chasing a soldier on a motorcycle. The back depicts four more cartoons concluding with the missile hitting the motorcycle and killing the soldier. Text at the bottom of the back is:

and what about the next to come?

Your Near Future?

Another uncoded German leaflet disseminated in October 1944 depicts a giant fist striking an American soldier in front of a burial cross with his family at upper left, Death at upper right, and the text:

Your Near Future?

The back is all text and mentions the vengeance weapon in part:

They told you V1 would be eliminated, and you believed it. But London is still under the devastating fire of V1. How come? Germany has developed a new means of action-quite a revolution in warfare. V1 is only the beginning of it. You will soon--too soon for you--find out.

Lightning News  12 November 1944

The Germans dropped a newspaper leaflet called Lightning News on Allied troops in Western Europe . It was probably best known for always having a pin-up of a naked woman somewhere on the front page. This November 12 issue has news stories on Japan , the weather, the draft, and general war subjects. The feature story is entitled Robot planes  an unpleasant weapon, and mentions the current use of the V1 and the future use of the V2.

Lightning News  January 1945

This third issue of the Lightning News introduced the V2 missile to America. At the lower right is a picture of a destroyed neighborhood and the test:

The effect of the V2

Home Telegram  January 1945

German leaflet *415-1-45 is a 4-page Sudstern Organization ("Southern Star") newspaper entitled The Home Telegram. The newspaper features a masthead that depicts the skyline of New York City and the Statue of Liberty. In an article entitled German V-offensive against London in issue 4 of January 1945 we see some of the following comments:

A member of the diplomatic Corps who recently arrived in Spain after a stay of many years in England stated how relieved he was not to have to return to London any more. Since the middle of June he had experienced the German V-offensive. Then there had been a short pause, which people had foolishly thought was the end of the bombing. But during the last 80 days the enormous intensification of the bombing through the addition of the terrifying "V-2s" had made life in London absolutely unbearable...

This particular newspaper leaflet is rather rare. I have seen perhaps 4 of them and we know that probably about a dozen were printed. For instance, number 11 with the code number *433-3-45 from March 1945 also comments on the rocket attacks. It says in part:

13 ton rockets pounding London? On March 17, American newspapers for the first time featured reports about the effect of the "V" bomb shelling of London. The British censors had finally passed a number of curtailed reports about the "sudden death from the sky."

Bomb Burst

One of the strangest leaflets produced by the Germans simply depicts a bomb burst. This issue was dropped November 1944 on Allied troops in Western Europe. The text explains:

BOMB BURST

High-speed photographs record violent details of explosions. When an ordinary heavy aerial bomb explodes, any amount of damage is done When Germany s V1 lands, Hell breaks loose  And now try to imagine V2

The back is all text. Some of the message is:

Have you heard the news?

The German Supreme Command announces

On November 7th 1944 the 2nd Retaliation Weapon V2 is being directed toward England .

OF COURSE, no one need worry about it

The Allied press has occupied itself for a long time already with this new Buzz Bomb (No 2) and fortunately, according to these reports, this has turned out to be just another bluff just as Buzz Bomb No 1 was.

A German fake Shelling Report

I love this leaflet because it close resembles an actual American shelling report. I actually depict several genuine shelling reports in my article on sex propaganda in WWII. Because it was important to report enemy shelling, sexual images and pin-up girls were often placed on the form so that the soldiers would keep them. My old 1973 FM 30-5, Combat Intelligence explains the report:

Information on enemy bombing, shelling, or mortaring activity is initially disseminated by means of a BOMBREP, SHELREP, or MORTREP, as appropriate. Submission is the responsibility of the affected unit.

The form generally required the unit to list the time and type of attack, the number of shells, the size and type of the armaments, direction, the damage, and other technical information. The information on enemy fire and its origin is useful to Intelligence and used by friendly artillery batteries for counter-fire.

In this case, the German have carefully reproduced what appears to be a genuine shelling report coded E, but instead of asking for information on enemy fire, it tells the reader to desert when the enemy fires and walk to the German lines where he will be safe. In addition, it mentions Buzz Bombs and Doodlebugs, so earns its place in this story.

GERMAN V1 LEAFLETS TO SWEDEN

The Germans also dropped V1 leaflets on the neutral nation of Sweden in late 1944. Peter Bjork has found two of them. The first depicts a map of Great Britain with London struck by a large letter V with a 1 directly over it. The leaflet is entitled V1 fortsätter (V1 continues) and features Quotes from the International Press about all the Damage and the high number of victims in the V1-raids on Britain.

The second Leaflet depicts six letter Vs with numbers from 1 to 6. This is a clear threat that more German V weapons are on the drawing boards. The leaflet is entitled V1 + den brittiska propagandan (V1 and the British Propaganda) and features alleged evidence of the British propaganda lies concerning the flying bombs. The Leaflet ends with the fact that V1-Rockets actually defeat the Allied terror bombing as a military weapon  not as a terror-weapon.

What is V1?

Researcher Peter Olausson found a 1944 two-fold leaflet printed in Sweden entitled What is V1? inside a Bremen-printed Swedish-language booklet entitled ...The Day Shall Come...Europe Replies to the Anti-European Terrorists. The book Contains articles on the terror bombing of Europe, (to be more precise  Germany) and is signed by a Swedish merchant, a French architect, a Bulgarian solicitor, a professor in history in Florence, a Slovakian "higher priest", and finally a German, all anonymous.

The Day Shall Come...

The leaflet was probably produced by German agents or Swedish pro-Nazi collaborators there. The first page depicts a V1 missile in gray scale. The text is over 1,300 words long and contains numerous grammatical errors. There are statements by various Allied leaders before and after the introduction of the V1 weapon, and then a German justification of the weapons use. Since there is much duplication, I will print just four comments each from part one and part two:

What is the V1? (Stockholm 1944)

British and American voices from before 15 June 1944:



Mr. Eden explained during the annual Congress of the Conservative Party in London, 20 May 1943: ...We know what's best for Germany - not attacks during the night or in daylight, but bomb attacks both day and night, incessantly, continuously, hour after hour.

Brendan Bracken established on 19 August 1943, in Quebec, that: ...Our plans are to bomb and with fire and without mercy exterminate and annihilate the people who are responsible for the creation of this war. Vice Air Marshal Saundby gave the following statement in December 1943, published by the Exchange: In the German cities that have been attacked, nearly 25 % of the built-up areas have been laid to waste. The number of destroyed buildings amount to millions. A civilized life as we know it is no longer possible among the ruins of Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Cologne and other cities. On 14 March 1944, General Arnold answered the question whether they must limit the bombing to precision bombing, or if carpet bombing sometimes was more desirable: We can do carpet bombing. That is more effective for breaking down the morale of a people; it creates confusion in the society and is better for the destruction of a city than the destruction of specific targets, which we have tried so far. British voices after 15 June 1944:



The Observer writes on 18 June 1944: This is an utterly imprecise weapon, suitable only for random destruction. The Pope, who made such passionate protests when the historical monuments of Rome were endangered, now has another opportunity to raise his voice. The radio station at Daventry, said on 25 June 1944:

What does the German do? They keep going on with their offensive on the barbaric front of horror and terror. The so called flying bombs have no military effect, they cause limited damage only and relatively few human casualties, and thus they terrorize the English people." English Home Secretary Herbert Morrison explained in an interview in Neue Zürcher [sic] Zeitung 27 June 1944: I would like to report details, which show how randomly the flying bombs fall - an open abandonment of the usual rules of war, which our people will not forget. Candidus of the Daily Sketch writes on 26 June 1944: The flying bomb is a criminal method of warfare, employed to the uttermost extreme.

What is the V1?

The V1 is the European populations weapon of defense against the bombing terror of the British and the Americans. It will give the people of the European states, haunted by the bombing terror, a way to forever free themselves and their descendants from the threats of bombing terror against their lives, health and property The V-weapon shall and will break the bombing terror. As such, it is no weapon of terror, but the opposite! RAF and the American bombing squadrons have bombed European cities without mercy, day and night, from high altitudes and with the most modern means of destruction. They have bragged about how they would completely destroy the bombed cities and towns. The V1 on the other hand, is a military weapon. It is employed against military targets, to disrupt enemy communications and destroy plants and centers of important for the war economy or the war organization. Its launching sites as well as its technical construction guarantees military measurable target fire, accurate control of the trajectory and ability to adjust the impact.



As has been witnessed, London has experienced considerable damage on war-important plants and in various neighborhoods, as well as severe disruptions on the overcrowded motorways of Southern England. The same goes for the troop camps; the armories and airbases south of the Thames and will eventually go for the military points of concentration and armories north of the Thames. The German armed forces, well aware of the military effectiveness of the V-weapons, have no interest in reciting the observed results of the V1 employments. They, as well as the entire population in the haunted European areas - thus don't worry when the British propaganda attempt to spread the tale of the impossibility to control the V 1-weapon . [Printed by] Gernandts Boktryckeri, Stockholm 1944

For those that wonder about the German propaganda books and magazines to Sweden, Rune Carlsson says in Tredje rikets herrar (Lords of the Third Reich), Sohlmans, 1945:

A comment by a Nazi working in Stockholm is typical for the atmosphere among the younger Nazi elite. We spoke about the German propaganda in Sweden, and the German official, who came from the circles around Himmler and gave a very sympathetic impression, lamented the poor quality of the German pamphlets spread in Sweden. He said he completely understood that the Swedes didn't like the printed matters. Oh, there's a few who do, he added with an ironic smile. Every week I get a crate or two with propaganda which I'm supposed to distribute, and thanks to that (this was during the winter, when hot water wasn't available daily in Stockholm) the house where I live get an extra day of hot water every now and then. So I'd say those tenants appreciate the German propaganda.

A BROCHURE TO SPAIN

Cover and last page of brochure

We cannot be sure who produced this Spanish-language 4-page propaganda brochure. In theory, Spain was neutral, although Dictator Franco owed the Fascists for their military support during the Spanish Civil War. This brochure could have been printed by the Nazis, or Francos own people might have printed it. Nazi Germans in Spain could have paid and arranged the printing following instructions from the Reichs Propaganda Ministry. The cover of the booklet depicts the letter V and the number 2. Text immediately below the symbol is:

ON 8 NOVEMBER 1944 THE GERMAN ARMY HIGH COMMAND SAID:

Since the 15th of June, except for brief interludes, the great city of London was under increasing fire from the V-1. Several weeks ago this bombing was reinforced by the employment of a more efficient explosive weapon: The V-2.

The rest of the brochure is devoted to quoting two British books denouncing the Allied policy of mass bombing German cities, then short press and radio quotes praising the efficiency of the new weapon and concluding that British cities deserve the bombardment and retaliation.

Signal Extra Issue (Spanish Language edition)

Signal was a magazine published by the German Wehrmacht (Armed Forces) from 1940 through 1945. It reached a maximum circulation of 2,500,000 copies per issue and was published fortnightly in a total of 20 to 25 different languages. Based on the layout of Life, Signal utilized a blend of articles and pictures. It was lavishly illustrated, including full-page color plates. In Spain , you could buy Signal for one and a half pesetas, whereas other Spanish periodicals cost about six pesetas. The finder of this Spanish-language issue, Aitor Iriarte, said that it was crudely printed, probably by pro-Nazis after the official German source had dried up.

This issue of V1 Extra was thought to be distributed inside every different regular Signal issue number 13/1944. However, we dont know if the Spanish-language issue of 13/1944 was issued in Spain . The Spanish editions of Signal were printed in France and perhaps the printing facilities fell into Allied hands, or it might have been censored due to the fact that it depicted Francos yearly victory parade in Madrid at a time when Franco was not interested in appearing in a German magazine. We think the V1 Extra was independently printed and distributed only in Spain . This extra issue is only eight pages and depicts a V1 rocket approaching the firing platform with wings folded. Perhaps because of the war situation the translation of the German front cover caption is very poor Spanish and it literally says:

V1 veers with supporting surface towards departing point.

We know what they were trying to say because on some of the Signal magazines written in other languages the caption is:

V1, with folded wings, approaches the firing platform.

Additionally perfectly written Spanish text on the cover is:

Signal presents: The V1 up close; special report by war correspondent Hans Hubmann. Signal offers: A Special interview with the Reichs Economy Minister Funk; the German answer to plans by others for an international monetary system. Photographs on the inside pages of the Spanish Language Signal Magazine

Some of the photographs on the inside pages are scenes that we are familiar with. For instance one of the photos depicts V1s in flight, the same vignette as on leaflet AI-092-8-44 above. A second depicts a V1 falling on what appears to be two chimneys, a vignette from leaflet AI-094-8-44 above. A third photo of a V1 in flight was the same as the vignette on leaflet AI-095-8-44 above. It is clear that the Germans got double duty out of all these photographs, using them both in leaflets and in the magazine. Pages 4 through 7 of the magazine mention the V1. Pages 4 and 5, The V1 up close, explain the process of preparing the rocket, loading in on the ramp launching and firing it. Page 6, "On their way, explains that the automatic pilot on the V1 is so clever that Anti-aircraft fire and fighters are useless against it. Page 7, Over their target, depicts the enlargement of a photograph taken from an English newspaper, purportedly showing a V1 falling on a British factory.

The back cover bears a photo of Albert Speer showing the ascending curve of German weapons production on a graph.

A German Postcard for Spain

This item is not really a postcard because there is no place for an address or a message, but it is on a piece of cardboard and was distributed for free in the streets of Spain in late 1944. The Spaniard that sent this to me said:

During WWII Spain in theory was neutral, but most of the people in the country and the Franco Government favored Germany. From 1941 to 1944 the Spanish Blue Division (Spanish volunteers Division) was deployed to fight on the Eastern Front against the Russians. More than 40.000 Spanish soldiers fought in Russia.

The front of the card shows the Soviet leader Josef Stalin on the phone to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The back of the card shows a V2 with arms and legs strutting down the street. The text on the front of the card is:

MISTER CHURCHILL: My friend Stalin. The V2s are coming; we don't have time. The bombs will destroy England. What we can do? STALIN: Don't worry, man. I will reconstruct England later.

A German Handout for Spain

This propaganda leaflet was distributed on the streets of Spain in 1944 by individuals connected to the German embassy in Madrid. The two-page written message is far too long and convoluted to translate fully, but the title is WHAT WE MUST NOT FORGET. The text is a long explanation of why Germany is using the V-1 against British cities. It points out that the Allies have been heavily bombing civilians in Germany and now it is time for retaliation.

A GERMAN FOLDED LEAFLET FOR PORTUGAL

Continues

This German leaflet for Portugal is a single sheet folded once to make four sides. The front depicts the fairly standard German image of a large symbol V1 striking London. The two inside pages are all text with the heading The V1 Continues to weigh on England and comments on the German attacks by various newspapers such as The Daily Mail and The Times. The back page of the leaflet depicts three photographs of the V1 on its ramp and being fired toward England. The text quotes Winston Churchill and Tom Morrison:

The British Prime Minister and Minister of Interior say

The leaflet ends with:

The response from Germany: the V1 Continues.

Actually, Tom Morrison was the Minister of Home Security at the time and became known for the air raid shelter named after him, the Table (Morrison) Indoor Shelter. The shelters came in assembly kits, to be bolted together inside the home. The Morrison shelter was designed to withstand the upper floor of a typical two story house undergoing a collapse. Its design enabled the family to sleep under the shelter at night or during raids, and to use it as a dining table in the daytime. 500,000 Morrison shelters had been distributed by the end of 1941. In 1943, 100,000 more were prepared for the expected German V-1 flying bomb attacks.

This bomb weighs 2000 pounds

Like Spain, Portugal was a neutral country during WWII. However, it was a perfect place for spies to mingle with diplomats, refugees to be moved and interviewed, secret mail to be received from occupied Europe and all of the major powers to practice their propaganda. It is believed that about 100,000 refugees, many of them Jews, were rescued through entering neutral Portugal during the war. The Portuguese had very old ties of friendship with Great Britain, but also had the threat of a Nazi invasion at any time. They walked a very fine line. The British, meanwhile, produced a great number of propaganda postcards and brochures for Portugal, each showing the power and economic strength of the Allies and the impossibility of Germany winning WWII. One of the hundreds I have seen depicts a British airman standing next to a bomb. The Portuguese text says:

This bomb weighs 2000 pounds

In 25 days (June 16, 1941 to July 10, 1941) the R.A.F. dropped the equivalent of 4,000 bombs like this on attacks on military and industrial objectives in Germany.

The Americans often called Lisbon the Capital of Espionage, However, the Portuguese secret police maintained a neutral stance towards foreign espionage activity, as long as no one intervened in Portuguese internal policies. German spies attempted to buy information on trans-Atlantic shipping to help their submarines fight the Battle of the Atlantic. The Spanish spy Codenamed Garbo, who passed misinformation to the Germans, hoping it would hasten the end of the Franco regime was recruited by the British as a double agent while in Lisbon. William Colepaugh, an American traitor, was recruited as an agent by the Germans while his ship was in port in Lisbon. The OSS had agents in Portugal watching the movement of money and stolen tr