Radio Deutschland
Radio Deutschland had a measurable impact on the war. The station was so well received and Hitler’s notorious propaganda mastermind, Joseph Goebbels, brought it further into the fold of legitimacy by drawing attention to it through his recognition. By harnessing the medium wave band, they were able to broadcast far enough to be picked up by shortwave radios used by German U-boats. During WWII, Germany had amassed the largest submarine fleet the world had ever seen; it was in direct violation of the Treaty of Versailles. After the war, Hitler’s U-boats were noted for having served as the source of Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s biggest fear. The only thing that really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril, he later wrote.
Soddatensender Calais was a British-run clandestine radio station used to convey manipulated information to German troops. During the Second World War, the Brits invented more than one German military broadcasting network solely for the purpose of spreading propaganda throughout enemy territory. The British acquired equipment after a law was passed in the U.S. that limited the power of transmitters making anything that worked over the 50kW limit useless in American. The transmitter was picked up by the British Secret Service, who utilized it as a weapon of war.
The objective of the lies was to counter the idea that the Germans were winning the war. Fake news included stories about German troops that had been captured by the French and sent to the Soviet Union, the common problem with foreign workers having sex with German soldier’s wives while their husbands were away fighting, and a growing tidal wave of anti-Nazi resistance that was growing with no end in sight.
Later, the British were able to focus less on technical issues and became masters of content. They made up numerous stories, including one that purported in France there were an “immense number of foreigners in Wehrmacht uniform. It is considered safer to employ them there rather than in the east, where they might be dangerous. All the scum is sent there – in Brittany there are even Russians in Wehrmacht uniform.”