The use of radio as a medium of propaganda in wartime was made famous during WWII by Tokyo Rose (Born in Los Angeles in 1916, a Nisei first generation American) and Axis Sally (Rita Zucca, who was born in New York). The British listened to William Joyce (Lord Haw Haw) broadcasting from Germany. During the Korean War, Americans heard Seoul City Sue: (Anna Wallis, a Methodist missionary from Arkansas). In later wars, American soldiers would hear the voice of Hanoi Hannah (Trinh Thi Ngo. She called herself Thu Houng  the fragrance of Autumn) and Baghdad Betty. Radio propaganda can be broadcast over great distances to a large audience at a relatively low cost. In recent years, the United States has taken the lead in broadcast psychological operations (PSYOP) due to its superior technology, and its ability to use aircraft to broadcast AM, FM and short-wave radio from directly over target audience. America has dropped battery or crank-powered radios on third-world nations like Haiti so that the populace could hear the broadcasts. In the more recent struggles in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States distributed various battery and solar-powered satellite radios so that its story could be heard.

One would think that each of these propagandists would use the same general techniques. That is not true. Each one had his or her personal style and though their message was often same, each had a distinct personality. First the radio propagandists for the Axis.

Lord Hee Haw - William Joyce

LORD HAW HAW was a nickname applied to the Irish-American William Joyce, a propagandist against Great Britain early in WWII. While many of the German propagandists tried to sound like common British workers, Lord Haw Haw pretended to be an aristocrat. The broadcasts opened with Germany calling, Germany calling, spoken in an affected upper-class English accent. Joyce was a senior member of the British Union of Fascists and fled England when tipped off about his planned internment on 26 August 1939. Joyce was captured by British forces in northern Germany just as the war ended, tried, and eventually hanged for treason on 3 January 1946.

Axis Salley - Mildred Gillars

One of the most famous American Nazi collaborators was Mildred Gillars who would become known as AXIS SALLY. In 1933, she was in Europe acting as a governess and salesgirl. In 1934, she moved to Dresden, Germany, to study music, and was later employed as a teacher of English at the Berlitz School of Languages in Berlin. In 1940 she accepted employment Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft (RRG), German State Radio as an announcer and actress. Her fiancé, Paul Karlson, a naturalized German citizen, said he would never marry her if she returned to the United States. Shortly afterwards, Karlson was sent to the Eastern Front, where he was killed in action. Alone after his death, she signed an oath of allegiance to Germany to protect herself. Within a short time, the radio program director convinced her to make broadcasts for Hitler. After the war, Gillars was indicted and charged with ten counts of treason at her trial which began on 25 January 1949. On 10 March 1949, the jury convicted Gillars on one count of treason. She was sentenced to 10 to 30 years in prison, and a $10,000 fine. For more information on Mildred Gillars click here.

Philippe Henriot

Philippe Henriot was a collaborating Frenchman who worked with the Nazis in occupied France. He regularly attacked the French Resistance. In January 1944, he was appointed as the regimes chief propagandist. Henriot played on the anxieties of the French people by arguing that the hardships they faced stemmed from their continued association with the Allies and native resistance groups, whom he labeled terrorists. Henriots twice-daily radio shows were popular with the pro-German French public, many of whom called him the French Goebbels. In June 1944, he was assassinated in a targeted hit by French resistance fighters.

Tokyo Rose - Iva Toguri

Perhaps no broadcaster was as infamous as Iva Toguri - better known to Allied listeners as TOKYO ROSE. The American-born Toguri became stranded in Japan when the war began, and she was eventually coaxed behind the microphone and instructed to read radio scripts aimed at demoralizing U.S. troops in the Pacific. Toguri always maintained that she was a loyal American who had been forced onto the radio by circumstance, but after the war ended her 1949 trial resulted in a conviction on one of eight counts of treason and sentenced to several years in prison. U.S. President Gerald Ford pardoned Toguri in 1977. For more information on Tokyo Rose click here.

Seoul City Sue - Anna Wallis-Suh

Arkansas native Anna Wallis-Suh was a Methodist missionary, educator, and better known as SEOUL CITY SUE for her anti-American broadcasts for the North Koreans. She spent eight years working as a member of the American Southern Methodist Episcopal Mission in Korea. She met and married fellow staff member, Suh Kyoon Chul, thus losing her United States citizenship. They remained in Seoul during the Northern army's invasion of South Korea in June 1950. Suh began announcing a short English language program for North Korean radio starting about 18 July, continuing until shortly after the Inchon landing on September 15, when the Suhs were evacuated north as a part of the general withdrawal of North Korean forces. Subsequently, she continued broadcasts on Radio Pyongyang. The Suhs also participated in the political indoctrination of US POWs by teaching classes on Marxism. She also wrote demands and appeals such as A surrender appeal to fellow fighting men. For more information on Seoul City Sue click here.

Hanoi Hannah - Trinh Thi Ngo

Her name was Trinh Thi Ngo. Americans called her HANOI HANNAH. Americans love alliteration. She called herself Thu Houng, the Fragrance of Autumn. Her job was to chill and frighten, not to charm and seduce. Her voice was as smooth as silk, her English impeccable, and as North Vietnam's premier propagandist, she tried to convince American troops that the war was immoral, that they should lay down their arms and go home. Trinh Thi Ngos fame was associated with this program, which was broadcast at night after a long day of fighting. The opening sentence was: This is Thu Huong, talking with American soldiers in southern Vietnam . Initially, each program had been 5-6 minutes long and broadcast twice a week before it was extended to 30 minutes and broadcast three times a day. So each day, Ngo spent 90 minutes to have her voice broadcast to hundreds of thousands of American servicemen. For more information on Hanoi Hannah click here.

Baghdad Betty

We dont know much about BAGHDAD BETTY. The few American troops who heard her broadcasts say she was no Hanoi Hannah. Colonel Jeffrey Jones, Commanding Officer of the Armys 8th Psychological Task Force who directed U.S. PSYOP in the Gulf, says Bettys broadcasts were laughable. The broadcast became a laughing stock at they made cultural error after error. Saddam Hussein wasnt impressed with Bettys efforts either. In mid-December 1990 she was sacked after only three months of broadcasting, and replaced by a collection of announcers who called themselves "Mother of Battles Radio" on the same frequency that Betty had used. For more information on Baghdad Betty click here.

The Chief - Peter Secklemann

Unlike the Americans and the Axis, in Britain a secret is a secret. There are no wartime pictures of Peter Secklemann. They were all closely guarded and probably protected by the Official Secrets Act. About 40 years after the war, this picture of Secklemann appeared in a documentary about WWII.

We dont have so many radio propagandists for the Allies, but Sefton Delmer of the British Political Warfare Executive was running an anti-Hitler radio show for the British called Gustav Siegfried Eins. The show featured what was alleged to be an early Party member called Der Chef who constantly attacked the Nazi leadership for being not loyal enough to their Fuehrer and for their corruption. He also attacked That old Jew Churchill which made many Britons unhappy, it but was all part of the false persona. The Chief was voiced by a 39-year-old German exile named Peter Seckelmann. He had fled Nazi Germany to England in 1938. As "The Chief," his radio voice embodied the harsh tones of an enraged Prussian military officer, and he knew enough of both barracks curses and Germany under Hitler to hit the right notes as he railed against the Nazi Party leaders shortcomings. Perhaps the most intriguing part of this story is The Chiefs death. Delmer decided he should die on the radio so in the middle of his last show, the PWE staged a Gestapo raid and the audience heard, Ive finally caught you, you pig! There followed a hail of machine gun bullets. The Chief was dead. The only problem is that one technician played the same live broadcast later that evening and the Chief was killed again. One of the few radio personalities to die twice the same day in two different broadcasts.

Another funny fact about this story is that the naive American intelligence operatives fell for it. In another article I mention that the OSS sent reports to Washington D.C. of a Himmler plot to take power and the issue of a Himmler postage stamp that replaced the image of Hitler. That was a British propaganda operation. Here they again fall for the British trick and report on the radio station to Washington DC. According to the World War 2 Documentary Sex and the Swastika:

The U.S. Embassy in Berlin reported to Washington that there was an illegal radio station using unbelievably obscene language. Superficially it is violently patriotic and it is supposed by many German officers that it is supported by the Wehrmacht in secret.

Sir Leslie Charles Glass

Sir Leslie Charles Glass was an Army officer in the Psychological Warfare Division in South East Asia in the Second World War, Director-General of Information in Cyprus during the Emergency and later Chairman of the Counter Subversion Committee. He said in a lecture to the National Defence College on 14 March 1973 to an audience cleared for Top Secret:

Sefton Delmers outfit concentrated mainly on black radio stations which pretended to speak from Europe itself and to be run by our enemies. The most famous of these were Soldatensender Calais which pretended to be a German Forces broadcasting station; and the Atlantiksender West which did the same for the German Navy and particularly aimed a subtle attack at the morale of U-boat crews. Later in the war Woburn Abbey also ran an Italian black station called Radio Livorno against the Italian Navy, and Radio of the Italian Republic which aimed to split the Italians from the Germans; and even a station called Christ the King which implied that it was supported by the Vatican against the whole philosophy of Nazism. And finally, they broadcast a left wing worker radio broadcasting instructions to foreign workers in German factories on how to commit almost undetectable sabotage.

How do you get the enemy and the civilian population to listen to your broadcasts? The programs are on selected stations at certain times of the day. One of the most commonly used methods over the last 50 years is the radio leaflet. This leaflet is dropped from aircraft over the enemy or friendly target areas and tells the finder exactly when and where the broadcasts can be heard.

This is the story of the radio leaflet.

WWII Edward R. Murrow making his famous

broadcasts from London to America during the Blitz.

The Germans prepared a number of these radio leaflets and dropped them on the Allied troops in Italy and later Europe. They were sometimes prepared in two sizes, a large sheet for dropping from aircraft and a smaller sheet for delivery by artillery shell. About a half dozen different types are known. Some are marked with an "AI" code which indicates that the leaflet was prepared by the Propaganda Abschnitts Offizer Italien organization. This unit's printed material was produced in both Berlin and Verona, Italy. Other radio leaflets are marked with a small star. That indicates that the leaflets were printed in Italy by the Sudstern (Southern Star) section of the Skorpion South propaganda organization of the German 10th Army. In both cases, after the initial symbol, the leaflets have three numerical groups, the number of the leaflet in a given year, the month, and the year that the leaflet was printed.

Paul M. A. Linebarger mentions this radio war in Psychological Warfare, Combat Forces Press, Washington D.C., 1948. He says:

With the outbreak of war the British and Germans found radio at hand. Neither had to change broadcasting policies a great deal. Each could reach almost all of Europe on standard-wave; each could jam the other's wave lengths, never with complete success, and the struggle centered around a contest for attention. Who could get the most credence? Who could affect the beliefs, emotions, loyalties of friendly, neutral, and enemy listeners the most?

The first German leaflet is entitled "Radio Information." It is not truly a radio leaflet in the sense that it does not identify the time or the wave length of the German radio broadcast. However, it does ask the reader go over to the Germans and promises to broadcast a short message that the defector has written. The leaflet is therefore part of the German radio campaign. The leaflet is aimed at the British and is all text on both sides. Text on the front of the leaflet is:

Jerry's Front Radio RADIO INFORMATION. You will very likely wish to have your relatives informed with as little delay as possible that you are alive and out of danger. JERRY'S FRONT RADIO has arranged to announce the names and addresses and their serial numbers. The announcements will be made three times daily. You will understand how valuable this service when you consider that your relatives are spared the dreadful felling of anxious suspense concerning your fate. USE BLOCK LETTERS NAME:

RANK:

SERIAL NUMBER:

ADRESS:

TOWN:

COUNTRY: In this panel write a short personal message of not more than 15 words which will be transmitted by radio.

This leaflet serves two purposes. First, it lets the soldier think about the benefits of capture ("alive and out of danger") and thus sets a pattern that might lead to lesser resistance against the Germans. Second, it tells the Tommies that they will hear the name of their buddies on the radio and this might encourage the troops to listen to the Nazi propaganda messages. Note that the word "Address" is misspelled. In a black leaflet this would be a deadly giveaway. Since this leaflet is clearly a German product, the error is not so damaging to the leaflet's credibility. Note also that although the leaflet mentions radio broadcasts, it never gives the time or identity of the station.

The text on the back of the leaflet is in both English and German:

FREE-PASS. The bearer of this FREE PASS solemnly affirms his belief that to help Bolshevism to victory in Europe would be fatal to Britain's future. As a Patriot he is prepared to face up to the situation by voluntarily ceasing hostilities against Germany and her European Allies. In accordance with a special decree passed by the government of the Third Reich, the bearer of this Free Pass is entitled to receive preferential treatment and special privileges, and provisioning from all German military authorities, who have received corresponding instructions. Above all, he will not be regarded as a prisoner of war or be interned in a prisoner-of-war camp. To protect the bearer and his dependents from possible acts of vengeance on the part of misguided compatriots, the German authorities will undertake to enter his name in the official prisoner-of-war lists forwarded in the usual way to the International Red Cross at Geneva.

This text is really interesting. The Germans promise not to place the individual in a camp, but don't say what they will do with him. Send him to the Eastern Front perhaps?

The Germans actually had a Legion of St. George made up of British fascists among their so-called "Foreign Legions." It was never a viable force. They also do not use the word surrender. Like the American leaflets to the Japanese they ask only that he cease hostilities. Finally, they justify the defection of the soldier by giving him the excuse that he has quit fighting so as not to help the USSR destroy England. The logic is very interesting but it is doubtful that anyone would fall for such a convoluted mess of promises and explanations. This is generally a poor leaflet for all the reasons that we mentioned.

A second uncoded leaflet with a similar message is depicted in Psychological Warfare, Paul M. A. Linebarger, Combat Forces Press, Washington D.C., 1948. This leaflet was dropped on American forces at Anzio in 1944. The leaflet is all text. The front is:

AMERICAN SOLDIERS! Remember those happy days when you stepped out with your best girl "going places and doing things?" No matter whether you two were enjoying a nice juicy steak at some restaurant or watching a thrilling movie with your favorite stars performing, or dancing to the tilt of a swing band. - You were happy. WHAT IS LEFT OF ALL THIS? Nothing! Nothing but days and nights of the heaviest fighting and for many of you NOTHING BUT A PLAIN WOODEN CROSS IN FOREIGN SOIL!

Text on the back of the leaflet is:

FILL IN THIS BLANK AND KEEP IT. USE BLOCK LETTERS TO BE TRANSMITTED BY JERRY'S FRONT RADIO Name:

Rank:

Serial Number:

Address/Street

Town:

Country In this panel write a short message of not more than 15 words which will be transmitted by radio.

It is interesting to note that the Germans talk of the Americans dying on foreign soil, when in fact, the Germans were also on the foreign soil of Italy. Logic was never their strongpoint.

Leaflet AI-042-2-44

A similar leaflet appears in Behind Enemy Lines - WWII Allied/Axis Propaganda, Edward Boehm, the Wellfleet Press, Secaucus, NJ, 1989. Boehn illustrates a leaflet that is identical to the previous one on the back, with the text starting "FILL IN THIS BLANK AND KEEP IT." The front of the leaflet is different. Once again, it is all text:

IMPORTANT NOTICE

In case you are taken prisoner, you will very likely wish to have your relatives informed with as little delay as possible that you are alive and out of danger.

JERRY'S FRONT RADIO

has arranged to announce the names and addresses of prisoners of war and their serial numbers. The announcements will be made three times daily.You will understand how valuable this service is when you consider that your relatives are spared the dreadful feeling of anxious suspense concerning your fate.

Be prepared to fill in this blank. It will be useful to you if you should be captured.

The example illustrated in the Boehm book has a corner torn off and is missing the German code. We know from other sources that this is leaflet AI-042-2-44, designed by a Propaganda-Abschnitts-Offizier (propaganda section officer) and dropped on American troops in Italy. This unit was under the direct supervision of the SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers. This leaflet appears in two sizes. The standard size for dissemination by aircraft is 15 x 21cm. The exact same leaflet also exists in a smaller 9 x 15 cm size to be fired by German leaflet rocket. Like all of the small leaflets it has an added a identifier; thus the code is AI-042-2-44a.

In this case it was the PAO of the German Heeresgruppe C (Army Group) which was stationed in Italy. German records disclose that the leaflet text was written by Sonderführers [z] (Specialist officers) Kempin and Büttig. The German Army defines the specialist officer:

As of 26 August 1939, NCOs and men with special linguistic or technical skills, but lacking in necessary military training, were permitted to be promoted to NCO or officer supervisory status as Specialist Officers. They wore standard military uniforms (excepting as detailed below), and did have officer's rank (without an actual commission) and authority (but only within the area covered by their occupation) excepting those graded equivalent to NCOs. The rank titles and insignia of the Sonderführer changed in March 1940; in a desire to encourage these men to undertake military training and become full-fledged military officers, insignia closer in design to standard Army insignia was introduced. The rank titles remained the same. In Dec 1942, new rank titles were introduced, and the insignia reverted back to the pre-1940 styles. The "z" in brackets means that he is equal to a platoon leader.



Leaflet AI-052-3-44 (front)

One of the earlier German radio leaflets that mentions times and wave lengths is well designed. The front of the leaflet depicts a radio antenna at the left and the text at the right. The text says in part:

JERRY'S FRONT wishes to call your attention to the following BROADCASTS designed to ENTERTAIN YOU: 6:00 to 7:00 a.m. For those fellows who like to get up early and enjoy music as a background to reveille. 6:30 to 7:30 a.m. The big show especially dedicated to Uncle Sam's boys with SALLY, JERRY, GEORGE, PETE, GLADYS, OSCAR, THE SWINGING TIGERS, AMERICAN RECORDS, THE LATEST NEWS and whatever the producer feels like unloading on you. 10:15 to 11:15 p.m. A special program for British forces. 11:45 p.m. to midnight. A snappy 15 minutes of dance music with a few news items. 2:00 to 3:00 a.m. Our night-birds' show with lovely (It's a pity you can't see her!) husky-voiced HELEN conducting the proceedings. You boys who suffer from insomnia (?) will feel better disposed towards the German gunners who keep you awake! Well, be kind to your sets boys, keep off the BBC static and listen to JERRY. Leaflet AI-052-3-44 (back)

The back has text in black over a faint blue background that depicts a microphone and the words "JERRY'S FRONT." The leaflet is coded AI-052-3-44. That indicates that it was prepared and disseminated in Italy in March of 1944. Text on the back is:

BEWARE!!! JERRY (The guy you are fighting) is putting on the air. FIVE BROADCASTS DAILY At 6:00 a.m.: Medium wave: 420.8 meters - Short wave 15, 28, 31 and 39.6 meters. At 6:30 p.m.: Medium wave: 221 and 449.1 meters - Short wave 28, and 39.6 meters. At 10:15 p.m.: Medium wave: 420.8 and 449.1 meters - Short wave 28, 31 and 39.6 meters. At 11:45 p.m.: Medium wave: 420.8 and 449.1 meters - Short wave 28, 31 and 39.6 meters. At 2:00 a.m.: Medium wave: 221 and 449.1 - Short wave 28, and 39.6 meters. The American doughboy and Tommy Atkins are duly warned that such broadcasts are only designed to mislead and trick them under the cover of entertainment. Don't listen to Sally, Jerry, George, Pete, Gladys, Oscar, the Swinging Tigers, Helen and the rest but stick to the British Bunking Corporation which will always show you the "little things that aren't there" or "My mother didn't raise me to be a soldier," but here YOU are!

This leaflet is interesting because it uses some humor and also tells the soldier very honestly that the stations are broadcasting enemy propaganda. That might cause the soldier to trust the station more for its honesty and listen in to hear just what the Germans are peddling. German records indicate that the leaflet artwork was done by Unteroffizier Ziegenhagen and the text was written by an individual named Goedel. An Unteroffizier is a non-commissioned officer, similar to an American Army sergeant.

AI-038-2-44

Leaflets AI-038-2-44 and AI-038a-2-44 are almost identical to leaflet AI-052-2-44. They are from the same series, but printed slightly earlier. In the case of the two 038 leaflets the front is almost the same as the 052 leaflet with the radio antenna at the left and the text identifying the time and stations at the right. The earlier leaflets have no horizontal or vertical lines between the times and the stations. In addition, the Germans only mention four broadcast periods, 6:00 to 7:00 a.m., 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., 10:30 to 11:00 p.m., and 2:00 to 3:00 a.m. By the time 052 was printed, they had added a fifth broadcast. The earlier 10:30 to 11:00 p.m. "snappy half hour of dance tunes" show had been replaced by a 10:15 to 11:15 p.m. "special program for British forces" and an 11:45 to midnight "fifteen minutes of dance music" show. German records indicate that once again the leaflet artwork was done by Unteroffizier Ziegenhagen and the text was written by Goedel.

Other leaflets were prepared and dropped by the German Südstern (Southern Star) propaganda organization. They are similar in that the text is nearly the same on the front and back as leaflet AI-052-3-44 above. Instead of blue, the leaflet has a brownish tint and the drawings at the left side show a band, a beautiful female and a male singer. At the bottom of the text on the front the Germans have added the comment:

Wave lengths for all the broadcasts 47.6 meters. For the 6:30 a.m., the 6:30 p.m., and the midnight broadcast an additional medium wave length 491.8 meters.

Leaflet * 1310-2-45

This is another radio leaflet by the Südstern (Southern Star) section of the Scorpion South Propaganda Organization of the German 10th Army. These leaflets all have codes that start with a five-pointed star. The leaflet above coded * 1310-2-45 was distributed near the end of the war on Allied troops in Italy. The photo on the front of a leaflet shows a wounded allied soldier receiving first aid at a German dressing (first aid) station. The soldier is missing an eye and half of his face is severely burned. The text on the front of the leaflet is:

A wounded allied soldier receiving first aid at a German dressing station

The radio message is on the back. The text is:

World War No. 2 is almost over! Does it still pay?

Directly below the propaganda statement is a list of Jerrys Front radio frequencies and broadcast times.

Leaflet 1336.3.45

Here is another German radio leaflet for Allied troops in Italy that uses the title Beware. The code tells us that it was disseminated in March of 1945.

Siegfried Line Calling

Another German leaflet is in the form of a post card that can be filled in on the front and the back. It is uncoded and was disseminated starting in November 1944. The front of the card has the following text:

SIEGFRIED LINE CALLING

JERRYS FRONT LINE RADIO MESSAGE