Psychological Warfare Division

The Psychological Warfare Division of SHAEF (PWD / SHAEF) was in World War II , founded the Anglo-American unit for psychological warfare . It was organized by Charles Douglas Jackson and Brigadier General Robert A. McClure in parallel to a Public Relations Division and was on April 13, 1944 from the G-6 Division.

origin

The origin of the PWD lay in the Psychological Warfare Branch of the Information and Censorship Section of the Allied Forces Headquarters (AFHQ), the Allied headquarters set up for Operation Torch under US General Dwight D. Eisenhower . This was directed in the north-west African theater of war with propaganda against the German troops. Its leader, General Robert A. McClure , then also became head of the PWD / SHAEF. The Psychological Warfare Division was formed from staff from the UK Political Warfare Executive (PWE), the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and the United States Office of War Information (OWI).

activity

The division used radio and leaflet propaganda to undermine the morale of German soldiers. To do this, it operated the Voice of SHAEF transmitter and, after the conquest, used the Radio Luxembourg transmission systems to transmit the Voice of America and the 1212 transmitter . Leaflets were printed in the UK and distributed by the Special Leaflet Squadron of the 8th Air Fleet at Cheddington . Tactical propaganda teams were also assigned to the army groups, producing leaflets on mobile printing presses in the field and firing grenades across the front line. They also used loudspeakers to call enemy soldiers to surrender. PWD / SHAEF also placed propaganda in the newly conquered European countries. Director Alexander Mackendrick , later successful at Ealing Studios , gained some of his first experiences in the division's film department. John Huston and Eric Ambler made a film for PWD about Italy after the Allied conquest.

The PWD was also involved in the search for its own citizens who collaborated with the Axis powers , such as Fred Kaltenbach . The division also cooperated with the French Resistance .

PWD pass from 1944

Probably the best-known leaflet was the bilingual PWD safety certificate that many German soldiers waved when they surrendered. She promised good treatment and listed on the back various items from the Geneva Conventions and the Hague Land Warfare Regulations .

In 1945, the PWD shot the documentary German Concentration Camps Factual Survey about the atrocities in German concentration camps with the participation of Alfred Hitchcock . This documentation was only completed later.

On July 13, 1945, PWD was converted to the Information Control Division in the American zone of occupation , which was also under the command of McClure.

literature

Lee Richards (Ed.): The Psychological Warfare Division Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force. An Account of its Operations in the Western European Campaign, 1944-1945. PsyWar.Org, 2014 (English, reprint).

Individual evidence

^ ^A ^b ^c Martin Manning: Historical Dictionary of American Propaganda . Greenwood Press, Westport CT et al. 2004, ISBN 0-313-29605-7 , pp. 230 .
^ Alfred H. Paddock, Jr .: US Army Special Warfare. Its origins. Revised edition. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence KS 2002, ISBN 0-7006-1177-0 , p. 14; and Lee Richards: The Black Art. British Clandestine Psychological Warfare against the Third Reich. psywar.org, sl 2010, ISBN 978-0-9542936-2-8 , p. 28.
↑ Traumatizing images. In: Der Spiegel . 8/2014, p. 103.

[Dic-1] A ^b ^c Martin Manning: Historical Dictionary of American Propaganda . Greenwood Press, Westport CT et al. 2004, ISBN 0-313-29605-7 , pp. 230 .

[2] Alfred H. Paddock, Jr .: US Army Special Warfare. Its origins. Revised edition. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence KS 2002, ISBN 0-7006-1177-0 , p. 14; and Lee Richards: The Black Art. British Clandestine Psychological Warfare against the Third Reich. psywar.org, sl 2010, ISBN 978-0-9542936-2-8 , p. 28.

[3] Traumatizing images. In: Der Spiegel . 8/2014, p. 103.