Thanks to the staff of Wavescan. Nostalic radio stories from World War II continue to be popular.
Jeff: To begin today’s show, Ray Robinson in Los Angeles has a very interesting story regarding an aspect of shortwave broadcasting during World War II that is very little understood – that of the so-called ‘Freedom Stations’.
Ray: Thanks, Jeff. I’ve recently been reading a fascinating book written during World War II by Harold Ettlinger, called ‘The Axis on the Air’. Harold was a columnist for the Chicago Star newspaper and a keen monitor of the shortwave bands. In late 1943, he published the book, which details his observations of the propaganda broadcasts being made from Germany, Italy, and Japan targeting the home audiences of the Allies and their fighting men on the battlefield.
One very interesting chapter deals with what were referred to as the ‘Freedom Stations’. These appeared to be clandestine in nature and most operated on shortwave (in Europe at least, mainly in what was often termed the ‘49 meter European Band’), but the interesting thing was that they were made to appear as if they were being operated by underground resistance fighters, while in reality it was the Axis powers who were behind them. It was all very devious and cunning, so I’d like to read part of that chapter for you today. Remember Harold wrote this in late 1943 when the outcome of the war was still far from certain. He said:
“The Germans do not confine themselves to a single freedom station for each of their enemies. England receives broadcasts from at least four, each of them broadcasting frequently, and there are others for the dominions. Those beamed at England are the New British Broadcasting Station, the Workers’ Challenge, Radio Caledonia and the Christian Peace Movement. Among those aimed at the Empire are Free India, Free Egypt and Anzac Tattoo. One of the stations aimed at England is keyed to a middle-class audience and another to factory workers. Each plays up what the Germans imagine to be the prejudices of the class they are addressing. As they appeal to different audiences, they have to differ not only in their method of going after their objectives but even in the objectives themselves. For example, on the second-front issue in 1942 and early 1943 (the ‘second front’ was the anticipated Allied invasion of the European continent from the west), on the second-front issue in 1942 and early 1943 the middle-class freedom station for Britain exploited what the Nazis believed to be British middle-class fear of Communism. The station followed the line that it was the Communists who wanted the second front in order to (take the pressure off the eastern front and) save Communism, no matter how many lives it cost. The station aimed at British workers actually appeared to favor a second front, but it used the issue to try to hinder British production. “Russia wants the second front in western Europe,” it said, “but she won't get it from the capitalists. Workers of Britain, strike for a second front!”
“A station called ‘Debunk’ is a typical fake clandestine station. When it first began broadcasting, Debunk went to elaborate lengths to make us believe it originated in the American Midwest. Its speakers made their accents as twangy as they could, announced the time as Central Standard, opened with a few bars of the “Star-Spangled Banner,” and generally sought to create a cracker-barrel atmosphere. Joe Scanlon, the principal Debunk speaker, is probably Otto Koischwitz, who has persuaded Goebbels that he is the very man to put a fake Midwestern radio station across with us yokels out here.
“Among the more recent efforts of the Nazis to exploit the freedom-station technique was the creation shortly after the Anglo-American landing in North Africa of three ostensibly clandestine transmitters which had the special job of trying to cause dissension and interfere with Allied plans. These stations were Brazzaville Two, which was supposed to be a Fighting French outlet in North Africa, the Voice of Truth and Radio Patrie, all of them broadcasting from France or Italy. Brazzaville Two was designed to be confused with the authentic Fighting French station broadcasting from Brazzaville in Equatorial Africa and used the latter's wavelength. It issued contradictory orders to try to cause confusion, and appealed to French soldiers in the name of the Fighting French.
“In one broadcast, Brazzaville Two sought to create panic by announcing the spread of a plague of typhus in the zones occupied by American troops. The speaker, purporting to be a De Gaullist, said: “We are dumfounded at the administration’s inability to check this scourge.” The so-called Voice of Truth went on the air to Africa with a strong anti-Semitic line, announcing in one of its first broadcasts that “all Jewish officers who were in the French army and had been dismissed by the Vichy administration have been called up [in North Africa] and made high officers and advisers, but were never sent to the front.”
“For purposes of creating animosity between Arabs and Jews and creating enmity against the occupation forces among the native population, Vichy Arab-language transmitters, parading as authentic Arab mouthpieces, went on the air with broadcasts like this: “The Allied nations and the French traitors are delivering you to the Jews. Your fathers were masters of the Jews. The Allied nations are now making the Jews your masters. Will you stand for this?”
“Fake freedom stations have been used with increasing frequency throughout Asia in recent months. Afghanistan has been a favorite nesting spot for them, as Axis secret agents and even diplomatic missions have been able to work there with comparative freedom, broadcasting irresponsible, false news items and diatribes against Britain and the United States in the form of news commentaries. These transmitters are usually not very powerful and are not designed to carry very far. Their principal job is to influence the more uncivilized natives of northwest India, Persia, Iraq and Arabia rather than the city populations of Asia. For the latter the Axis has powerful transmitters located in its own capitals which parade as freedom stations. Radio Himalaya, which is supposed to operate from New Delhi, actually originates in Rome; India Independence broadcasts from Tokyo; and Free India originates in Berlin.
“From time to time a freedom station does appear which has an unmistakably authentic ring, but it is rarely heard from more than a few times. Such a station appeared in Belgium in June 1942 and called itself the Flemish Freedom Station. The best recommendation for its authenticity was the fact that the Germans tried so hard to jam its broadcasts, and usually succeeded after the first minute or two. It was rarely able to get more than a few sentences across before the jammer cut it out. “This is the free transmitter of oppressed Belgium!” it would say. “Hang all the traitors! Tear down all the swastikas!” And that is about as far as it could get before the interference became too great for it to be heard.
A story of real heroism is connected with an unquestionably authentic station, operated in Holland. Early in 1942, a Dutch Nazi was killed in Utrecht. That night, an underground broadcasting station in the Netherlands gave a description of the murder, complete in every detail, even to the license number of the murdered Nazi’s car. After that broadcast, the station was silent for a time, while the Gestapo scoured Holland in search of it. Then, obligingly, it came on the air again. This time it taunted the Nazis by giving a circumstantial report of a visit to Gestapo headquarters in Amsterdam. The speaker described the interior of the building fully, mentioning the pictures on the wall, the dirt spots on the tile floors, and other striking details. Weeks went by, but the Germans were unable to find the station. The programs never came from the same source twice. Jamming the transmitter proved impossible because its wavelength was always being changed. That, of course, made it difficult for listeners to pick it up, but the men who ran the station realized that it was better to have a small, haphazard audience than to be shot.
“Probably the best known of all the fake freedom stations operating today is the one called Gustav Siegfried Eins, which broadcasts in German, ostensibly from Berlin. While it is clear that the Gustav Siegfried Eins station is not what it pretends to be, I cannot say what it actually is. It purports to be operated by high officers of the German army who are opposed to the Nazis but want to win the war. It is patriotically German, never says anything favorable to our side but consistently picks at Nazi party officials for their inefficiency, corruption and general mishandling of the war. In December 1942, the station urged Germany not to waste men and material helping “the weak-sister Italians” on the African front and warned that the only vital front was Russia. In this connection, the station made frequent attacks on Rommel for his unsuccessful African campaign.”
“The fact that the station has remained in existence for many months and has made frequent broadcasts shows that either the Nazi government does not want to suppress it, or cannot get at it. And so it is likely the station originates somewhere in Europe outside of Germany, probably England.”
And that was an extract from the book ‘The Axis on the Air” by Harold Ettlinger, published in 1943. In his assumption about the Gustav Siegfried Eins station (or GS1 for short), he was right on the money. It was indeed a black psy-op station that broadcast from powerful shortwave transmitters at Signal Hill, Buckinghamshire and Potsgrove, Bedfordshire, England, a little northwest of London, beginning in May 1941. It was the brainchild of journalist Sefton Delmer, who, having been born and Sefton Delmer
raised in Berlin was a native German speaker, and together with a team of intelligence officers and German émigrés, dissidents, and POW’s, they created the station, which successfully masqueraded as an underground German station, to break the Nazi spirit and morale.
The main speaker in the broadcasts was called ‘The Chief’ (‘Der Chef’ in German), who in reality was a German Jewish refugee. In late 1943, after Harold’s book was published, Sefton Delmer decided The Chief should be martyred. A GS1 broadcast was abruptly interrupted by the sound of shouting, scuffling and gunshots, and then a different panicked voice came on saying “They’ve got him. The Gestapo has silenced The Chief!” The station then went dead, and the illusion was complete. The Gestapo was credited with a murder they did not commit, but The Chief was transformed from a voice into a legend. I wish I could bring you an audio recording of it, but sadly, none are known to exist.
But, from the ashes of GS1 rose several successors, including Soldatenzender Kalundborg, purporting to be a Wehrmacht station broadcasting from occupied Denmark, and playing the latest American jazz and swing music. This had been banned by the Nazis, but was adored by the German troops. Another successor was Soldatensender Calais which broadcast on 390 meters (833 kHz), 420 meters (714 kHz) and 490 meters (612 kHz) with an associated shortwave station Kurzwellensender Atlantik (Shortwave Station Atlantic) created to broadcast to U-boat crews. It used a 500 kW medium wave transmitter originally constructed for the Newark, New Jersey station WJZ, although it had never been delivered due to the FCC imposing a maximum 50 kW power limit on U.S. stations. So, RCA was glad to be able to sell it to the British Secret Service who codenamed it ‘Aspidistra’ and installed it near Crowborough, Sussex. Soldatensender Calais operated from 6pm to dawn, and unlike its predecessor Gustav Siegfried Eins, all programs were broadcast live until it ceased operation on April 30, 1945. And so the psychological warfare continued on the airwaves not just in Europe, but around the world, until the end of the war. In the 1950’s, a different kind of psychological broadcasting took shape during the Cold War, but that’s a whole different story!
Back to you, Jeff.
(Wavescan-Ray Robinson)
