The War Illustrated, Volume 8, No. 189, Page 270, September 15, 1944.

Every hour of the 24 the air over Europe is charged with the War-Voice of Britain sent out by the B.B.C. In frantic endeavour to quell the unceasing Voice from London the Nazis are devoting more time, money, personnel and material than they are expending on their own broadcasting, as explained here by Capt. MARTIN THORNHILL, M.C.

It is doubtful if the threat of death ever deterred Europeans under Nazi heel from listening-in to London. At any rate, Gobbels has frankly admitted the failure of the extreme penalty by setting up a Broadcasting Defence Department with dictatorial powers and summary orders to smash Britain’s big radio blitz. Staffed by the best experts Germany can produce, this Department at once decided on a policy of jamming on a scale never before considered practicable.

On the orders of Berlin’s "Jam Chief," regional controllers now charge the ether over Europe with a barrage of miscellaneous din which would make uproar of the world’s biggest menagerie sound like a monastery by comparison. First, programmes to be attacked are selected, then instructions are sent to hundreds of widespread jamming stations, most of which function in local Gestapo headquarters.

When the programmes start, a medley of Morse, gongs. bird screeches, loud cross talk, musical discords, machine saws, hammers on anvils, and factory whistles fills the air. If noise seems ineffective, the listening controllers call up still more jammers in the frantic endeavour to quell the unceasing voice from London.

The voice? There are scores, hundreds of voices. Yet not so long ago, in face of increasing Nazi victories, the best our aerial propagandists could do was to fight a stiff rear guard action. Inevitably the worsening military situation had a tragic effect on the propaganda position. There seemed little to say that would help the cause of freedom, and far too many hours a day in which to say it. We were losing everything; more important, from the publicity point of view, we were being progressively deprived of the only bases from which it might be possible to meet the enemy "on the air" on anything like equal terms.

For only on the air would it be practicable to exert any pressure on Germany or German Europe at all. But the difficulty was, how to do it, with the Nazis in control of almost every radio station on the Continent. Full well did the Nazis realise the value of quick seizure of local wireless centres. The first "soldiers" to ride into a city were radio engineers; in a matter of hours, sometimes minutes, the transmitters were mouthing mealy quisling welcomes to the "saviours who had come to deliver the people from oppression."

By the middle of 1942 the Nazis were boasting that their powerful controlled European network was exerting more radio influence on world opinion than that of any other country. Yet the British stood firmly by the conviction that victory could be brought nearer by months, perhaps years, by supremacy on the air. And at the end of that year our Controller of Overseas Services claimed that "Britain was nearing parity with the Axis powers," that "the United Nations as a whole could now compete with the Axis in the short- wave field." Out of a beginning with four people, broadcasting for 10 hours a day on a programme allowance of £10.00 a week, the service had now grown to three separate programmes broadcasting 24hrs a day in 15 languages, and employing nearly 500 people.

Today, under the very nose of the Gestapo, many thousands of the slaves of Europe listen hourly to the heralds of coming liberation in the voices of kings and queens, prime ministers, diplomats and patriots. In 24 languages on 26 wave-lengths over 600 persons wage---non-stop---the B.B.C.’s radio war on Hitler’s Europe. And Hitler, himself a keen believer in radio splutter, who planned to protect his subjects against propaganda, is now confronted with the memory that it was Britain’s skilful use of this weapon that ruined German morale in the last war.

The first really effective use in the present conflict of this, the primary weapon in our psychological armoury, was when the excellent radio station at Bari was put into reverse against the enemy in northern Italy and throughout the Balkan peninsula.

Working over 16hrs a day, Radio Bari has been relaying daily 6 B.B.C. broadcasts in Italian, and five American programmes, and pumping into German-held territory a daily commentary on the war, along with detailed information of German troop dispositions and instructions for sabotage.

That our control of the first-class station seriously worries the enemy is patent from his repeated but ineffectual attempts to block the transmissions, much as he jams those going out to the rest of Europe direct from the B.B.C. For the entire radio offensive is supported by intelligence work which enables us to keep strictly abreast of requirements. Trained radio scouts all over Europe counter every move of the Gestapo, and keep the B.B.C. posted on day-to-day reception and listener-reaction.

It is known exactly what types of wireless sets are being used in respective areas. Easy instructions are broadcast as to how the range of the less powerful instruments can be increased so as to hear London more distinctly, and hints on how to reduce jamming. If the Germans augment their jammers, the B.B.C. replies by transmitting the same programme on several separate wave- lengths.

A vital factor in building up an audience was the security of listeners. A favourite Nazi dodge was to introduce, without warning, a distinctive jamming note so that radio sleuths listening near houses can detect sets tuned in to London. Radio intelligence enables the B.B.C. to warn listeners when this expedient is imminent. In fact, this aspect of the radio offensive has reached such perfection that not only the inception of the underground movement by the V-campaign, but its rapid increase and expansion throughout Europe, has been due almost exclusively to sustained support from the B.B.C. Thousands who might never see the underground news sheets learn their contents via London radio.

Of the immense influence wielded by the Voice of Britain the B.B.C. have already evidence, much of it from official action taken by the Nazis themselves. A certain U-boat commander returned home and reported that his and two other submarines had been attacked by British aircraft. The other U-boats, he declared, had declined to open fire, attempting to escape by sub-merging. But before they could do so the aircraft had swooped and sunk them both, making off when confronted by the guns of the third. The lucky captain was congratulated on his escape. But his satisfaction was short-lived. When the version put out by the B.B.C. reached German official quarters the ungallant commander was promptly court martialled. It was his ship, not the others, that had stopped firing and had plunged to safety.

It may seem odd that Germany should have accepted London’s word rather than that of one of her own nationals. But it is further proof of the faith that German as well as other listeners place in the news and propaganda coming to them from the B.B.C. If official German quarters will discredit their own news sources, preferring to rely on statements from London, how much more will the mass of the people incline to believe in British propaganda?

When the war was going well for Germany the truth provided Nazi propagandists with first-class material. Now the boot is on the other foot!