Action silver lining
The Silberstreif campaign was the largest German propaganda operation during the Second World War . It lasted from May to September 1943. With the use of a billion leaflets, Red Army soldiers were to be made to overflow en masse . It turned out to be a complete failure.
The action
The core of the campaign consisted of the leaflet that printed the OKW's “Basic Order No. 13” , which promised personal safety and good treatment for the deserters (primary motivation) and the offer to fight in the Russian Liberation Army (secondary motivation ).
The enterprise encompassed the entire Eastern Front and began on the night of 6 to 7 May with the sudden dropping of 18 million leaflets.
In an impact analysis of June 4, 1943 it was recorded:
“The Russians are countering our increased propaganda with the following measures: political lessons twice a day, nobody is allowed to leave the post assigned to them. Entering the HKL only with written approval from the regimental commander. Never single items, never single reports. Instead of the usual shootings for keeping leaflets, now ten years in prison, which are converted into parole. "
Result
In Army Group A and Army Group North there was no increase in the number of defectors at all. In June 235 soldiers defected from Army Group North. The number of Army Group Central and Army Group South doubled as a result of the Citadel operation , but they remained unusually low for an offensive compared to 1942. 2345 soldiers defected to Army Group Center in July.
A special operation against Soviet aviators ("high-flyer propaganda") via radio and special series of leaflets only resulted in 66 Soviet pilots overflowing.
In a report dated August 26, 1943 by the representative of the East Ministry at the High Command of Army Group South OW Müller it says:
"The defector campaign (company Silberstreif) did not have the desired success in the slightest."
literature
- Ortwin Buchbender : The sounding ore. German propaganda against the Red Army in World War II . Stuttgart 1978.