News for the troops

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News for the Troops , No. 358, of April 9, 1945. The headline refers to the imminent capture of Braunschweig on April 12, 1945 by US troops.

Messages for the troops was a propaganda - leaflet in the form of a multi-page, apparently from the German Wehrmacht started military newspaper that by the 8th Air Force in the final stages of the Second World War was dropped between April 25, 1944, and the beginning of May in 1945 by plane over Germany .

history

origin

On April 25, 1944, six weeks before the invasion of Allied troops in Normandy ( Operation Overlord ), the first two-page edition of "Nachrichten für die Troop" was dropped on German positions in the west. The "Nachrichten" was created on the initiative of the Psychological Warfare Division (PWD) of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) as a joint work of the British ( PID ) and US Americans ( OSS ) and was an instrument of psychological warfare . From this date onwards, the “Nachrichten” appeared daily, initially two pages, then four pages until the last issue. The last edition was produced on May 4, 1945.

Production, content and distribution

The “news” was compiled by around 25 editors in Great Britain . Another 70 to 80 people were then responsible for printing and distributing to the various airfields. In contrast to other propaganda pamphlets, the “Nachrichten” was an exception because it was produced for the PWD by a special editorial team of PID / and OSS staff.

The texts were up-to-date and came from A. from the radio program of the soldier station Calais , which is also operated by the Allies in German . Partly appeared on the following day in printed form in the "Nachrichten". Sefton Delmer was responsible for the operation of the station and also for the "news" . The reports came from both Allied and German sources. The circulation was between 750,000 and a million copies.

The "news for the troops" and other propaganda material were dropped over the target area by the "Special Leaflet Squadron", a special squadron of the 8th Air Force, which was used exclusively for the distribution of propaganda material. It took off every day with an average of ten heavy Boeing B-17 "Flying Fortress" bombers at an airfield near Cheddington in Buckinghamshire to drop the "news" over and behind the German lines. Each bomber flew to five specially selected targets in order to distribute the material there.

purpose

The “news” was so-called “gray” propaganda, a mixture of reports on actual events on the various fronts and information from the “ home front ” in Germany. In addition to truthful descriptions of the military situation in the final phase of World War II, in particular the military superiority of the Allies on all fronts, disinformation was also deliberately scattered in order to confuse and demoralize the readers .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Additional information on this issue.
  2. ^ PWD, SHAEF: An Account of its Operations in the Western European Campaign, 1944–1945 , p. 8
  3. ↑ PWD, SHAEF: An Account of its Operations in the Western European Campaign, 1944–1945 , p. 9 (abridged version)
  4. ^ PWD, SHAEF: An Account of its Operations in the Western European Campaign, 1944–1945 , p. 159
  5. ^ PWD, SHAEF: An Account of its Operations in the Western European Campaign, 1944–1945 , p. 46
  6. ^ PWD, SHAEF: An Account of its Operations in the Western European Campaign, 1944–1945 , p. 170
  7. ^ PWD, SHAEF: An Account of its Operations in the Western European Campaign, 1944–1945 , p. 45