Packing of miniature issues of the magazine by OSS members in "bombs" as part of Operation Pig IronThe first miniature edition of the magazine Das Neue Deutschland
Operation Pig Iron was a secret service measure planned and carried out by the AmericanOffice of Strategic Services (OSS) from the summer of 1944 onwards during the Second World War. The aim was to indoctrinate the enemy by using "bombs" containing miniature editions of the propaganda magazine Das Neue Deutschland. These bombs were dropped by plane over enemy territory. With more than 8.9 million (of a total of about 9.5 million) printed copies of the journal, the miniature edition was the most massive way of distributing this propaganda tool.
The magazines, which previously had been printed in normal format, were reduced in size by a photo-technical process to 10 × 6 ½ inches - which corresponded to a quarter of the normal size - and then processed into rolls of 1500 copies each. These rolls were finally packed into specially designed cylindrical devices. Afterwards they were transported by truck from Rome to Foggia, where they were filled into bombs. The US Air Force stationed in that city subsequently flew these bombs to the centre of the enemy in Germany or Austria to drop them on the ground.
As other propaganda material was also to be distributed in this way - in which the obvious Allied origin could not be denied - a cunning trick was used to make the alleged German opposition magazine Das Neue Deutschland appear plausible. To do this, an additional imprint was placed on the front page of the journals that were being dropped, which was supposed to point to alleged chance finds during the advance of Allied forces. Thus, for example, the following text appeared on the front page: (in German) "During the occupation of Paris this German newspaper fell into the hands of the Allies". The success of this measure could also be seen in the fierce counter-reaction on the German side that followed later, for example, when Heinrich Himmler's own propaganda magazine Das Schwarze Korps drew attention to the magazine's traitorous authors. This led to devastating comments on the contents of the journal and on the authors themselves.
Operation Pig Iron is regarded as the most successful US-American measure to distribute the propaganda magazine Das Neue Deutschland.
Psychological warfare (PSYWAR), or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations (PsyOp), has been known by many other names or terms, including Military Information Support Operations (MISO), Psy Ops, political warfare, "Hearts and Minds", and propaganda. The term is used "to denote any action which is practiced mainly by psychological methods with the aim of evoking a planned psychological reaction in other people".
Black propaganda is a form of propaganda intended to create the impression that it was created by those it is supposed to discredit. Black propaganda contrasts with gray propaganda, which does not identify its source, as well as white propaganda, which does not disguise its origins at all. It is typically used to vilify or embarrass the enemy through misrepresentation.
A fighter-bomber is a fighter aircraft that has been modified, or used primarily, as a light bomber or attack aircraft. It differs from bomber and attack aircraft primarily in its origins, as a fighter that has been adapted into other roles, whereas bombers and attack aircraft are developed specifically for bombing and attack roles.
Operation Cornflakes was a morale operation by the Office of Strategic Services during World War II that aimed to trick Deutsche Reichspost into inadvertently delivering anti-Nazi propaganda to German citizens through mail.
The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and other forms of media, the OWI was the connection between the battlefront and civilian communities. The office also established several overseas branches, which launched a large-scale information and propaganda campaign abroad. From 1942 to 1945, the OWI reviewed film scripts, flagging material which portrayed the United States in a negative light, including anti-war sentiment.
Signal was a magazine published by the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany from 1940 through 1945.
Airborne leaflet dropping is where leaflets (flyers) are scattered in the air.
Operation Strangle was a series of air interdiction operations during the Italian Campaign of World War II by the Allied air forces to interdict German supply routes in Italy north of Rome from 19 March 1944 to 11 May 1944. Its aim was to prevent essential supplies from reaching German forces in Central Italy and compel a German withdrawal. The strategic goal of the air assault was to eliminate or greatly reduce the need for a ground assault on the region. The Allies failed in the overly ambitious objective of the campaign, namely the forced withdrawal of German forces from the Gustav Line, and did not curtail the flow of supplies but the air interdiction seriously complicated the German conduct of defensive operations and played a major role in the success of the subsequent Allied ground assault Operation Diadem.
Das Neue Blatt is a weekly tabloid women's magazine published in Germany.
The Psychological Warfare Division of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force was a joint Anglo-American organization set-up in World War II tasked with conducting (predominantly) white tactical psychological warfare against German troops and recently liberated countries in Northwest Europe, during and after D-Day. It was headed by US Brigadier-General Robert A. McClure. The Division was formed from staff of the US Office of War Information (OWI) and Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and the British Political Warfare Executive (PWE).
Operation N was a complex of sabotage, subversion and black-propaganda activities carried out by the Polish resistance against Nazi German occupation forces during World War II, from April 1941 to April 1944. These activities were organized by Office N, which in October 1941 was transformed into an Autonomous Sub-Department N of the Bureau of Information and Propaganda of the Armed Resistance, later of the Home Army. It was headed by Tadeusz Żenczykowski.
In the First World War, British propaganda took various forms, including pictures, literature and film. Britain also placed significant emphasis on atrocity propaganda as a way of mobilising public opinion against Imperial Germany and the Central Powers during the First World War. For the global picture, see Propaganda in World War I.
The "Faux Soir" was a spoof issue of the newspaper Le Soir published in German-occupied Belgium on 9 November 1943. It was produced by the Front de l'Indépendance, a faction in the Belgian Resistance, in a satirical style that ridiculed German propaganda. Though it resulted in significant repression, the Faux Soir's embodiment of zwanze, the characteristic folk humour of Brussels, made it an enduring symbol of the Resistance. The incident was the centerpiece for the 1954 film, Un Soir de Joie.
Morale Operations was a branch of the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. It utilized psychological warfare, particularly propaganda, to produce specific psychological reactions in both the general population and military forces of the Axis powers in support of larger Allied political and military objectives.
The Sauerkraut missions were secret service operations planned and carried out by the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during the Second World War from July 1944 to at least March 1945. The aim was to enable rapid dissemination of Allied propaganda material by the use of German prisoners of war.
Das Neue Deutschland was an alleged freedom movement that was founded by the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in June 1944 during the Second World War. Its main organ was a magazine of the same name, which was brought to Germany by resistance fighters, former German prisoners of war, and with the help of airplanes. The aim was to create the impression, through propagandistic articles in this magazine, that an underground movement existed on the territory of the German Reich with the intention of overthrowing the Nazi regime. In the editorial design of the magazine, care was taken to ensure that, as far as possible, no reference to hostile propaganda was discernible; it was imperative to convey the idea of an opposition independent of the Allies that existed within Germany. In order to find a meaningful name for the journal, the planning group asked for more than 30 suggestions, all of which, however, turned out to be unsuitable. Either they were names that had already been used during the Weimar Republic and thus had negative connotations, or they were names of smaller local splinter groups that had been used earlier. Since the magazine was intended to convey the idea of a new Germany after the Nazi dictatorship, the final name was eventually agreed upon, which apparently had never been used in the past either. Nevertheless it obviously had been overlooked that a monthly magazine for the "Nationalsozialistische Weltanschauung" (NS-worldview) of the same name already existed in the 1930s.
Operation Periwig was a secret service operation planned and carried out by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) from November 1944 onwards during the Second World War. The aim was to disrupt the Nazi regime by feigning resistance movements within the German territory.
Le Courrier de l'Air was a French-language propaganda newspaper distributed as a leaflet during the First World War. It was printed in London and dropped from hydrogen-filled, free-floating paper balloons on the Western Front over France and Belgium. The newspaper was the product of a division of the British Military Intelligence Service, known as MI7b. The first issue appeared on April 6, 1917. A propaganda magazine of the same name was also used by the British side against Germany during the Second World War.
Parole der Woche was a wall newspaper published by the Reichspropagandaleitung der NSDAP from 1937 to 1943. Historian Jeffrey Herf describes Parole der Woche as "the most ubiquitous and intrusive aspect of Nazism's visual offensive ... no form of Nazi visual propaganda made so crucial a contribution to the regime's presentation of ongoing events".
Propaganda in World War II had the goals of influencing morale, indoctrinating soldiers and military personnel, and influencing civilians of enemy countries.
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