Note: Portions of this article on wartime sexual propaganda first appeared in the magazines: Sir - September 1967; Soldier of Fortune - May 1981 and Oui - September 1983. At the time, many publishers were seeking articles about the use of sex in war propaganda. I turned down a half-dozen others because I got tired of writing articles on the same subject. I was later interviewed and my material was depicted in the long-running British Channel Four television documentary series Secret History on two occasions. In 1999, it broadcast Sex and the Swastika, and in 2004, Sex Bomb . In addition, the information in this article has been used as source material in a number of books such as Professor Dagmar Herzog’s Brutality and Desire: War and Sexuality in Europe's Twentieth Century.
To the average person, the connotations of the word "Pornography" have always brought forth a mental picture of a depraved person leering at filthy pictures. To the scholar, the word meant simply "The description of prostitutes and their trade". Later, other definitions were added, attempting to encompass the term "obscene". We now consider Webster's "Writing and pictures intended to arouse sexual desire" as an appropriate statement of meaning. Would it surprise you to know that all the major combatants involved in World War II used pornography as part of their psychological operations (PSYOP) strategy?
Professor Paul M. A. Linebarger stated the justification for this effort in his book Psychological Warfare (Infantry Journal Press, Washington D.C., 1948).
Young human beings, especially young males, are apt to give considerable attention to sex. In areas of military operations, they are removed from the stimuli of secondary sex references, which are (in America) an accepted part of everyone’s daily life: bathing beauty photos, magazine covers, semi-nudes in advertising, etc. Our enemies tried to use the resulting pin-up craze for propaganda purposes, hoping that a vain arousal of oestrum would diminish morale.In German Psychological Warfare (Arno Press, New York, 1972) Ladislas Farago states:
Since young soldiers are in a state of hyperactive bodily development, their immediate problems are related to appetite and sex....Sexual deprivation may be a motive for a soldier’s suicide attempt.Both the Axis and the Allies printed aerial propaganda leaflets using sexual themes in an attempt to demoralize enemy soldiers at the front. Did these leaflets work? Did the finders become emotionally crippled and unable to carry on their duties and responsibilities? Just the opposite occurred. The "pin-up" pictures became collectors items sought after by the troops who greedily collected and swapped them. If anything, the leaflets raised morale. There is no doubt that they were the most heartily appreciated propaganda leaflets used in World War 2. We can probably state that they were the most widely read and circulated enemy documents of any war.
A member of the 10th Mountain Division points out the reason that the sex leaflets increase rather than decrease morale. They clearly fail in their mission. The comment is found in Climb to Conquer, Peter Shelton. Simon and Schuster, NY, 2003. Bud Winter, who had returned to his outfit, wounds healed, in late March, noted in a letter to his mother that at least some of the enemy doggerel was appreciated:
The Jerries shell us with leaflets with a picture of a beautiful girl on one side and a skull and cross bones on the other. One side says Life and the other Death…Well, anyway, it seems to raise the morale of most of the fellows because they hang the side up with the beautiful girl for a pinup say to Hell with the other side.More evidence is found in Beyond the Beachhead – the 29th Infantry Division in Normandy, Joseph Balkoski, Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA, 1989:
The enemy’s leaflets were nothing more than appeals to the American soldier’s sexual instincts. A typical leaflet featured a sketch of an attractive and scantily clad woman in the arms of a happy male civilian. The caption asked what the G.I.’s though they would be doing if they were home instead of in the army. The 29ers chuckled and hoped the Germans would send more over the lines. The leaflets were a lot safer than real artillery shells, and the sketches were fairly interesting.The same sort of things was happening on the Japanese front where sex leaflets were being dropped by the enemy on Allied troops. Some comments from Prisoners of the Japanese, Gavan Daws, William Morrow and Company, NY, 1994, on the subject:
The Japanese were dropping propaganda leaflets…And for the friendliest of friendly persuasion, pictures of a beautiful blonde stripper, private parts and all: “You too can enjoy this is you surrender.” The propaganda bombers came droning over every day. It was like having the paper delivered. Some of the troops started trading the leaflets like baseball cards.So, why were they used? Edward Donnerstein says in The Journal of Personality and Social Behavior (Vol. 39, 1980, p. 269-277) :
When males have not been angered or have been exposed to mild erotica, aggressive behavior has been reduced…In summary, the present results suggest that highly arousing nonaggressive-erotic stimuli can be a mediator of aggressive behavior by males toward other males under certain condition.Could it be that our enemies believed that the sexual leaflets would take the "fight" out of the American soldier?
I once interviewed the top British forger of the war. He was the man in charge of printing the black British leaflets. He said about the sex leaflets:
They did nothing to the enemy, but they were popular among the "adolescents" working for me. They did not demoralize the enemy, but they were excellent for the morale of the British agents who handled and distributed them.An American propagandist once told me that he did not like to disapprove these strange and exotic concepts because it tended to stifle the creativity of his artists. It seems that on the Allied side at least, sex leaflets were produced mostly because the bosses thought it was a good way for their people to stretch their imaginations and remain creative.
For the purposes of this article, we are interested only in the propaganda leaflets built around a sexual message. Of course, they only make up a small percentage of the millions of leaflets that were dropped during the Second World War. Probably less than one percent of all the leaflets produced by the opposing powers were of a sexual nature. For that reason they are scarce today, highly collectable, and only rarely seen at auction.
Professor Linebarger noted that obscene pictures showing naked women, designed to make the celibate troops so desirous of women that they surrendered was a Japanese idea that did not work.
The troops kept the pornography and despised the Japanese as queer little people for having sent it.One American soldier assigned to the 35th Infantry Division in February of 1945 told of receiving pornographic leaflets in an artillery barrage. He told me:
This is a telling statement and seems to bolster a comment once made by Sir Arthur Harris, Air Marshall of the Royal Air Force during WWII.We used the leaflets for toilet paper.
My personal opinion is that the only thing achieved (by dropping leaflets) was largely to supply the continent’s requirement of toilet paper for the five long years of the war.Who first used sexually themed leaflets in WW2? Author Leo J. Margolin says in Paper Bullets (Frozen Press, New York, 1946):
In the briskness of the winter air on 1939-1940, the French soldiers’ will to fight evaporated like his breath. The Germans asked, "Where are the British troops?" Millions of leaflets showing a vivid drawing of tired and dirty French soldiers in forward positions while a French woman lay in the arms of a British soldier was the answer that Goebbels provided.He points out that German loudspeakers constantly repeated that message that The British troops were not in the Maginot Line and that they were instead back in Paris with French women.
Sefton Delmer, a reporter with the French Army who would later become an official of the British wartime propaganda agency, recalls his visit to the French front in 1939. He was shown a leaflet:
...Which consisted of a small picture on a thin piece of paper showing a French soldier doing his duty at the front. However, if one held the picture to the light, the scene underwent a complete change. In place of the Brave poilu one now saw in minute salacious detail, a British Tommy fornicating with what the caption told us was the Frenchman’s fiancée.The Germans loved these "divide and conquer" themes. They often attempted to drive a wedge between the American and British troops, soldiers and civilian "slackers" at home, Christians and Jews, and even African-Americans and Caucasians.
We find many written references of these campaigns. John Baker White tells us in The Big Lie (Pan Books Ltd., London, 1958) that:
Goebbels had a wonderful theme for the bitter winter of 1939-1940. The British forces were back, well away from the Germans, on the Franco-Belgian frontier. He was not slow to paint to the French a picture of drunken soldiery living in comfort, seducing their wives and daughters. Many French soldiers were found to be passing from hand-to-hand a postcard which was the photograph of the then Secretary of State for War, sitting between two scantily-clad cabaret artistes in a Paris nightclub. Actually it had been taken months before the war started, but all the Germans had to do was print on the back: ‘While you sit in the line this is what the British are doing with your wives’.
German Sexual PSYOP
Where is Tommy Staying? – First TypeWe will first discuss and illustrate German sexual propaganda leaflets. There are a number of different variations of the see-through type leaflet. The best-known types are a series produced on cardboard about the same size as a postcard (11 x 15 cm).
All of these see-through cards were produced by German military propagandists. I first wrote about these cards in an article entitled “Postcards to the Enemy,” the Society of Philatelic Americans Journal, July 1971.
In April 1940, French soldiers along the Maginot Line received a German airdrop of thousands of colorful cardboard leaflets, which showed brave troops fighting and dying in front of a barbed-wire emplacement. Above the men is a clear area of the sky and the words "Ou le Tommy est-il Reste?" ("Where is Tommy staying?"). When one holds this card to the light, a second scene appears. It shows British officers and soldiers cavorting behind the lines with French women. There are six known varieties of this card. The see-through sexual scenes depict a soldier and woman in a salon; three women and 5 soldiers on a street (all fully clothed); four women and 4 men in a cabaret; four women and 3 soldiers on a staircase; four women and 3 soldiers in a cabaret; and five women and 5 soldiers in a cabaret. The initial printing at the beginning of April 1940 was about 133,000 of each card. On 5 April 1940, an additional 1,000,000 of each were ordered. The cards were airdropped on the French troops from early April to early June 1940.
Where is Tommy Staying? - Second SetA second set of six see-through cards depicts French soldiers dying of wounds, with one soldier holding a photo of a woman. The initial printing was about 400,000 of each card and they were dropped from early May to early June 1940. The see-through sexual scenes depict a soldier and a nude woman sitting on a bed; a soldier and nude woman lying on a bed; a smiling soldier and a crying woman sitting on a bed, both partially clothed; a soldier sitting on a couch with a woman on his lap; a soldier standing and nude woman sitting in a salon; and a soldier, nude girl, and angry mother standing in a room.
A third set of six German propaganda “see-through” cards for French troops were inscribed “Les mylords a l’etape” (“Gentlemen at rest ”), and depicted dead or dying French soldiers on the ground, with hidden pictures showing nude or partially nude women when held to the light. These cards were prepared but never disseminated.
A fourth set of five “Les mylords a l’etape” see-through cards depicted three French soldiers crushed under rubble and the usual scenes of French women with British soldiers when held to the light. These cards were prepared but never disseminated. A sixth card might exist but has not been found as yet.
Frenchmen!Another “divide and conquer” leaflet depicts a British Army officer holding the breast of a semi-naked French woman while her husband is shown in a front-line trench peeping out from behind barbed wire. These leaflets were produced during the “Phony War” of 1940 in an attempt to convince the French that they were being sacrificed at the Front while the British vacationed with their women behind the lines.
Frenchmen! Distrust the enemy – who claims to be your friend!Colored Soldiers! Throw down your Weapons!The Germans also prepared sexual-themed leaflets for the French territories of North Africa. The uncoded leaflet above was dropped about June 1940. It depicts French colonial troops marching off to war closely watched by a French soldier. In the next panel a soldier’s wife or girlfriend watches the ship sail away. In the third panel she is grabbed by the French soldier and dragged into a building to be raped. In the final panel the soldier is shown in the middle of an enemy bombardment. The text is:
Courtesy of Klaus Kirchner: Erotic Leaflets in Europe in the 20th Century
Colored soldiers! Throw down your weapons!The Germans produced another two sets of see-through leaflets in 1940. The first consisted of seven cards and the text "Les mylords a l’etape," ("Gentlemen at rest."). Once again, the cards show dying French troops and British soldiers with French women. A second set of five cards shows three French soldiers crushed under rubble while the British officers play with the French women.
You are being shipped as cannon–fodder
They take you away from your beautiful country, to the slaughter house!
Your wives are at your oppressor’s mercy, who…
To save their blood, will poor out yours!
Two ways of spending the war see-through leafletsThe Germans produced similar see-through leaflets by rocket for use against the Americans advancing near the “Siegfried Line” about December 1944. The front of the 10 x 14cm leaflet depicts a dead American corporal in the foreground and a second soldier draped over the barbed wire in the background. The text at the top of the leaflet is “Two ways of spending the war” and at the bottom, “Fighting.” The back of the leaflet is blank except for text at the lower left which reads “and?” and the series number, for instance; “No. 1 Series: Rich man’s war, poor man’s fight.” Only four numbers have surfaced in the past 50 years. We know that number 1, 3, 4 and 9 exist. There may be others that have never been found, or the Germans may have just used some random numbers hoping to confuse the Americans and make them search for leaflets that were never printed.
There are two major differences between the leaflets aimed at the Americans and those aimed at the French. The American leaflets are much cruder and the pictures not nearly as well drawn. The second difference is that while the leaflet to the French showed British soldiers with the women, thus attacking an ally, the leaflet aimed at the GIs showed American civilians with the wives and girlfriends, so the propaganda theme might be considered more “anti-slacker” or “anti-draft-dodger.
The Germans also produced see-through pornographic leaflets for use in Poland to reinforce anti-Bolshevik feelings. Considering the German treatment of the occupied Poles, the success of these leaflets is doubtful. Could the Russians mistreat or murder the Poles to a greater extent than the Germans?
"Carefree youth – or cruel fate?"Two leaflets are known. The first shows a beautiful smiling polish girl, lying on her stomach in an open field with a flower in her mouth. Text at the top of the leaflet is, "Carefree youth – or cruel fate?" When held to the light a beast-like Russian soldier is shown ravishing the nearly naked girl.
"Beginning of success - or forbidden future?"The second leaflet depicts a wedding scene with a bride and groom kneeling at the altar in church before a priest. Text at the top of the leaflet is, "Beginning of success - or forbidden future?" When held to the light, an ape-like Russian soldier is seen tearing the young bride's clothes off.
A Small DonationOff course, the Poles retaliated in kind. Klaus Kirchner says in Erotic Leaflets in Europe in the 20th Century that the Polish Underground produced several leaflets using sex in their anti-Nazi propaganda campaign. This uncoded leaflet believed to have been produced sometime in 1942 depicts a semi nude woman sitting on the lap of a man I assume is a Nazi official. A poor widow is begging for alms and the Nazi is very annoyed at the disturbance. The widow says:
Courtesy of Klaus Kirchner: Erotic Leaflets in Europe in the 20th Century
I beg for a small donation. My husband fell in the World War, my son near Stalingrad…The Nazi answers:
– Damned, Kätchen, these old women should be sent to the factories; then they will not bother us any longer.The Germans used the same see-through propaganda later in the war in an attempt to divide the allies. They printed four series of leaflets on a very thin paper with see-through images and text. They are AW33 through AW36, each with more than one image. The leaflets of the first three series show a dead Tommy lying on his back, lying face down, or in the barbed-wire staring wide-eyed at the viewer. The secret images show an American soldier raping a girl, fondling partially undressed women, or having sex with a nude woman on a bed. The messages are generally short. Examples are, "Your fight / his warfare," "While you face death," "Die! / To keep him living," and "Your allies are assisting you / on all fronts." These leaflets were produced for Allied troops on the Western Front by the German Skorpion West propaganda organization.
German See-through Leaflet AW-35b
The AW36 series is a bit different. One shows a dead soldier with the words, "White plays." When held to the light, a black man is raping a white woman from behind, and the additional text "Black wins."
German Leaflet S.415On the subject of Poland, the Germans prepared a number of leaflets for use against the Free Polish Army fighting with the Allies in Italy. The Psywar Society booklet German Aerial Propaganda Leaflets to Allied Soldiers and Italian Civilians in Italy 1943-1945 states that the propaganda section Sudstern (Southern Star) of the Skorpion Sud (Scorpion South) organization of the German 10th Army did an entire 1600 series that were in the Polish language. A second series coded “S” with a numeric in the 400s were also all Polish language leaflets. The leaflet above is illustrated in Paper War - Nazi Propaganda in one Battle, on a single day, Cassino, Italy, May 11, 1944, by Peter Batty. It depicts a Caricatured Jew with tuxedo and white spats reading a newspaper with a Star of David at the top. A beautiful nude female sits on his lap drinking a cocktail. This leaflet manages to be anti-Semitic and sexual at the same time. The text is:
Polish Friends! Do you want to die for these?The back is all text. In it, the Germans seem to have forgotten that they invaded Poland and killed most of its Jews. They blame the Jews for the war, an amazing leap of logic. Some of the text is:
THE JEWS ARE GETTING THE BEST OF ITYou are wandering far from your close ones, in a far-away country. The swindlers and imposers of the war are away from the front, enjoying every comfort, surrounded by their families…Would you like to know how your nearest and dearest are, what they think of the war, and how they are yearning for you? If you do, come to us. We assure you an instant return to your Fatherland. Your wives, children and beloved Fatherland await you!
SLOGAN: GO HOME!The Italian campaign found the German Army well prepared, both from a military and PSYOP Standpoint. The allies’ cautious advance allowed the Germans to build up a strong defensive force. Once the advance was halted, thousands of leaflets were showered on the American and British troops from aircraft, artillery, rockets and rifle-grenades. Many of these leaflets were sexual, and extremely effective.
The Germans did more than just produce see-through leaflets. One large series consisted of 16 leaflets that appeared to be the cover of Life Magazine on the front along with a sexy picture of a female, but on the back, the title “Death,” along with a skull wearing a helmet. The dates on the “Life” side all read November 1944” while the dates on the “Death” side all read “Doomsday 1944.” In some of the leaflets, the girl wears an American helmet; in others, she wears a British helmet. The leaflets with the British helmet are coded AI-138-10-44F to AI-145-10-44F. Those with the American helmet are coded AI-146-10-44F to AI-153-10-44F. The coded leaflets above are the smaller size, about 10.5 x 15 cm. There is also a larger uncoded version, about 20.3 x 15.25 cm. Among the poses is a nude sitting on a chair, with a fur coat, kneeling, holding Life Magazine, squatting on a chair, toweling, saluting or in full frontal pose. The German Propaganda-Abschnitts-Offizier Italien organization printed the “AI” leaflets for use in Italy. Some were printed in Berlin, others in Italy.
The “Life-Death” Leaflet Package covers.The various leaflets in this series were placed in packages by German propaganda troops to be hand distributed to the enemy. A diagonal gummed label was attached to the package with instructions for the troops in the field that would disseminate the leaflets near the Allied front lines. Some said “Only for the English,” others said “Only for the Americans” and some said “Only for the English and Americans.” Apparently many of the leaflets were "classified" and the Germans did not want their own soldiers reading what was being sent to the enemy. The above lable says:
Only for English speaking opponents. Open in the vicinity of the enemy and then disseminate.Perhaps we should briefly mention German military propaganda. It is discussed in Black Propaganda in the Second World War, Stanley Newcourt-Nowodwoski, Sutton Publishing, UK, 2005. The author tells of Chancellor Hitler forming a propaganda organization under Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels, the “Ministry for National Enlightenment and Propaganda,” abbreviated to Promi. He goes on:
But Goebbels was not granted a monopoly in this field. The Reichskriegsministerium, RKM – War Office) and its successor, the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW – High Command of the Armed Forces) jealously guarded their right to conduct propaganda in military manners. In 1938, they concluded an agreement with Goebbels, allowing them to set up Propagandatruppen (Propaganda units). Waffen-SS (the militarized SS) joined the fray in 1940: its propaganda units were steadily expanded and in 1943, received the status of an independent regiment: SS Standarte Kurt Eggers. By 1944, Kurt Eggers took over the imitative from the propagandatruppen in battlefield propaganda.The author does not mention it but it was Hitler’s lack of trust in the loyalty of his army and complete faith in the loyalty of the SS that caused the change in the propaganda hierarchy.
To go into greater detail, the German Propaganda Kompanie Einheiten (PK Units) was comprised of two light reporting teams consisting of a few writers and photographers, and one heavy team with additional movie and radio personnel. Starting about 1938 they were appointed by propaganda Minister Josef Goebbel’s Das Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda (The Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda - RMVP), but when at the front they came under the command of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (Armed Forces High Command – OKW). The arrangement that was agreed upon in 1939 said:
Propaganda is recognized as an essential means of war, equal to armed struggle. The Wehrmacht is responsible for conducting the armed struggle: the propaganda war will be conducted by the RMVP. In the home district, the RMVP carries it out completely independently; in the operations area, in coordination with the OKW.All of the film shot by the PK was for the exclusive use of the Propaganda Ministry. Adolf Hitler always worried about the loyalty of the Army and eventually moved all of the propaganda sections to the Schutzstaffeln (Protection Squads – SS).
In January of 1940 an SS-Kriegsberichter-Kompanie (Waffen-SS war Reporters Company) was established, each equipped with still and movie cameras, and its platoons were attached to the four main Waffen-SS combat formations that fought in the Western Campaign of May and June, 1940. These platoons remained with their respective divisions for the Balkans Campaign in the spring of 1941. During August 1941, the SS-Kriegsberichter-Kompanie was expanded to Abteilung (battalion) strength. Waffen-SS expansion continued to grow throughout the war, and in December 1943 the reporters unit again expanded, this time to regimental size. It also received an honor title at this point, becoming known as SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers. It also received a cuff-title bearing the same name. Kurt Eggers was the former editor of the SS magazine Das Schwarz Korps (The Black Corps). He was killed in action west of Kharkov while serving as a tank commander with the 5th SS-Division on 13 August 1943
The chain of command of the Propaganda organization was on a direct line from Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler, to SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler, to “Kurt Eggers” Commander Standartenführer Gunterd ’Alquen to units such as the German Skorpion propaganda group. The Skorpion units were supplied by regular Army commands but not supervised by them. All guidance came down through the SS.
<A brief word about the commander of SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers, SS-Standartenführer Günther d'Alquen. He was interviewed after WWII and asked about the German sex leaflets. When American propagandists were asked about these leaflets they usually said that it was just a way to get the enemy to pick up the propaganda. Günther d'Alquen had a different answer. He had been convinced by the High Command that super V-weapons were just 2-3 months away and told that if he could just slow the Allied advance, Germany could still win the war. He stated that the sex leaflets (in 1944 and 1945) were used in an attempt to convince the Allies to slow down and not get killed in the last months of the war so that Germany would have time to put the new weapons into use. His interviewer, the author Ortwin Buchbender said that the SS were victims of their own propaganda.
The Skorpion units operated on all fronts; Skorpion East (East Front), Südstern (Italy), Skorpion-Adria (Balkans) and Skorpion West (Western Europe). They all produced propaganda for the enemy under the command of the SS Standarte Kurt Eggers. Skorpion West not only produced propaganda for the enemy, it was also tasked with boosting the morale of German troops. It regularly produced leaflets and newspapers for German forces, and the Allies quickly produced black editions of the leaflets with defeatist propaganda cleverly hidden among the news stories.
The Germans also tried to take advantage of the alleged latent anti-Semitic feelings of the Allies. One item dropped during the early stages of the war shows a lovely nude blond holding a copy of the Times. She is wearing a British Army helmet and looking into a full-length mirror. Her image, as shown in the mirror, is that of a dark-haired obviously Jewish woman. She is in an ape-like crouched position with a sinister smirk on her face. In her hand, the mirror image of the Times is reversed and now reads Semit. This is a very imaginative piece of propaganda. It has a sexual image and yet sends the message that the British are fighting the war for the Jews. This particular leaflet was dropped in a number of different versions. The most interesting variety is an 18-piece puzzle dropped in an envelope. The finder put the puzzle together to see the image.
War - Time PostcardThe same vignette also appeared on postcards mailed to the United States by way of the Siberian-Japan mail route in 1940 before America officially entered the war. There were actually three postcards in this set, all anti-British in nature. The German propaganda described the British government as corrupt and controlled by Jews who had held power for many years. These postcards were meant to convince America to stay out of a Jewish-inspired European war. This is rather ironic considering that Hitler will eventually declare war on the United States.
The Germans prepared a set of four anti-Semitic sexually themed leaflets entitled “The girl you left behind” for use against the Allies in Italy. They Germans fired a smaller version from artillery in March 1944 and dropped a larger sized leaflet from aircraft in November 1944. They are AI-161-11-44 to AI-164-11-44. The “AI” code tells us that they were from the organization SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers for use against Allied troops in Italy. There were numerous codes used by this organization, and also some uncoded leaflets. Nobody seems sure of the meaning of all the codes, but in the March 1971 issue of the Psywar Society's journal Falling Leaf and attempt was made to identify the codes. The codes are “AF” (Amerikaner Farbige - American colored), “AI” (Abschnittsoffizier Italian), “PAI” (Propaganda Abteilung Italien), “Kr” (meaning unknown), and “LwP” (Werhmachtpropagandaabetilung or perhaps more likely Luftwaffen Propagandaabteilung). Another code is an asterisk or star which has been identified as Südstern (Southern Star) although Klaus Kirchner, the German specialist says that this is incorrect because that was the name of the entire organization in Italy. There is also a triangle which has been identified as Propaganda Einsatz Fuehrer, but again, Kirchner says that all of the Südstern units bore that title. So, there is a lot of confusion about the codes. The SS documents were carefully destroyed at the end of the war so there are few references to the meaning of these codes. We do know that the smaller sized leaflets fired by rockets sometimes has a letter "a" at the end of the code.
All "The Girl you Left Behind" leaflets are crude drawing in a monotone. These leaflets told the story of the mythical Sam Levy; a Jew who was growing rich and enjoying the favors of a Christian girl while her boyfriend was fighting on the front lines.
The first leaflet shows Sam helping a young girl put on a pair of precious nylon stockings and the text:
Today she is getting sixty dollars…The back is all text:
Sam knows what he wants. Two years ago, comely Joan Hopkins was still a salesgirl behind the ribbon counter in a New York 5 & 10 cents store getting 12 dollars a week. Today she is getting $60 as the private secretary of Sam Levy. Business is excellent and Sam is making a pile of dough on war contracts. FOR HIM THE SLAUGHTER CAN'T LAST LONG ENOUGH. Sam has no scruples about getting a bit intimate with Joan. And why should he have any? Tall and handsome Bob Harrison, Joan's fiancé is at the front, thousands of miles away, fighting for guys like Sam Levy. Joan loves Bob, but she doesn't know WHEN HE WILL COME BACK. Have you seen the other pictures of "The Girl You Left Behind?" AI-161-11-44
The second leaflet shows Sam with his hand on the leg of young Joan while a sleazy butler peeks at the activities. Text on the front is:
Joan is feeling so lonely anyway…Text on the back is:
SAM AT WORK. After his arrival in New York City, cigar-chewing Sam Levy, a steerage passenger from eastern Europe, used to live on the lower East Side not far from the Bowery. Soon he was able to move to upper Broadway. When President Roosevelt took those steps "short of war", Sam had already leased a ten-room apartment on Riverside Drive. Slick-haired home-front warrior Abe Cohen, boss of a government department in Washington, saw to it that his chum Sam would be on the earning end of the war. Rich profits on war contracts let Sam climb up the social ladder, taking two steps at one time. He is now residing in a duplex deluxe apartment on swanky Park Avenue. Why shouldn't Sam invite beautiful Joan Hopkins, his private secretary, former 5 & 10 cents salesgirl, up to his place to have dinner with him and cocktails. Joan is feeling so lonely anyway. More than two years ago, Bob Harrison, the man she wanted to marry, had to leave her for the battlefields of Europe, thousands of miles away. He is fighting there for Sam Levy and his kind. Joan is hoping that Bob will return to her safe and sound. But she knows that many of her girl friends have waited in vain for men who did not return. Sam knows her predicament and he is trying his darndest to cheer her up.
Why, Bob wouldn't know it anyway! And what's a little kiss among friends?" Have you seen the other pictures of "The Girl You Left Behind"? AI-162-11-44
In the third leaflet, Sam has seduced Joan. He is on a bed reading the Stock Exchange page of his local newspaper. Joan seems very unhappy, one breast exposed from her negligee. The text on the front is:
Poor little Joan! She is still thinking of Bob…Text on the back is:
The way of all flesh. When pretty Joan Hopkins was still standing behind the ribbon counter of a 5 & 10 cents store on 3rd Avenue in New York City, she never dreamed of ever seeing the interior of a duplex Park Avenue apartment. Neither did young Bob Harrison, the man she loves. Bob was drafted and sent to the battlefields in Europe thousands of miles away from her. Through Lazare's Employment Agency Joan got a job as private secretary with wily Sam Levy. Sam is piling up big money on war contracts. Should the slaughter end very soon, he would have an apoplectic fit. NOW JOAN KNOWS WHAT BOB AND HIS PALS ARE FIGHTING FOR. Joan always used to look up to Bob as the guiding star of her life, and she was still a good girl when she started working for Sam Levy. But she often got the blues thinking of Bob, whom she hadn't seen for over two years. Her boss had an understanding heart and was always very kind to her, so kind indeed, that he often invited her up to his place. He had always wanted to show her his "etchings". Besides, Sam wasn't stingy and each time Joan came to see him, he gave her the nicest presents. Now, all women like beautiful and expensive things. But Sam wasn't the man you could play for a sucker. He wanted something, wanted it very definitely... Poor little Joan ! She is still thinking of Bob, yet she is almost hoping that he'll never return. Have you seen the other pictures of "The Girl You Left Behind" ? AI-163-11-44
In the fourth and final leaflet, Joan runs into Bob who has lost a leg at the front and is now on crutches. Text on the front is:
It was a rude awakening for her…Text on the back is:
The moment she dreaded. Forgotten are the days when shapely Joan Hopkins was still selling ribbons in a 5 and 10 cents store in New York City. As private secretary to slick Sam Levy, big money maker in the war business, she rose to be a sugar daddy's darling.
Sam didn't have any cash when he got started. and he doesn't like to be reminded of his early days on the lower East Side. The war was just the right thing for him. Like many other home-warriors, he made the grade piling up dough and growing fat on the sacrifices of those young American boys fighting on foreign battlefields. At heart, Joan is not a bad woman. For over two years, she has not seen her fiancé, clean-cut Bob Harrison, whom she cares for very much. Bob was shipped to Europe to fight for the cause of Sam Levy and his kind. Two years is a long time for any girl. For more than half a year, she had not heard from Bob. He seemed to be among the missing. One sunny afternoon, however, just when Joan and Sam were stepping out of fashionable Bonwit Teller's shop on Fifth Avenue, she was struck speechless by the sight of a man in uniform. It was a rude awakening for her. And it was also a dreadful blow to Bob, for it was he who suddenly stood opposite her - on crutches, one leg amputated. Two lives - lost to one another forever. Have you seen the other pictures of "The Girl You Left Behind"? AI-164-11-44.
There was a second set that was similar in many ways. Like the Sam Levy leaflets, they were monotone drawings.. This series of three leaflets was entitled “Home Front Warriors” and told the story of a draft-dodger who was enjoying the home front while the fighting men suffered at the front. This series deals with voyeurism and temptation. A file stamp on the top of several of these leaflets indicates that they were prepared by the Propaganda Einsatzfuhrer 614 of the Sudstern organization.
The first leaflet shows a female on a ladder reaching for a book. A little flesh appears above her nylon and her skirt is high on her thigh. A man sitting at a desk looks up at exposed her bottom. Text on the front is:
Text on the back is:A thought crossed his mind....
BILL THE SLACKER. "My mother didn't raise me to be a soldier," said Bill turner to himself as he was called up to appear before the Draft Board. Being the son of a well-to-do father it wasn't difficult for him to get a certificate from sly old Don Ginsburg, the family physician, who willingly stated that Bill had always suffered from "severe heart attacks." A few pills from the corner drugstore helped to put him in the right condition so that the Draft Board simply had to pronounce him unfit for military service. Bill's trump card, however, was his stepping right into the job of Frank Merritt, "honest Frank" his friends called him, as assistant to the manager of a war production plant piling up profits sky-high. Frank had been drafted and sent to the battlefields in Europe thousands of miles away to fight in the RICH MAN'S WAR and perhaps lose his life. He was engaged to pretty Vivian Hope, one of the stenographers in the accounting department, and his leaving for the overseas fighting was a hard blow to the vivacious girl. During the first few weeks in his new job, Bill Turner was so wrapped up in his duties that he hardly noticed the girl. One morning, however, when she came into his office for a reference book, he suddenly realized how beautiful she was. A thought crossed his mind. He made inquiries and found out about the girl and Frank Merritt. But "honest Frank" was fighting in another continent and who knew if he would ever return. Have you seen the other pictures of HOME FRONT WARRIORS? AI-157-11-44.
The next leaflet shows a man at a picnic with a woman. Her legs are open giving him a view. Text on the front is:
It was a memorable day for Bill…
Text on the back is:
BILL THE SHEIK. Bill Turner, well-paid assistant to the manager of a war production plant, was one of those many strong young fellows who had made up their minds not to don a soldier's uniform at any cost. Having the right connections, he not only succeeded in that but was now sitting tight in the job that rightfully belonged to Frank Merritt, tall and handsome college football hero. Frank had been sent to Europe to fight for the cause o f Big Business, war profiteers and Wall Street sharks. His fiancée, shapely Vivian Hope, who was working as stenographer in the same plant, had not seen him for over two years. She was lonely and often had the blues. When smartly dressed Bill Turner, who had that definite come-hither look in his eyes, asked her one day in a casual way to go with him to the movies, she didn't mind joining him. That night they saw a picture of a romantic love affair that affected them deeply. It became now a habit for the two to go off somewhere together after work and occasionally they went to a dinner-dance. Vivian did, however, think much of her soldier boy Frank and she wished he would come back soon. She didn't realize, though, that Bill had made up his mind not to let her slip out of his hands. With him, everything was going hunky-dory. When he bought that new roadster he coveted so much, he invited her to go with him on a trip into the country. They went swimming in the lake and then had a free and easy picnic under the trees. It was a memorable day for Bill. What a contrast between the beauty and peace of their surroundings and the mud, dirt and ever present danger of death Frank it-as now facing with so many of his countrymen. When parting in the evening both agreed that they had never enjoyed a day so much in their lives. Have you seen the other pictures of "HOME FRONT WARRIORS"? AI-158-11-44.
The final leaflet depicts seems to be the final one in the set. Vivian and Bill are in bed and Frank enters, cane in hand. Text on the front is:
In walked a man in a soldier’s uniform…Text on the back is:
BILL THE CONQUEROR. "It is better to have a high-paving defense job than to be torn to piece by an enemy shell," thought home front warrior Bill Turner when he jauntily pocketed his fat paycheck. He couldn't help laughing at how he had fooled the Draft Board. Besides, he had another good reason to be in a happy mood. Lovely Vivian Hope, the girl he adored, had hinted that she might accept him, when the other day he had asked her out of a clear sky to marry him. Vivian was working in the same plant as stenographer. and she and Bill Turner had been much together for some time. But between her and Bill stood Frank Merritt to whom she had promised herself. Two years ago - it seemed ages to Vivian - Frank had been shipped overseas to face shells and bullets and perhaps die for the cause of ambitious politicians and war profiteers. For over eight months, Vivian had not heard from Frank. Could he be among the missing? So many young chaps would never return. Perhaps it was a bit reckless of her to ask Bill up to her furnished room on her twenty-fourth birthday to a dainty little dinner she prepared herself. Bill was in good form that night. He had been reading so much in the papers about reconnoitering patrols, shock action, assaulting parties and combined operations that he felt the urge to vie with the best soldier at the front. And "his war" in the seclusion of a scented bedroom was so easy to conduct compared with the hardships and constant danger of death hundreds of thousands of his countrymen were facing every day. However, even the greatest strategists sometimes overlook a trifling but decisive precautionary measure. Bill had forgotten to lock the door. Suddenly it burst open and in walked a man in a soldier's uniform. It was Frank Merritt, who badly wounded had been taken prisoner-of-war. For months, he had been lying in a hospital between life and death before being finally exchanged when his condition had improved. Frank came rushing home to surprise Vivian on her birthday - only to find all his happiness shattered to pieces by a draft dodger. have you seen the other pictures of "HOME FRONT WARRIORS"? AI-159-11-44.
Sagacity SamOne of the more common German sex leaflets is known as “Sagacity Sam.” The German philosophy behind this leaflet confuses me somewhat since “Sagacity” implies a soundness of judgment and might be considered a complement. In fact, none of the text on the front makes much sense. It was dropped on Allied troops in Western Europe in December 1944 and depicts a civilian (The Germans gave him a hooked nose so are probably implying that he is a Jewish war profiteer) drinking champagne while three girls sit on his lap in various stages of nudity. Behind him a line of British soldiers marches off to war. The text is:
Poor Jerry!The back is all text:
You don’t have this: the slacker for whom we fight and leave our girls.
Look here: This is the man who stands between you and me.
SAGACITY SAM SAYSIn our far off land,
Where all’smat hard,
And there’s nothing that they need
Life carries on
In that same old song
Of war they give no heed
And far from here,
With wine and beer,
And the luxuries of life.
Sits the “business bug”
With girls to hug
Or in bed with another’s wife.Another Propaganda-Abschnitts-Offizier leaflet depicts a smiling naked British girl rolling up her stocking while a U.S. Army Staff-sergeant fixes his tie nearby. Text on the front is:
While you are away.The back depicts a disfigured British soldier dead on the battlefield. The text is:
The Yanks are 'lend-leasing' your women. Their pockets full of cash and no work to do, the boys from overseas are having the time of their lives in Merry Old England. And what young woman, single or married, could resist such "handsome brute from the wide open spaces" to have dinner with, a cocktail at some nightclub, and afterwards.... Anyway, so numerous have become the scandals that all England is talking about them now. Most of you are convinced that the war will be over in four months. Too bad if it should hit you in the last minute.This leaflet is actually rather clever. It mentions "Lend-lease," a program where the United States sent weapons and materiel to Great Britain to be paid for after the war. It talks about pockets full of money, which would remind the British of their saying about the Yanks, "overpaid. oversexed, and over here." Finally, the term “wide open spaces” reminds us that many Europeans believed that America was still the land where the “Cowboys and Indians” rode the open plains. The leaflet is coded AI-046-8-44.
Leaflet AI-134-10-44At one point in the writing of this article we had to make a decision about what constitutes a “sex” leaflet. My own opinion was that the leaflet had to use some form of nudity in an attempt to actually arouse the reader. However, it is clear that the enemy used a number of leaflets that simply showed women in attractive poses or used text that was meant to make the reader feel homesick and lower his morale. An example of this is the October 1944 German leaflet above. There is no nudity or any attempt to arouse the soldier by exposing a breast, but the cheerleader is shown with her leg fully raised and the soldier was certainly expected to think about what was covered. The text on the front is:
Have a Good Look at This!Maybe it is the last good look you’ll have in your life!The back is all text:
<>What are your prospects for the future?First: You may be killed outright.We add a few more “sex” leaflets that make no attempt at pornography below.
Second: You may be totally disabled.
Third: You may wind up in a German P.O.W. Camp.
In the last case you have a chance of having another “good look.”
Some of theThe Sudstern (Southern Star) leaflets to Allied troops in Italy have codes that start with a five-pointed star (asterisk). One of the more attractive ones disseminated in February 1945 shows a beautiful blond being kissed on the shoulder by a man with slicked-back dark hair. The text is:
The back of the leaflet shows a one-legged soldier on crutches and the text:Gentlemen prefer blondes.
The leaflet is coded * 1309-2-45.but blondes don’t like cripples.
Leaflet 1322-3-45A similar leaflet probably from the same artist coded 1322-3-45 depicts a man and woman on the front with the text:
To Live for Her –The back depicts Josef Stalin and the text:
Or To Die for Him?The Sudstern also prepared six very handsome sexual leaflets entitled "The Georgia Series." The leaflets were prepared for use in Italy against the Allies and were disseminated in late 1944. Each of these leaflets is coded with a star and numeric series showing the leaflet number, month and year. The known specimens are "Broadway melody" (*182-10-44), "A puzzle game" (*183-10-44), "His questions remain unanswered" (*329-11-44), "Winter weather ahead" (*330-11-44), "Jolly good time back home" (*331-11-44), and "War ballyhoo at home" (*358-12-44). The last two leaflets (numbers five and six) are known in both large and small format.
Georgia Series No. 1Georgia No.1 depicts a bare-breasted woman on the front with a big-city skyscraper design in the background. Some of the text is:
BROADWAY MELODYWill you ever hear it again?Keep smiling my boy - such sweet girls as this one you can only have on paper. Cut her out and pin her to the wall, so that at least your tired eyes may have something to feast on….Keep smiling my boy - the "gold-bricks" are doing all this for you. While you are listening to the roar of shells, old Broadway is singing its melody - also without you...While you are fighting and bleeding over here, more than one back home is hoping that you may never come back.Georgia No. 2 depicts a bare-breasted woman in a fancy nightclub. Some of the text is:
Georgia Series No. 2
A PUZZLE GAMEWhen have you last been home on furlough? What is the distance between this damn place in Italy and your place back home expressed in kilometers? When have you last had a real Manhattan cocktail at a swell bar…Why are you fighting in Italy? (But this you will have to ask the Jewish jobbers in Wall Street, they can surely tell you why!)Georgia No. 3 depicts an attractive woman on a yacht wearing a bathing suit. The back has a 4-stanza poem allegedly found on the dead body of an American soldier. Some of the text is:
Georgia Series No. 3
His questions remain unansweredSome politicians, a handful of capitalists and professional warmongers got you into this mess. That’s the situation in a nutshell. Why die for their profit? Better slip over to us some dark night and wait for the end of this damned war in a decent camp….Georgia No. 4 depicts a topless woman holding a camera and wearing a U.S. Army helmet. Behind her a soldier has been hit on the battlefield. Some of the propaganda text is:
Georgia Series No. 4
WINTER WEATHER AHEAD!The days are shortening and you are still here. "Beautiful Italy" has changed. That bit of sun during the day cannot warm you any more after you have been lying for days and days in your foxholes perhaps knee deep in water…Has it never occurred to you how senseless all this is, and that nobody will give you thanks afterwards?Georgia No. 5 depicts a woman wearing a slip and thinking about the New York City nightlife. Some of the text is:
Georgia Series No. 5
Jolly good times back homeMONEY – FUN – DANCING – GIRLS…War or no war, the gold-bricks are having their fun. The gold-bricks at home have completely forgotten the war and all its horrors, if they ever gave them a thought. They are not interested in your sufferings and don’t care what happen to your families…You are wasting your best years in Europe! You are FORGOTTEN AMERICANS.Georgia No. 6 depicts a bare-breasted woman holding a pistol and wearing a U.S. Army helmet. Behind her is a wild party. Some of the text is:
Georgia Series No. 6
War - ballyhoo at homeListen pal! Back home the lucky chances are waiting for you around the corner. But you aren’t there…Back in the states they are making hay while the sun shines and HOW! They spend it lavishly, too…The schemers in Washington still have big plans in their minds: Jungle war against Japan in India, Burma and China and a Third World War against Soviet Russia…WAR BALLYHOO OVER THERE – FIGHTING AND DYING OVER HERE.The Georgia series is one of the better German propaganda productions and the photography and artwork appears to have been done by professionals.
Another German full-color leaflet depicts a handsome man fondling a beautiful blond woman in a pink negligee. She stands before a mirror and the reflection shows a caricature of death strangling her husband. Text on the back is:
MIRROR – WISE. A precarious story. Joan was in her room and just about to change because she intended to go to the cinema with Bob. She had done that quite often since John, her husband had left for the front. Why shouldn’t she? Bob is a good friend of John’s and he certainly wouldn’t object. Everybody understands that Joan cannot always sit at home alone for years, without any companionship. Yesterday Bob came a little earlier than usual and entered Joan’s room just as she was adding the last touch of her rouge. She didn’t mind his staying for they were really good friends, and so accustomed to each other. As she rolled her stockings, Bon told her all that he had done during business hours that day; and then she noticed that the elbow of his jacket had a little grease spot; so, she took it and cleaned it. What could anybody think wrong about that among friends? An then, neither knew how it happened, she felt his strong body leaning gently against her, and then, they kissed for a long, long while. Joan was in a dream. She was feeling that marvelous something that she had missed for so long. It was so wonderful. Then she opened her eyes and there was that horror before her. Was it a dream, or was it reality? She looked in the mirror and saw John! John in the arms of another! In the arms of death! But no, it was not John embraced by Death, it was YOU, and it was not Joan looking in the mirror but YOUR wife. Joan is still alone. And so are the millions of other wives and girls. But war goes on.
A-127 A-129A pair of crude monotone leaflets depicted a crippled soldier talking to a smug boss and the same boss fixing his tie after having sex with a young lady who seems sad and pensive. In both cases the text on the front is:
Both leaflets are all text on the back. The first is coded A127. The text on the back is:It’s your job to fight!
Hallo Boys from the States.I BETYou did not make big money before the war.
Or else you would not be soldiers now.
Think your going to make a nickel more
When and IF you get out of it?
But those guys who had millions when it started
Will have many more millions when it is over.
It’s YOU who takes all the chances.
It’s THEY who take all the profit.
What a lovely deal.
Or did Wallstreet-bigwigs Messrs. Morgan & Baruch & Co.
Offer you a share - profit - bargain?
Your jolly juiceless jews
Ever see one in your unit?
But sure they fight:
For bigger and bigger profits.
There is something decidedly wrong
When this sort of thing continues indefinitely…
DON’T you think?The second leaflet showing the girl in bed is coded A-129. The text on the back is:AMERICAN SOLDIERSYou remember the veterans that took part in the starvation parade to the capital and got treated like bums?The Germans leaflets coded "A" were prepared for Allied troops in Italy and in Northern Europe in 1944-1945. Leaflet A-129 was dropped in December 1944.
They had been fair and brave fighters in 1918, but they were cheated and their blood only made millions for others.
What is it you want in Europe? Want to be suckers like those veterans? And yet they were better off, because they had starving German soldiers opposing them with the Reich in a greatly advanced stage of disintegration. And ready to fall apart. Today YOU are opposing fresh well fed and experienced armies outfitted with the best of material.
Do you want to die for jewish jobbers of Wallstreet?
You are defending WHAT? Your country that has not been attacked by anybody?
You want to die for WHOM? For those guys back home who make all the money now and laugh at you later? For Old England that expects every American to do his duty?
Did you talk to the boys who have been in Italy? Then you will know what awaits you.
Only there is this difference.
On the Western Front you'll have to try luck against many armies and not only a few divisions as in Italy
If you are lucky enough to get that far, for most of you won't see this side of the West wall.
Go home boys and make sure that grafters and war-boomsters keep away from your women.
Go home boys, for the time has come to get things straight back home.
No use throwing away your life for a business without prospects; for a business that is none of yours after all.
Leaflet SW-1Leaflet SW-1 depicts a caricature of a Jewish man about to have sex with a semi-naked woman. The text on the front is:
All quiet on the homefront, because your blood pays for their easy life.The back is all text. Some of the message is:
American KidYou have to fight now…in Europe,
While Messrs. Morgan and Co. Junior give swell parties, maybe with your girl.
While Messrs. Cohn Rabi Moises and Co. grab big profits;
While Messrs. Roosevelt and Co. Junior way back in the rear, boast and show off brand new uniforms.
If you’re lucky you’ll get back home one day.
Then what?The German SW series was produced by their “Skorpion” propaganda organization and aimed at Allied troops and French civilians in Normandy in late 1944. SW-1 was dropped in October 1944.You’ll join the bread lines,You’ll be treated like a bum,You’ll starve job hunting,as it happened to World War No. 1 fighters in 1918.
SKW- 503/45This leaflet is more anti-Semitic than sexual, but the use of the red color is similar to “All quiet on the home front” above, so I thought we should add it here. The leaflet depicts two caricatured Jews celebrating with semi-dressed women while a black bartender mixes a drink in the background. The leaflet was dropped on Allied troops in Western Europe in January 1945 by the German Skorpion propaganda organization. The text on the front is:
The Kikes expect every Joe to do his duty.There is a poem on the back that was used on several German leaflets. It says:
If I stop to take a crap,
They say I’m helping a Jap.
If I take time off to take a drink,
They say I’m cheating a chink.
If I slow down because I’m ailin’
They say I’m robbing Joseph Stalin.
If I don’t pay my income taxes,
They say I’m helping the whole damn Axis.So I’ll work like Hell and never stop,
I will stay on the job until I drop.
I’ll piss in my pants,
I’ll shit in my shoes,
And save the world
For the God damn JewsThe German Wehrmacht (armed Forces) used the leaflet code “LwP.” Later, when Hitler gave the propaganda function to the SS, some army personnel transferred to the SS to continue producing propaganda. Those who chose not to, or were not wanted by the SS were sent to the front lines. The SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers continued to use the LwP code on some of their leaflets in Italy even after they replaced the army units about December 1943. The LwP code is found on several leaflets with the same title. One depicts an American soldier grappling with a British girl and the text:
This title is on five leaflets, each in two sizes. The codes are LwP-122/2 44, LwP-122/4 44, LwP-124/4 44, LwP-125/4-44 and LwP-126/4 44.The sizes are 15 x 21cm and 9 x 15cm. The smaller size was probably for the German propaganda rocket Propaganda Geschoss 41. In all cases, the text uses a “divide and conquer” theme and implies that while the British are at the front, the Americans are back in Great Britain with their wives and girl friends.Indeed, and amusing war – for the Americans.
To the British Forces, anti-American leaflets were used in another attempt to drive a wedge between the allied forces. Leaflet A1037a-2-44 shown above is an example of this type of leaflet. The “a” usually indicates a smaller sized leaflet for rocket delivery. The leaflet depicts an American Sergeant in bed with a British girl, and the words:
You Americans are so different.On the reverse is a brief propaganda message stating:
The Yanks are putting up their tents in merry old England. They've got lots of money and loads of time to chase after your women.
126/4 44Another German leaflet produced in April 1944 for use against British troops in Italy depicts a lovely bare-breasted girl wearing panties and nylons looking into a large vanity mirror while her American boyfriend stands by dressed only in a bathrobe. The text at the bottom of the leaflet is "Indeed, an amusing war - FOR THE AMERICANS." The leaflet is coded with a small triangle and the numbers 126/4 44. The triangle shows that the leaflet is a "delta" product, printed by the Propaganda-Einsatz-Führer organization of the German 14th Army.
The back is all text. It is too long and repetitious to translate in full, but attacks the Americans and claims that 70% of the GIs are still training in England while the British Tommies are fighting and dying at the front. It tells the story of a girl named Dorothy and her meeting with an American officer. The text is in part:
The young American turned out to be a very nice chap. He was entertaining, he played tennis and danced marvelously. And Dorothy learnt to laugh again.
And she learnt to live again. But in order to live, a young woman needs more than a letter now and again and three weeks a year of being together with the man she loves.
It did not take long until the incidence shown in our picture had taken place.
You don't believe it, you think this is only German propaganda? Surely - but the Americans help us in making the propaganda. They furnish us with the facts, and we only need to write the corresponding texts.
Ask your pals, and you will be astonished to learn how many happy marriages in England have been wrecked, thanks to the Americans.
Still another anti-American leaflet to the British forces coded * 341-12-44 was one that depicted a pair of men's shoes on the floor next to a chair with a man's uniform piled on it. The implication was that the Americans were in England sleeping with the wives or girlfriends of the British soldiers while they were away fighting the war. The short poem on the leaflet reads:
He's fighting on the BattlefieldThe British also received their share of pornographic leaflets at Normandy. One item shows a happy "slacker" surrounded by three semi-nude girls. In the background are British soldiers marching off to war led by a grinning helmeted symbol of death. The text is:
His room he does not use
So tell me, tell me if you can
To whom belong the shoes?
Poor Jerry. You don't have this: The slacker for whom we fight and to whom we leave our girls. Look here: This is the man who stands between you and me.
Do I know Americans?This small uncoded “Black” WWII divide-and-conquer cardboard leaflet was disseminated by the Germans in August 1944. Curiously, the Germans hoped that British would think that it was an Allied product and ordered that it not be disseminated with other German leaflets. It was targeted at British troops and the Propaganda-Zug Panzerarmee West specifically stated that it was not to be dropped on Canadians and should only be disseminated very sparingly. The leaflet depicts a British girl meeting an American who quickly seduces her and leaves her crying in the park. Text on the back in part is:
DO I KNOW AMERICANS?Two women met on a London street. One said to the other, “Do you know American soldiers?” The other replied, “Do I know American soldiers?” Why just the other day the old man said to me, “Go down and get me a bucket of ale.” So I goes down the street with me bucket and who do I meet but an American soldier. Before I could say “Trafalgar Square,” he grabs me by the ass, shoves me under a tree, strips me bloomers off, downs me, ins me, outs me, wipes his tallywacker on me bloomers, drinks me old man’s ale, pisses in the bucket and stalks off whistling “God Save the King.” And you ask me if I know American soldiers.All of the “Indeed an Amusing War - for the Americans” leaflets depict American soldiers and British women standing, as does the above leaflet which seems to imply that the American had sex with the girl standing up against a tree. John Costello talks about this position in Love, Sex and War: Changing Values, 1939-45, William Collins, London, 1985.
The American servicemen also discovered from the streetwalkers that “The English had a curious custom of fucking on foot, fully clothed.” It became a trademark of the Piccadilly Warriors to call “Hey Yank, quick Marble Arch style!” But there were also many girls who were not prostitutes who believed that you couldn't get pregnant standing up, and “wall jobs” soon became part of every GI's wartime vocabulary. One Jewish chaplain, puzzled to see so many of his men wearing their greatcoats in Birmingham on a June evening, was shocked to discover that they were wrapped around girls during alfresco couplings in parks and dark side-streets…The blackout, it appears, made the British policeman even more of a “friendly bobby” who could be relied on to turn a blind eye to couples making-out in the dark sanctuary of a convenient telephone box or doorway – and US military police were more concerned with rowdy drunken GIs than with breaking up the trysting couples.
For Officers Only vs For Men OnlyIn December of 1944 the Germans dropped another leaflet on American troops in both Italy and Western Europe. The leaflet was produced by the German propaganda organization Skorpion West. The leaflet is uncoded. This time, they tried to create friction between officers and the enlisted men. The front of the leaflet depicts a wounded soldier being treated by a medic. Just behind the pair, a third soldier is shown in the process of being hit by enemy fire. The text is:
For Men OnlyOn the back, a couple shares a passionate embrace on a couch. The text is:
For Officers OnlyThis leaflet has a crinkled appearance, indication that it was delivered by either an artillery shell or a rifle-grenade.
Another German leaflet series bearing sexual images is the Skorpion West newspaper "Lightning News." The Germans dropped this one-page newsletter over Allied troops on the western front during late 1944. Each issue had a pin-up photo at the upper right hand corner. The issue of 24 October 1944 depicts an attractive brunette in black bra and panties looking at a bird in a cage. The text is:
The lonesome beauty. Certainly, she would be only too glad to tell you about her sexual desires. Sorry, the canary is the only available companion.
The 31 October issue depicted a bare-breasted female mixing a drink in a cocktail shaker. The text is:
Gee, it would be swell to be back home and mix a few cocktails with her.By January 1945, the newspaper expanded to four pages. The pin-up now appeared at the upper right of page four. It showed a nude woman in bed and the word "remember?"
Toward the end of the war in November 1944, the Germans became more desperate. The Allies were breaching their Festung Europa and Germany was retreating on all fronts. The leaflets became more pornographic in a last-ditched attempt to somehow slow the Allied forces. The German propagandists of Skorpion West prepared and dropped an anti-morale leaflet coded "E." on British troops in northwest Europe. The front of the leaflet depicts Death, in a British Army helmet, caressing a beautiful naked woman. The text is "Tommy, your next leave." The back is in the form of a poem:
This war is simply lovely
A paradise on earth
A perfect seventh heaven
Creating endless mirth.
The blood and countless murder
Which happens every day
Is lifes sweet entertainment
Let’s hope "one comes" our way.
Our sad distressed dependents
Our Margerys and our Joans
Will have no rending heartaches
They’ll never even moan.
Then as a fallen hero
They’ll write a touching theme
Of war and death delightful
Oh war – a perfect dream.Another late leaflet code number 982144/26, was disseminated by the Germans Skorpion West Organization starting in December 1944. This air dropped, and artillery shell disseminated leaflet was used at Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge as well as other fronts in Europe known to be occupied by U.S. Soldiers, to include the Rhine Crossing Battle and Remagen during the attack on Germany. The leaflet depicts a half naked woman laying on a couch, holding a cigarette and daydreaming of her evening out. The text on the front of the leaflet reads:
The reverse of the leaflet is all text and reads:It was a nice evening with drinks, kisses - and then the gorgeous night... Isn't this...
Yes, it is the wife of Joe Jones or of one of your other boys. She dreams of last night. In her thoughts she is enjoying the wonderful hours again which she has just spent with her new friend.
Don't grudge her these nights. She is young and beautiful. The human body and its desires are powerful. At first she tried very hard to remain faithful but she lost this battle against herself as thousands of wives and girls back home did before her. It all started with an evening out, with going to the movies and to some bar, but soon it became real love.
Only by the picture at her side she is occasionally reminded of her husband who is - for months now - somewhere in Western Europe, fighting a stubborn enemy, freezing and suffering in a muddy foxhole. But as time passes she thinks of him more and more seldom. Now she does not even turn his picture to the wall when another man is staying with her and holding her in her arms.
Another German Sudstern propaganda leaflet coded AI-177-12-44 depicts four nude chorus girls holding signs that spell out “1945.” This leaflet was for both American and British troops in Italy. Beneath the bare-breasted girls is the text:
Happy New Year!..The back of the leaflet depicts a parade of injured veterans walking wearing sandwich-boards reading:
Wanted: Any job!Text at the bottom of the leaflet is:
Lost left eye for Uncle Sam. Want job as watchman.
Lost one arm for America. Must support a wife and 2 children!
Disabled in action! Education: High School. Take job as Bus Boy, Dishwasher, Clerk.
Your 1945 Prospects – if you should return at all…
Slave Trade 1944The Germans also produced political and anti-Semitic leaflets for the Russian that used sex as part of the theme. This leaflet depicts Stalin sitting on a skull-topped throne with a Jewish Menorah in the background and bags of money marked “for traitor’s services” at his side. The dictator’s boots are being licked by the King of England, while two other leaders pay homage and three nude women, probably representing the Three Graces who presided over Beauty, Charm and Joy are depicted chained in the background. These good qualities are enslaved, offered for sale on the slave market by the Russians. Curiously, the two stanza poem beneath the image is in German, not Russian. I assume it was first produced for Nazi readers, and later reproduced for the Russians. The text is:
Slave trade 1944The MartyredThe cartoon is signed “Lindloff,” and is most likely Hans-Maria Lindloff (1878-1960). Lindloff was political cartoonist who worked for a number of magazines including the Kladderadatsch, a famous German satirical magazine.
Here rests with all its parts the British Empire. It died of its own ideas. Is Roosevelt the heir? No – Stalin
Atlantic Charter is written on this tombstone. It covers the most rotten bones that politics has ever created… The wise man reads it, turns around – and laughs.
Japanese Sexual PSYOP
The Government of Japan attempted many times to alienate the allied forces protecting Australia. The Japanese aimed their "Divide and conquer" tactics at the Aussie Troops fighting in New Guinea and Papua.
Their attitude toward this subject is mentioned by Lieutenant Colonel Mahmood Kan Durrani in The Sixth Column, Cassell and Company, 1955. The LTC was a prisoner of the Japanese and quotes a lecture given by a Japanese officer on how leaflets should be prepared. One of his six recommendations was:
The leaflet should have, if possible, the picture of a beautiful woman, after the method used by the Germans in the First World War. This device would insure that the soldier would be attracted and would be unable to resist looking at the picture over and over again. This would rouse his passion, and his heart would be inclined for love and to hate fighting.
Australia Screams
On one full-color anti-American leaflet, we find a slick American officer holding a young semi-exposed lady who is in the process of struggling for her freedom. We see some buttocks and cleavage. A ragged Australian soldier stands on a depiction of New Guinea. Text over him is, "Australia screams." The Aussie: "What was that scream. Something up?" Meanwhile the American officer tries to quiet his victim and says, "The Yank: "Sh..Sh..Quiet Girlie, Calm yourself. He'll be on the next casualty list. No worry."
The Japanese might have desired something more to the point. A much more graphic leaflet was prepared and dropped over the Australian troops fighting in the jungles of New Guinea. In this leaflet, the glorified American now appears in civilian dress with slicked-downed hair and a moustache. The caricature is right out of a Grade B Movie. He is making love to a beautiful Australian girl. The text is:
That goes double. The slick Yank (In Melbourne): Take your sweet time at the front Aussie-- I got my hands full right now-- with your sweet toots at home.Below the picture of the happy couple the Australian soldier runs through the jungle with his pants down, chasing a leaf-covered native girl through the jungle.
Sacrificed!This leaflet dropped on New Guinea by the Japanese is one of a number of folding or “trick” leaflets that the Japanese created. When fully folded on the ground it seems to be just a regular leaflet, but when unfolded it has an anti-morale, anti-American message. The leaflet is 7 1/8-inches by 3 3/8-inches folded and 7 1/8-inches by 10-inches unfolded. At first glance we see just an Australian soldier and his wife in bed. The text is:
Your happiness at home in Australia
After some manipulation of the folds we see the bare-breasted Australian wife waving at her husband on the battlefield with explosions and a burial cross nearby. The text is simply:
Sacrificed
After further manipulation the Australian soldier is depicted again in battle at the top and his wife is now apparently being assaulted by an American soldier below. The text in the center of the vignette with a background of helmets and skulls is:
That American war mongers may indulge in this!
This Japanese leaflet is very interesting because it uses almost a “Vargas Girl” kind of pin-up. The girl is painted in a very colorful and artistic pose with one breast revealed. The Japanese used this same kind of pin-up in a number of “Christmas cards” to American soldiers of Guadalcanal. She reads a letter and yawns. The finder of the leaflet is reminded that she is bored and is craving company:
Ho hum… I can’t help yawning, reading the same old letter. Will he never know that a healthy and normal girl like me – craves something more than a dry letter to keep her from getting bored?This Japanese leaflet looks almost German. The Germans produced a number of leaflets with slick Jews and slackers taking advantage of the soldier’s girlfriends back home. This leaflet depicts a “rich and handsome” civilian enjoying a drink with an attractive girl on his lap and the bed just peeking out from the background. He winks and says:
Yes, we thank you for all this and Heaven knows for more.Although not sexually explicit, what makes this item particularly interesting is this is a very intricate Japanese “trick” leaflet for New Guinea and quite well done. The folded leaflet is 5 5/8-inches by 9-inches folded and 5 5/8-inches by 14 1/16-inches unfolded. At first it appears to show just an Australian soldier and his wife embracing. The text is:
The unforgettable embrace under the beautiful moon with the warmth of HER shapely body nestled against yours: that blood-tingling kiss: that over powering sense of passion that sweeps over you – These and many other pleasant you’ll be able to live again if you throw down your arms, surrender and prepare to get out of this hell-hole.We should mention that the Allies were very careful not to use the word “surrender” to the Japanese because it was known that the term “I cease resistance” was preferable and caused no “loss of face” within the enemy ranks. However, the Japanese were not so courteous and had no trepidation about using the word “surrender” in leaflets for Allied soldiers.
When the folded leaflet is manipulated you still see the soldier ’s undamaged legs, but now he is dead on the battlefield near barbed wire. The new text at the top is:
BUT…if you continue to resist - Then under the beautiful tropical moon, only DEATH awaits you. Bullet holes in your guts - agonizing death! You have two alternatives. Take your choice.
.
This leaflet is more typically Japanese. It shows a very attractive woman on a bed looking at her boyfriend’s picture. She is filled with “welling unsatisfied passion.” Who will satisfy her passion? She asks:
Why did you leave me like this? Why must I suffer alone this unbearable loneliness—this silence, this welling unsatisfied passion? Why—why? Why don’t YOU come back?
Sometimes the Japanese used sexual images in order to influence Allied soldiers to pick up surrender leaflets. The leaflet above depicts a bare-breasted female in an inviting pose. The English-language text is text is:
TICKET TO ARMISTACE
USE THIS TICKET, SAVE YOUR LIFE AND YOU WILL BE KINDLY TREATED.
Follow these instructions:
- Come towards our lines waving a white flag.
- Strap your gun over your left shoulder muzzle down and pointed behind you.
- Show this ticket to the sentry.
- Any number of you may surrender with this one ticket.
This is followed by Japanese text:
Surrender ticket
The bearer(s) of this ticker has surrendered.
It is strictly forbidden to kill him (them).
Commander, Japanese Army forces
The bearer(s) of this ticker has surrendered.
It is strictly forbidden to kill him (them).
Commander, Japanese Army forces
The leaflet ends with the English sentence:
Sing your way to Peace pray for Peace.
This leaflet was mailed to by an Australian airman to his father at home. He wrote on the back:
Dear Dad,
I am sending you this Jap propaganda leaflet. The Nips often drop these, but of course we know about all these promises of his. I received your letter and will answer it during the week.
Your loving son
In his book But not in Shame, John Toland tells of a Japanese campaign waged in the Philippines. He states:John
The crudest leaflets featured sex. The most effective of these was a "striptease" series. First, the picture of the face of a beautiful woman was dropped from planes. Next came a view of the same woman from the waist up, with a shawl just covering her large breasts. The third showed the woman, full length, draped seductively with a shawl. In the fourth picture, the shawl was gone. The final picture showed the sex act.
Chastity BeltThe Japanese apparently printed one of the strangest sex leaflets we have ever seen. The leaflet was depicted in The Falling Leaf, Number 132, spring 1991. It depicts a naked European woman and a chastity belt. The actual leaflet is white and yellow on a deep red background. It was dropped over Chinese troops during their invasion of Manchuria in the 1930s. An unnamed author says:
The message of the leaflet tells Chinese soldiers that European women are slovenly, of loose morals and unchaste, and because of this a soldier husband during a long war fastened a chastity belt to his wife.The message is apparently intended to instill a feeling of homesickness and yearning and cause him to cease fighting by deserting or surrendering. We should point out that the chastity belt is mechanically correct and similar models appear on postcards from a French museum.
Japanese propaganda was not always so crude. This early leaflet used against the Americans in the Philippine Islands was very tasteful. It simply depicts a beautiful woman’s lips and the word:Remember?
Remember?The back is all text and appears to be a handwritten note by the woman on the front. It says:Darling, can’t you find a way to come back to me? I miss you so. I send all my love, and my kisses are on the other side of this card.Sex was always on the minds of the United States military authorities according to Bertrand M. Roehner’s Relationships Between Allied Forces and the Population of Japan, He says that at the end of the war:
A 27 August 1945 Excerpt from an Army pamphlet destined to US occupation forces says that Japanese women have been taught to hate you. They do as their men tell them, and many of them have been told to kill you. Sex is one of the oldest and most effective weapons in history. The Geisha girl knows how to wield it charmingly. She may entice you only to poison you. She may slit your throat. Stay away from the women of Japan, all of them.
This calendar page was offered for sale by the estate of a former member of the U.S. 13th Air Force. It depicts a nude woman and is a bit of a mystery. It bears a December 1943 calendar and there were many propaganda leaflets prepared in the form of a calendar, but there were also many commercial calendars that bear nudes. The producer is “COM AIR SOPAC.” I am not sure if this was a propaganda leaflet or a morale booster designed for the “Anglos.” But, if not for the natives, why print the message in Pidgin English? Whatever the use, it is an interesting wartime item. The text is:
The white men who have all come together to the South Pacific by airplane now all want to wish you good friends a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.British Sexual PSYOP
The British government also authorized the manufacture of a very few pornographic leaflets during World War 2. There are three different items known to have been printed and others may exist. They were discussed in some detail by one of the major British wartime propagandists in 1972.
In an article published in the Times Literacy Supplement of January 21, 1972, Sefton Delmer talked about his "black" pornographic leaflets.
My cloak-and-dagger friends in the Special Operations Executive (SOE) were constantly clamoring for printed pornography. But I still took the same view of printing pornography as I had in France in 1939. Looking back, I do not think my unit produced more than three items of printed pornography during the whole of the war, not because I was squeamish, but simply because I did not think the effort involved on our part would be justified by the subversive effect on the Germans.
The first item was a two-page folding leaflet. Its theme was the Kaiser Germany's patriotic song `The Watch on the Rhine.' A very gloomy picture of a snow-covered grave somewhere on the Russian front, headed the first verse of the Watch on the Rhine: 'Lieb Vaterland magst ruhig sein' (`Dear Fatherland you may rest assured'). By rights that inspiring thought would be followed by a second verse. 'Fest steht and treu die Wacht am Rhein. '(`Firm and true stands the watch on the Rhine'). Instead, the picture of the soldier's grave and its reassuring caption was followed by a second page overleaf showing in color a picture of a naked girl, painted in the photographic style favored by Adolf Hitler in such beloved pictures as 'Leda and the Swan,' about to seat herself on the upright penis of some dark haired and dark skinned non-German.
Note: The actual leaflet is much more graphic.
This image was intentionally blurred so as not to offend.Leaflet from the collection of Dr. Rod OaklandThe caption ran: 'Fest steckt's and treu der Fremdarbeiter rein.' ('Firmly and true the foreign worker sticks it in'). Depending on the region selected for this document's distribution, we alternated the word Fremdarbeiter with der Italiener or even der Makaroni.Ellic Howe points out in The Black Game, Michael Joseph, London, 1982, that Delmer was probably mistaken about the numbers. He says:
My SOE friends ordered these leaflets by the thousand. But ironically not because they found them to be subversive of German morale, but because they found them excellent for the morale of their men distributing them!
Delmer’s SOE friends did not order these leaflets by the thousands because only the Fremdarbeiter version was ever printed (probably a maximum of 5000 copies) in the summer of 1942. The Nordisk Nyhedstjenste (underground newspaper) reported on 11 August 1944 that copies were circulating among German soldiers in Denmark.One of these leaflets was discovered in Denmark in 1980. The finder told me at that time, "It is correct that I am in possession of a copy of 'Lieb Vaterland magst ruhig sein.' This leaflet was one of a large number of `black leaflets,' which came to Denmark during W.W.2. It was distributed in and about Copenhagen, and is mentioned in the underground press. Having gone through all official collections in Denmark, I can inform you that my copy is the only one known to be in Denmark. The exact size is 15x21 cm, and only one side is printed in color."
I received a copy of the leaflet from the owner. It shows a dead German in the snow on the front cover. The leaflet opens to show the woman and her foreign lover on the right side, the text as mentioned on the left. On the back of the folded leaflet the British have printed a long propaganda text. Boxed at the left of the page is "5,800,000 comrades have been killed, wounded, or are missing in action. At the same time on the home front, the number of foreign laborers has increased to 12,000,000."
The text on the rest of the page reads as follows, "Each year, more millions of comrades lose their life, freedom and health at the front. Each year, more millions of foreign laborers are streaming into the Reich. Foreign laborers take over the jobs of German soldiers and therefore make it possible for them to find death in the East. Foreign laborers sit in our homes. They become expert workers and craftsmen, and our German girls have to work under them. With their fast-earned money and black-market food items, the foreign laborers approach our soldier's wives and girl friends. Hunger and poverty often make our girls willing. Foreign laborers are not stupid. They learn our methods of work, find out our manufacturing secrets and industrial patents, and when the war is over, and our factories are nothing but bombed rubble, then the foreign laborers will return to their own countries with the knowledge and expertise they acquired here.
They will return to their own factories, which have not been touched by the war. When the German soldier returns home, he will find only debris where his place of work once stood. We have lost the war. We must now save what we can of the peace. Throw the foreign laborers out. End the war. Enough have died at the front. The rest of us must find work when we return home."
I spoke to one of the Delmer's master forgers, Ellic Howe, about this leaflet. The artist/cartoonist Walter Goetz who was in charge of British white propaganda to Germany for a time actually drew the vignette. Goetz was a German who became a British citizen in the early 1930s. He designed the leaflet at the personal request of Howe. The Fanfare Press of St. Martin's Lane, London, printed it. The Chairman and the General Manager of the firm printed the leaflet after hours. Howe said that "it was not considered advisable to allow ordinary workmen to see the thing. Probably not more than a few thousand were printed. I think we made them about April of 1940." The British government partially declassified Howe's files after the war. This leaflet is coded H.316. Howe later reprinted is as H-714.
I should point out that even through Howe said Goetz drew the pornographic vignette; Sefton Delmer later stated that his wife Isabel was the artist. I don’t see any reason that Delmer would lie, so I believe that Goetz was just used to protect the wife at the time. The British loved to play their little games during and after the war. I was introduced to an Armin Hull in 1965 and putting two and two together immediately said, “Oh, you must be Ellic Howe.” He was actually annoyed. He believed his code name would be more difficult to crack
The British also started a rumor campaign (what they call a “sib”) to go along with this leaflet. Sib number N-675 states that Foreign workers in the city of Essen have a contest to see who can bed the most German wives.
A “most secret” memorandum in the British Public Record Office dated 24 March 1944 indicates that not all the government officials were willing to use sexual propaganda. The memorandum is from Delmer to Lieutenant Colonel Thurston (Head, SOE German Section). It reads in part, “The Director General has instructed me that he does not wish H-714 (Lieb Vaterland…) to be distributed. I should therefore be grateful if you would not distribute any copies of this job which you may still be holding…” He scribbles at the bottom of the note “The Director-General is too ladylike!”
Martin Herz, a Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) writer agreed with the Director-General. He said:
The enemy could easily see from the elaborateness of the leaflet (which in this case was printed in four colors) that this was Allied propaganda. Even though he might agree with the message, he would resent it since it was painful to him. Moreover, since at the same time all out “white” media were laboring hard and patiently to establish the essential honesty and forthrightness of our propaganda, some harm was probably done to the credibility of our white media.Returning to Sefton Delmer's Time article, he continues:
The next pornographic leaflet we did was an exquisite menu for a dinner party, given by some Nazi gourmet for his friends. I cannot now remember who it was. All that I recall was that the menu included dishes way beyond the reach or even the imagination of the ordinary rationed German. Surrounding the menu was a kind of frieze rather in the manner of the old prewar cover of Punch. On close examination, however, it proved to be nothing as harmless as Mr. Punch's cornucopia of frolic. Instead it presented a sphinctrian orgy with all the figures, male and female alike, connected in pervert intimacy. I cannot think why we bothered to add this touch. The essential propaganda ingredient was the menu which provided evidence for any skeptical member of the German public how well the party priviligentsia lived when the ordinary German was forced to obey a strict system of rationing.Delmer continues:
The third pornographic leaflet we did was never distributed. Not that SOE objected to it. On the contrary, they were lavish with praise. But an old army colonel--he had served a lifetime in Poona, an experience which had not failed to leave its mark on him--had found it on the table of my secret printer whom he had visited with a view to acquiring some of our latest philatelic counterfeits.Delmer also received grief about some of the sexual propaganda broadcasts over the black British radio station Gustav Siegfried Eins. Lee Richards discusses the story in his article on Psywar.org. He mentions some of the radio station’s plot lines:
When he saw this particular piece of pornography, he was almost beside himself with indignant fury. I did not want to hurt the old man by challenging him to battle over an item of pornography to which in any case I attached no great importance. So I immediately withdrew it. But it was not really all that bad.
…A Hitler Youth leader had been caught violating the twelve year old daughter of a soldierA mortified Sir Stafford Cripps attacked the radio station in a letter to Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden. He told of a broadcast he had heard:
…The employment of SS men on the home-front for "race preservation"; their job being to assist wives and widows of fallen soldiers to have the children which their own man would have provided them with normally.
…An SS man called Breuter who was in charge of children who had been evacuated from bombed German cities to Czechoslovakia. He was removed from his post after being found guilty in 67 cases of assaulting little girls.
…A named German admiral who takes home 4 or 5 sailors with his own mistress. He makes the sailors drunk and excites himself by instigating the sailors to rape his mistress in turn. All this is given in a running commentary which describes in the minutest detail the difficulties of the sailors owing to their drunkenness. Here is a typical sentence from the orgy: "...and if she gets dry between the legs, pour in butter." This is followed by the indignant comment that butter is rationed to the common people. The climax of the orgy is an even more detailed description of how the old Admiral finally works himself up into a state in which he, too, can copulate with the woman.Delmer explained:
The pornographic element in these broadcasts was introduced deliberately, not for the sake of pornography in itself, but in order to attract listeners and gain their attention for the main objects of the station, the undermining of confidence in the regime…Reports received from American officials in Berlin shortly before America entered the war emphasised that the pornographic element in the broadcasts had attracted a listening public much wider than would otherwise have been the case...We are of course not trying to win Germans to our side by this method; we are trying to turn Germans against Germans and thereby weaken the German war machine.Delmer threatened to abandon the station if he not did receive full backing for his work.
The success of these broadcasts has been proved on evidence available, and, if an official fiat were to demand that the character of the station should be changed, it would not be possible to continue it. No secret, subversive organisation can operate successfully if its operations are to be limited to what the moral standards of our country would require for work undertaken openly and in the name of His Majesty's Government.The British were willing to use pornography as a weapon to defeat Hitler, so Delmer got his backing.
Charles Cruickshank mentions Delmer’s black radio station in: The Fourth Arm: Psychological Warfare 1938 – 1945, Davis-Poynter, London, 1977:
American diplomats in Berlin – while Germany and the United States were still at peace – had no doubt that it was the pornographic element in the transmissions that attracted the listeners.He quotes a Swedish agent:
He claimed that more people listened to it than any other station in the Third Reich. It insured a regular audience by providing more or less open pornography, which attracted people already coarsened by the Nazi way of life.Delmer later mentioned that the German army's propaganda unit had been putting out a series of leaflets purporting to expose how the enemy was retouching photographs and faking them to convey untruths. He said:
By this time, my ‘black’ printer was an expert at counterfeiting German documents, using the same type, the same paper, and the same size as the German original. So, I got him put the same title on our counterfeit, 'Wie sie falschen,' ('How they forge'). Then with a suitable text we exposed a palpable forgery of a Hitler photograph, which we attributed to the despicable treachery of an internal enemy. The genuine original photograph showed Hitler in his usual saluting posture, right arm upraised, his left resting on the buckle of his belt. The forgery, however, showed a huge penis under his left hand. Our caption read, `This is a most appalling forgery. Everyone knows the Fuhrer does not possess anything of the kind'."
One of the most intriguing and insidious insults to Adolf Hitler was a propaganda postcard code numbered H.789 produced by Director Sefton Delmer of the British Political Warfare Executive (PWE) that showed the Führer with his penis in his hand. The postcard chosen to caricature was originally a product of Foto Hoffman of Munich. Hitler stands on what appears to be balcony with his left hand on the rail and his right hand on his waist. In the parody, his right hand is depicted holding a circumcised penis. This probably was designed to feed the rumor that Hitler was indeed a self-hating Jew. The text is a quote from Hitler’s Munich speech of 8 November 1942:
Original German Hoffmann photo postcard and parody.
Sefton Delmer first mentioned this postcard in an article in the Times Literary Supplement of 21 January 1972 entitled “H.M.G.’s Secret Pornographer.”What we have, that we firmly hold.
When I interviewed the British master-forger Ellic Howe in 1980 he told me that about 100 copies of the postcard were printed in late 1943 or early 1944 but they were never disseminated. He thought that they had all been destroyed. My own research later determined that 2,500 postcards were delivered on 13 March 1944. The operation was cancelled on the order of the Director General of the PWE. One agent quoted a high British official as saying that he would rather lose the war to Germany than take part in such psychological warfare pornographic endeavors.
British researcher Dr. Rod Oakland discovered one of these postcards in a private collection and mentioned it in the spring 1993 journal of the Psywar Society, the Falling Leaf.
The original image that was to be defaced by the addition of a penisThe card was depicted in a British TV documentary entitled “Sex and the Swastika.” In the documentary, PWE artist Marion Whitehorn stated that she was given a postcard by a Brigadier General at the PWE secret headquarters about 45 miles outside London and told:
You Marion will impose a penis on this card…but not too big.What is very interesting is that the card depicted in the documentary had Hitler wearing Lederhosen with his left hand in his lap while the card we depict has Hitler in full uniform. It is unknown if two postcards were prepared, or if the first postcard was found unacceptable and the vignette on the second postcard was used instead. In a second TV documentary entitled “Sex Bomb” Whitehorn tells the story again except that this time the producers depict a postcard showing Hitler standing with penis in hand. It seems unclear if there were one or two “penis” postcards.
This may be the single nastiest personal attack on an enemy leader in any war.
Sexual leaflets can sometime backfire on the originator when it is clearly wrong. This is mentioned War by Stealth: Australians and the Allied Intelligence Bureau, Alan Powell, Melbourne University Press, 1996. The author says in regard to Australian leaflets dropped on the natives of some of the small islands:
An officer noted in October 1944 that the native’s reaction to leaflets has been practically 100% with the exception of one leaflet which accuses the Japs of interfering with native women. This leaflet may even have had a damaging effect as far as can be ascertained; as enquiries among the natives reveal that the Japs did not interfere with their women.
The Rumor Campaign
Besides leaflets and postcards, in an attempt to raise the morale of occupied Europe and lower the morale of the German military, civilians and their allies, the secret British Underground Propaganda Committee produced well over eight thousand rumors, (they called them “Sibs” from the Latin sibalare – to hiss). Researcher Lee Richards mentions the “whisper campaign” and many of these rumors in his book Whispers of War, Psywar.org, 2010. In regard to British propaganda rumors about sexual activity in the Third Reich he lists dozens of moral-destroying rumors. I have selected a few of the more interesting ones:
4 July 1941 – German officers know the address of all the prostitutes in Amsterdam that have VD. They use them to get medical leave. It is called “krank durch Freude,” (Illness through joy).
4 September 1941 – Catholic women must offer themselves to the SS on the Day of Fructification. The Church believes that bearing children for the State is a mortal sin.
31 October 1941- The German press has been ordered to downplay stories about prison sentences for German woman who have had relations with foreign workers, just as they downplay death announcements.
21 January 1944 – A group of necrophiles among SS troops in Berlin has assembled the perfect German girl from the legs, arms and torso of air raid victims.
American Sexual PSYOP
Did the United States of America produce wartime propaganda leaflets of a sexual nature? No agent of the American espionage establishment will officially admit it. The use of sexually explicit leaflets has always been against official policy.
However, given enough time, secrets will eventually be exposed. This is exactly what happened when several wartime files and scrapbooks of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) were offered for sale thirty years after the end of World War 2. Some of these files were the personal property of former OSS agents. Others were records that had been lost or discarded when the U.S. occupation forces left Italy after the war. They had been carefully safeguarded for many years until their secrets could no longer prove embarrassing or damaging, and then placed on the auction block.
In the past, we had various hints that the OSS was involved in "black" operations to print and distribute pornographic leaflets. Quoting from The OSS document "Final Report of Production and Distribution from July 15, 1944 to May 15, 1945," we find the listing "Sex leaflets." The report states that 79,000 was produced, with distribution of 16,000 to Algeria, 3,800 to Bari, 41,500 to Brindisi, 500 to Northern Italy, 3,600 to France, and 13,500 for various special missions.
The so-called "sex leaflet" leaflet is a black and white cartoon of a high Nazi official fondling a seminude woman. The size of the leaflet is 240 x 175mm. The female is draped across his lap. Her right breast is exposed. The Nazi leers as he slides his hand under the dress of the unhappy woman. The text at the upper right of the leaflet reads:
For us at the front there is only fear and death. For the important officials at home, our women!There is a longer message on the reverse:
Comrades! The deceit has lasted long enough! We who have been at the front for years, separated from our dearest ones, are now expected to die for the Party shortly before the end. Meanwhile, the Party bosses at home fool around with our women: It is high time that we do away with these swastika vermin! The war is lost, but we can still preserve the honor of our women! Therefore, go home, comrades! Our women need us! Our women wait for us! Signed: The Federation of Fighters on the Front.A second OSS propaganda operation with a sexual theme was listed in the "Final Report" under the heading of "Sex Cards and Envelopes." The report shows that there was 70,000 sets produced, with 65,025 sent to Northern Italy, 350 to France, and another 3,100 distributed in unlisted "Special" operations.
An envelope was found in a reference file of OSS material with German text on the front reading In der Heimat da gibt's ein Wiederseh'n! (We will meet again at home). This is an old German song dating back to the First World War. Beneath the title, we find in smaller print: 6 Bilder, (six Pictures). The envelope is colored tan and measures 150 x 100 millimeters. The American agent who prepared this reference file has penciled in red on the envelope Nur fur manner (For men only). Directly below the envelope he has written in the same red pencil "Only for adults." We can deduce that he wanted the message printed on the envelope so it would not be accidentally opened by children.
The leaflets are 140 x 95 millimeters and would fit very snugly into this envelope with just a few millimeters to spare. The leaflets are extremely explicit and pornographic and are not items that a child should see. They feature themes of homosexuality, bestiality, lesbianism and child molestation.
Each leaflet bears a rather crude black and white sexual caricature, a title in Gothic print, and four lines of text in early German "Suterlin," a script taught in elementary schools until the mid-1930s. The style of the text is an artificially concocted verse. Translation is extremely difficult, and cannot be made to rhyme in English. We have attempted to capture the mood of the propagandist author.
The first shows two naked women, one sucking on the breast of the other. The Gothic title reads "New games in the home (The husband is at the front)." A loose interpretation of the script verse is:
"This picture shows your Annette,
in a game with another woman.
Your Plea for her love is in vain,
she now loves only degenerate acts!"The second leaflet bears the same title in Gothic, but shows a naked woman standing before a mirror with a dog licking her pubic area. The text reads:
"The woman alone without a man
tries to get her pleasure any way she can.
Her clitoris itches and burns like fire,
and the dog's tongue performs miracles!"Note: The actual leaflet is much more graphic.The third has the same heading as the first two. This card shows two women having oral sex on a bed. The text reads:
This image was intentionally blurred so as not to offend.
"Her husband isn't here, what should she do?
Her pussy cannot always be idle.
For this reason and to defy you
she now eats another pussy!"Note: The actual leaflet is much more graphic.The fourth leaflet has a different title in Gothic: "The Party takes action (and your wife too?)." The caricature shows a naked SS man with an enormous erection saluting a photo of Hitler. On the bed is an unclothed weeping woman. By the bedside is a photo of her husband, a soldier at the front. The 'text reads:
This image was intentionally blurred so as not to offend.
"He threatened her so she would be nice to him
and follow him into the warm bed.
The Nazi has no conscience
and that is how he gets his sex."Note: The actual leaflet is much more graphic.The fifth leaflet has the title "HJ = Helpless Boys (Will your boy also be perverted?)." The illustration is of an adult Nazi party member holding a young boy wearing only shirt and shoes. The initials "HJ" are for "Hitler Jugend" (Hitler Youth). This was a semi-military youth organization formed by the Nazi Party. The OSS changed this to "Helpless youth" in an attempt to convince fathers at the front that their children were being perverted and seduced by members of the Nazi Party. The text reads:
This image was intentionally blurred so as not to offend.
"The boy and his leaderThe sixth and final leaflet has the same heading as the fifth. "HJ= Helpless boys (Will your boy also be perverted?)" The illustration is of an adult Nazi Party member about to have anal sex with a young boy.
are united in love play.
Thus the leader also takes your child.
There are altogether too many games!"
Note: The actual leaflet is much more graphic.
This image was intentionally blurred so as not to offend."The Hitler Youth, always sharp,I spoke to the author of these leaflets many years after the war, and he was quite proud of them. He told me:
also has a love life.
His leader also has seduced him:
The asshole is already stretched."
That very nasty set of `6 Bilder' in an envelope originated with yours truly who took to verse and rhyme to make a point perfectly clear. Nasty!I asked him what he hoped to gain by the leaflets, since every study has shown that pornography fails miserably to demoralize the foot soldier. He answered:
The 6 Bilder were not just idle pornography. The "fun" part served, as you rightly observed, to achieve wide and rapid dissemination of the material, which was not designed simply to stimulate raging hormones. Its purpose was to stimulate second thoughts -- a nagging suspicion and discomfort as to the possibility of actual events, even though depicted in pornographic caricature. Could it be that my young son is being corrupted and violated by his Hitlerjugend fuehrer? Is my wife's yearning for sexual fulfillment satisfied by a surrogate, perhaps a neighbor's dog? Whose friend is the Nazi functionary -- the soldier's friend or the soldier's wife's? In other words, it's not the porn part of the picture that we wanted to work for us, but the message part (as subliminal as it may seem). The series of six caricatures also filled a secondary objective: wider awareness of this "underground" activity, including the Neues Deutschland movement, an expansion of, what the Nazi press so much deplored, the "Fluesterpropaganda." They wrote a long editorial about it in the Das Schwarze Corps, the official SS newspaper.At his request I always kept the name of the American agent secret. He has now passed on so I would like to give him the credit I feel that he deserves. Ed Lindner (OSS Code name Eddie Zinder) passed away on 24 November 2007 at the age of 89. He was quite proud of the "Bilder" leaflets and always said that the pornography was meaningless; it was just a way to get the Germans to pick them up so they could be converted by the “diabolical subliminal” messages in the text.
During WWII Ed was part of the Morale Operations Company of the 2677th OSS Regiment in Italy. As such, he helped plan and organize Operation Sauerkraut, a campaign to use volunteer German prisoners-of-war to bring American propaganda behind enemy lines. Ed was a good guy and a civilian at heart. In fact, I have seen some reports where the Army criticized him for his less than military attitude. He was also an honorable man and fought at the end of the operation for his German POWs who were promised special consideration and payment for risking their lives behind the lines, only to be betrayed and sent back to the prison camp by the U.S. Army High Command.
In later years I would often call him to talk about various projects. He was very low-key and when I asked him if he wanted to appear on a TV or magazine interview with me always turned them down. WWII was a job that had to be done, and he wanted no publicity or praise for simply doing his duty.
In 2010, Florian Traussnig of the Austrian Center for Intelligence, Propaganda and Security Studies pointed out another of Lindner’s little tricks on the envelope.
…He used impressive linguistic and “semiotic” strategies (probably based on intuition, not on academic theories) like the text-riddle of the headline “6 Bilder” (“6” is in German pronounced “sechs” [“sek’s”] and therefore homophone with “Sex”).So, the implication is that “6 Bilder” might also be thought of as “Sex Pictures.” Eddie was always thinking!
There are other leaflets that are sexual, but less pornographic. For instance, The Morale Operations Section of the OSS produced a series of sixteen leaflets entitled "Wie lange noch?" (How much longer?). The plan was to convince the populace that there was a strong anti-Nazi underground movement within Germany. Besides the leaflets, posters and gummed labels using a large "W" as a symbol were placed on German vehicles, on walls, on doors and windows, in books and other appropriate places, by agents operating behind enemy lines.
How Much Longer - Number 8Number 8 in the Wie lange noch? series depicts a man and a naked German woman on a bed. The text is:
How much longer will these foreigners disgrace our women?At the right of the leaflet, beneath the number “8” the author has written:
Read and pass on!How Much Longer - Number 13Number thirteen of the series pictures a German wife sitting on the bed with a member of the Nazi Party. On a nearby table we see a photograph of her soldier husband who is fighting on the Eastern Front. The text of this leaflet reads:
How much longer will these bedroom heroes, who always shout Heil Hitler so smartly, be permitted to pursue our women?At the right of the leaflet, beneath the number “13,” the author has written:
Read and pass on!Hitler's Mountain RetreatAt one time there was an OSS plan to drop pornography over the Eagle's Nest at Obersalzberg near Berchtesgaden, Hitler's mountain retreat. The OSS believed that it might drive him insane and end the war quickly. This plan went all the way to the Air Force where it was stopped when a General refused to risk a bomber and crew over the most heavily fortified area in Germany to drop "dirty pictures."
This plan came about because of a 1943 top-secret long-range psychological analysis of Hitler prepared by the OSS. The story is told in part in The Mind of Adolf Hitler, Walter C. Langer, Basic Books, NY, 1972. I should mention that most of the people interviewed for the report had escaped from Germany. They wanted American acceptance and may have been telling the psychologists what they thought they wanted to hear. Some of the more interesting passages in the book are:
Princess Stephanie von Hohenlohe said that one of Hitler's hobbies that is carefully hidden from the public is his love of pornography. He can scarcely wait for the next edition of Der Stürmer to appear. When it reached him he goes through it avidly. He seems to get great pleasure out of the dirty stories and the cartoons that feature this sheet.Other comments are:
Hitler has a large collection of nudes and according to Ernst Hanfstaengl (a former Chief of the Foreign Press Department of the Nazi Party who fled Germany) and others, he also enjoys viewing lewd movies in his private theater.
On his walls are numerous pictures of obscene nudes that conceal nothing and he takes particular delight in looking through a collection of pornographic pictures that Hoffmann has made for him.It is amazing to think that the OSS paid for this report and apparently put some credence into its finding when not one of the agency's psychologists ever got within several thousand miles of Hitler.
There was a general agreement among the collaborators of the report that Hitler is probably a neurotic psychopath bordering on schizophrenia. He has lost complete contact with the world about him and is still striving to make some kind of psychological adjustment that will give him a feeling of security in his social group.
Hitler's perversion is an extreme form of masochism in which the individual derives sexual gratification from the act of having a woman urinate or defecate on him.
Otto Strasser on a conversation with Geli Raubal (Hitler's niece and "the only woman he ever really loved"): Hitler made her undress. He would lie down on the floor. Then she would have to squat over his face where he could examine here at close range and this made him very excited. When the excitement reached its peak he demanded that she urinate on him and that gave him sexual pleasure.
Glen Yeadon and John Hawkins talk about the sexual plans to unhinge Hitler in The Nazi Hydra in America: Suppressed History of a Century. They say in part:
A London based OSS group decided Nazi Germany would implode if only its leader could be demoralized. After conducting a long psychological profile of Hitler, the group decided he could be unhinged by exposure of vast quantities of pornography. The OSS group then assembled the finest collection of pornography. The material was to be dropped by plane around the Führer-bunker. Hitler was to step outside and pick one up and immediately be thrown into a state of madness. But the Air Force liaison stormed out of the first meeting with the OSS, cursing and swearing he would not risk a single life for such an insane plan.The United States Navy also produced at least one slightly erotic propaganda leaflet. The item was produced by the Psychological Warfare Branch of the Pacific Fleet (CINCPAC). It was coded "411," and intended to create anxiety concerning conditions at home.
A photograph of a Japanese woman with one breast exposed is shown on the front. The other side contains text in violet ink on a primrose paper, 5 x 8 inches in size. The text reads:
While you continue your futile resistance against our overwhelming might, your wives, sisters, and daughters back home are daily being reduced to prostitution. These are hard times for your farmers, and badly needed money is easily obtained by selling women to brothels. Factory workers, who now have money, are always eager to pay a few extra yen for a night's fun with women. When peace comes soon, times at home will be even worse. This will be true in all countries. Unless you are at home to care for your families, many of your dearest women will be forced to become prostitutes. Can you think without emotion of your wives, daughters, and sisters submitting to the lustful embraces of jeering workers? Don't throw away your lives in vain. Your families need you!
Privately Produced Hitler Sex PhotographsThere is another kind of American sexual propaganda that we should mention. During World War II, a number of faked photographs of enemy leaders were prepared to ridicule and humiliate them. There was a rumor from time to time that these were government “black” operations, but they were almost certainly privately made photographs prepared by patriotic citizens doing their small part to attack the Axis. One of the favorite targets of these “photomontages” was Adolf Hitler. We illustrate two such photographs above, each showing Hitler in close proximity to a woman’s breast. It is worth noting that the British Government actually did authorize a black propaganda photograph attacking Hitler. In that case, the Fuhrer was depicted holding his penis…which just happened to be circumcised.
Italian Partisan Sexual Propaganda
There is a mysterious set of ten pornographic postcards that depict both Hitler and Mussolini in various insulting sexual poses. The vignettes of the ten cards are all known. Eight are in horizontal format, two in vertical format. One depicts Hitler and Mussolini chasing each other around the table to see who will “bugger” the other, a flying penis about to enter Hitler, Hitler and Mussolini about to be anally raped by Moroccans, Mussolini having anal sex with Hitler while he is abused by a phallic Fasces, Mussolini looking at pornographic pictures while his mistress Clara Petacci talks to a Fascist officer, Mussolini performing oral sex on a woman, Mussolini performing oral sex on a woman while Hitler watches, Hitler pointing at a woman’s naked behind, a woman performing oral sex on Mussolini, and Hitler as a prostitute near a lamppost (Lili Marlene?). All of these postcards are pornographic and four have homosexual themes. They all have text in three languages; Italian, English and French. The anti-Fascist postcards were probably printed in Italy in late 1944. These cards appear to have come in a wrapper entitled “American Soldiers in Rome” with an American flag at the far left. The wrapper is made from a thick paper which could be folded around the cards. Since this obviously has nothing to do with American soldiers, I suspect the Italians meant “For American Soldiers in Rome.” Since Rome was liberated by General Mark Clark on 4 June 1944, that gives us a possible earliest date for the production of the pornographic postcards.
At the right side of the back of the reprinted cards there is a dotted box for a stamp and three lines for the address.
The “twin regime” would appear to point to that time at the end of the war where there was a regular government in the south of Italy and Mussolini’s Fascist Italian Social Republic in the north.
1. Hitler and Mussolini around table: He who stops is lost. Hitler: I almost think I shall stop.
2. Hitler with flying penis: The last secret weapon has changed direction.
3. Hitler and Mussolini with Moroccans: The promised prize to the people of Morocco. Hitler to Mussolini: Now it is your turn.
4. Hitler and Mussolini with two women: They take new pre-arranged positions.
5. Mussolini looking at pornographic pictures: Fascist headquarters, Clarella: keep quiet the Duce is examining new positions.
6. Mussolini performing oral sex on a woman: The war that I prefer.
7. Mussolini performing oral sex on a woman while Hitler watches: The Corruptors of Europe.
8. Hitler pointing at a woman’s naked behind, seeming to indicate that it is not fair that she has a bigger “ass” than he is: Unloyal competition!
9. A woman performing oral sex on Mussolini: Historical meeting – Encouraging arts, talking with his inspirer.
10. Hitler as a prostitute near a lamppost, perhaps imitating Lili Marlene as a soldier walks by: Who wants me?
Soviet Sexual PSYOP
Russian leafletMost Russian leaflets to Germany tend to be long-winded and boring. The leaflet above is just text and generally would not be very interesting except that it pretends to be a reproduction of a letter to from the State Insurance Office of Family Increase to a German male offering him the chance to have sex with multiple German women, and goes so far as to promise the award of a medal to those who perform well. It also explains that his wife will have no right to divorce and will have to take this “minor hardship as a consequence of war.” The letter explains that fertile and vigorous men are needed to keep children coming for the German war machine. Some of the more interesting text is:
German Soldiers!The Hitler Gang is making Germany a House of prostitution.These documents show you how your officers are spending their time.Dear Sir:Curiously, although the Russians used the term “prostitution” as propaganda, it was becoming a real problem in Germany. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbles mentions this in his diary comment of 18 April 1942:
You are assigned to District IIa, which will be more clearly described to you, comprising nine women and ten girls.
Should you however be capable of taking charge of another district besides the one you are assigned to, you will become a “deck Officer” and you will receive the “Copulation Order First Class” on a blue and red ribbon.
Additionally, we would like to mention that should you be able to take a third district you will be exempt from taxes and become eligible for a pension.
We want you to start your “blessed” work immediately after the receipt of the list and report the success of it to this office after a term of nine months by using the forms you are shortly due to receive.
Prostitution in Berlin is causing us many a headache these days. During a raid we found that 15 per cent of all women arrested had VD, most of them even syphilis. We must certainly do something now about it. In the long run we cannot possibly avoid setting up a "red-light district" in the Reich capital similar to those in Hamburg, Nuremberg, and other large cities. You simply cannot organize and administer a city of four millions in accordance with conceptions of bourgeois morals.The Soviets were prudes concerning sex and seldom resorted to female nudity in their leaflets. However, on occasion they would use or imply sexuality in an attempt to turn the common German foot soldier against the SS and Party bosses. The next two leaflets are examples of this theme.
German soldiers! At the Front…The Soviets printed a sexual "divide and conquer" leaflet in August 1941 that depicted black-uniformed SS troops dragging German women into a building labeled "National Beschälanstalt." Below, the leaflet depicts German soldiers dying on the Eastern Front. The text is:
At the front, you risk your young life senselessly, meanwhile Hitler creates the ‘Beschälanstalten’ and turns your wife and sister into tools of lust for the officers.This same image of the women dragged by force into the building appears on several other Soviet leaflets. "Beschälanstalt" is an old and unusual German word that indicates the place where bulls and cows are brought together to copulate. In this context, the word refers to the "Lebensborn" institutes or homes. There were rumors that in many cases these institutes were not only a place for unmarried women to bring their babies into the world, but also a place where "Aryan" SS officers could find women for their own pleasure to make racially pure, blonde, blue-eyed babies. The Soviets imply that these women are not entering voluntarily for the good of the Party, but instead, the SS force them into prostitution.
German soldiers! You Spill Your Blood…Another Soviet image that appears on several leaflets depicts a jack-booted SS officer tearing the clothes off a German woman while her infant daughter tries to pull him away. Once again, her husband appears below, wounded and about to die on the Eastern Front. The text of this August 1941 leaflet is:
German Soldier! You spill your blood in the battle, you suffer terribly and lose everything you have; while back at home the SS rapes your woman.The Soviets did a poor job of translating the text into German. The last two lines are written to rhyme (…lande, …Bande) but if you read them as a normal sentence it means:
While back at home your wife rapes the SS.The swastika on the soldier’s cap is inverted, an error that the Germans were sure to find humorous and one which would discredit the veracity of the leaflet.
July 1943 issue of Front Illustrierte fur den Deutschen SoldatenThe Russian 4-page propaganda leaflet newspaper Front Illustrierte fur den Deutschen Soldaten (Front Illustrated for the German Soldiers)was published on a weekly basis from July 1941 to April 1945 and then airdropped over German troops. The newspapers were about 90% illustrations with many photographs and photomontages of a defeatist nature showing dead or wounded German troops and destroyed German war weapons and materials. Occasionally special issues would be produced with more than the usual four pages. Hardly an issue can be found that does not show rotting German corpses or burning German tanks on Russian soil. Hitler is often ridiculed, sometimes depicted with Napoleon’s hat, sometimes as a drunk, sometimes as a vulture on a mountain of corpses or sometimes leading an army of skeletons. Other Nazi leaders such as Göring, Goebbels and Himmler appear in various poses as rats, monkeys, money-grubbers and other strange creatures. Many of the illustrations were designed by the Russian artist Alexander Zhitomirsky. Besides German language editions, there were some copies of the newspaper printed in Italian, Romanian and Finnish.
The Russians generally did not care to show sexual images and they are quite rare. The issue of July 1943 depicts a dark foreign worker in bed with a beautiful blond German wife. A picture of her husband in uniform hangs over the bed with the text:
While the soldier is at the front…Text below the picture is:
11 million foreigners live in Germany today, driven or attracted there by Hitler - meanwhile on the East Front, millions of German men fall senselessly and pointlessly.
Korean War Sexual PSYOP
We should start this section by saying that the United States fully understood that showing naked women in sexual poses was anti-productive. In fact, there were constant directives coming down from higher echelons that pointed out that sex leaflets had no effect on the North Koreans and Chinese. As a result, we find no U.N. leaflets that use pornography, though many have implications of sexuality. Major Albert C. Brauer, served in the Eighth U.S. Army Korea as Chief of the Projects Branch, Psychological Warfare Division, G3 Section (February 1951 to January 1952). He prepared a paper for Georgetown University in 1953 entitled Psychological Warfare Korea 1951. He said in regard to the use of sexual propaganda leaflets:
Sex evidently does not appeal (strange as it may seem) to the Oriental in any manner comparable to that of Americans. All Orientals I worked with held this view. They could, however, give no satisfactory explanation, nor did they know how the sex angle could be exploited against an Oriental target audience.Brauer later gives an example of how the implication of sex can work on the enemy. He mentions a leaflet to the Chinese with the text:
I conducted a simple test on three members of a POW panel who were aiding us in the preparation of leaflets, in an effort to determine if even a rudimentary reaction to sex (by our standard of measurements) could be detected. Four proposed leaflets, together with a picture of a luscious female nude, were handed to these members for any response upon which effective propaganda leaflets could be based. They took one look at the nude and without batting an eye handed it back as no good.
To be a "virtuous man" one must have a family and a career. When will you return home to fulfill your obligations? On this foreign battleground you are the cannon fodder of the Communist aggressor. Reflect Warriors: Many of you are killed, wounded, or crippled each day. How can you expect to marry and father children?He then remarks:
Friends: Come over to UN lines now: Save your life so that you will live to see your parents again, marry, and have children.
This leaflet was developed to heighten feelings of nostalgia in the CCF and to create concern at the lack of fulfillment of social duty generated by his being in a foreign land. The concept of filial duty or obligation is particularly important to the individual Chinese…Many of the CCF are unmarried youths from rural areas who should be especially susceptible to such an appeal. The message is crystallized in terms of marriage, tending the land, and fathering a son. This I believe, is the only way that sex can be used effectively against the Chinese Communist.
Leaflet 1271An early divisive Korean War First Radio Broadcasting and Leaflet Group propaganda leaflet dated 19 January 1953 depicts a Communist Chinese soldier raping a Korean woman. Text to the right of the vignette is:
SAVE YOUR WIVES AND SISTERS FROM THE EVIL HANDS OF THE CHINESE COMMUNISTS!Text on the back says in part:
Front line soldiers and officers often lay awake thinking of their dear ones at home – especially of their beautiful wives.
But Lee Won Sop, platoon leader of the 50th regiment, 15th Division, saw a terrible scene involving one of those wives. He wants you to know about it and the heartbreaking tears that he felt.
When Lee went back to the rear for training, he was asked to carry a message to Private Kang’s wife.
When he reached Kang’s house, he heard a woman screaming.
Lee peeped through the window and saw a Communist Chinese soldier trying to rape Kang’s wife.
At that moment, Lee realized that the true enemy of Korea is the Chinese Communist forces.
North Korean people and soldiers! The Chinese Communist dogs, by meddling in the Korean War, not only prolong the war and kill your blood brothers, but they also rape your women while Korean men fight at the front.
Leaflet 7227The above leaflet was released in both Chinese and Korean versions. There was a note on the Korean version stating “This is a United Nations message to the Communist Chinese forces. Post it for them to see.” The Chinese version depicts a Chinese woman being raped by a horrific looking Russian soldier while two other soldiers hold another poor woman prisoner while they wait their turn. The message, intended for Chinese soldiers fighting in Korea, was for them to stop fighting and return to China to "Guard your Homes and Protect Your Country."
The text on the front to the left of the vignette is:
Don’t forget the shame inflicted upon the Chinese people during the Soviet advance into Northeast China during the autumn of 1945. Even Chinese mothers and sisters did not escape!
Russia is still walking boldly there.Guard your homes and protect your country against continued Soviet aggression.This leaflet might not be just the usual propaganda. One non-forgiving Korean now living in the United States told me:
When the Soviet Soldiers entered North Korea in 1945, they committed terrible rapes and other crimes as they had in the other occupied countries in Eastern Europe and Manchuria. The Soviet Union deployed penal soldiers in the front lines as the expendable undesirables. They were the most despicable sub-humans and deserved to be killed.
Leaflet 8729This is not a leaflet I would normally add to this article because there is no sex or violence as part of the propaganda theme. It simply shows a pretty woman. However, the communist Chinese were rather prudish about such things and I suspect that many troops carried this leaflet around as a sort of “pin-up.” It might be as close to a sexual leaflet as the Americans used against the Chinese. We will see a similar pretty girl fully-dressed in the Vietnam section. This leaflet was produced by the Psychological Warfare Division G3 (Operations) EUSAK on 8 March 1953. The leaflet is designed to stimulate longing for normal human relationships and to create dissension against the government which denies them. The front depicts a photograph of Pretty Chinese woman in a formal silk dress. The text is:
No man’s Life is Complete without a Wife and Sons.The back is blank.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this leaflet is that it turned out that the pretty young woman was the very patriotic daughter of a South Korean Minister who had never given permission for its use. Allegedly, the minister came upon a copy of the leaflet and raised Hell with the American propagandists.
Are sexual leaflets outdated? The answer to this is a definite “no.” The Sunday Telegraph of 17 November 1963 reports that Indonesian Guerillas fighting British and Malaysian troops in 1963 used leaflets showing nude women with the text, "John, go home, she needs you," or "Darling, she's waiting for you to come back."
Vietnam War Sexual PSYOP
Leaflet 4-133-68There were no “official” sexual leaflets used by the United States during the Vietnam War, but there were some that showed pin-ups or sad wives waiting for their husbands to come home from the south. The 4th PSYOP Group produced a leaflet coded 4-133-68 that depicted an attractive Vietnamese girl in a bathing suit and the text:
DON’T DENY YOURSELF THE RIGHT TO BE A MAN.
The back was all text:
Right now your only satisfaction is that you hope you are able to stay alive through the terrible Army of Vietnam attacks. Don’t deny yourself the right to be a man. Return to a life of happiness and personal freedom. Rally to the open arms of the Government of Viet Nam.Robert W. Chandler mentioned this leaflet in War of Ideas: The U.S. Propaganda Campaign in Vietnam, Westview Press, Boulder CO., 1981. He mentions the United States Information Agency (USIA) in Saigon warning that "Cheesecake photographs might be acceptable to Western standards but would likely offend native canons of good taste.” He quotes another writer, "The Americans often distributed their propaganda messages with pictures of voluptuous scantily clad women. The Americans assumed the pictures would turn the thoughts of enemy troops toward home. But to most Vietnamese, there is nothing captivating about over endowed women. Pinups just don't have the same appeal here, says an American psywarrior, a little sadly." Chandler is correct. This leaflet was probably a failure. The Vietnamese people are very staid and traditional and the sight of a young girl in a bathing suit would be insulting to them. They would assume that she was a prostitute or bargirl.
Midshipman Jason Thomas Chaput mentions this leaflet in his 2000 U.S. Naval Academy Department of History honors thesis. He says:
Other messages such as those of the sex appeal leaflets acted to turn the reader off to entertaining the idea of the Chieu Hoi program because they were anchored in American values and not those of the Vietnamese. The sex appeal propaganda which depicted bikini-clad, over endowed Vietnamese women stated that the soldier could find true happiness and the satisfactions of life which every man was entitled if he chose to rally to one of the program’s centers. The individuals drafting the propaganda mistakenly believed that Vietnamese soldiers saw the world through the same masculine goggles as did American GI’s. The U.S. advisors failed to understand that the Confucian ideals held by a majority of the Vietnamese directed them to be in harmony with their environment by adopting a middle path in all areas of conduct. The effect of the sex appeal leaflets was to turn off the Vietnamese by solidifying their views that the corrupt outside Western influence present in their country had to be defeated. With the input of the Viet Cong defectors at the Chieu Hoi (Open Arms) centers, the program coordinators discovered the error of their ways. Essentially, the propaganda themes which had been carried over from the Korean War were no longer effective in inducing the enemy to rally.
Leaflet 4-132-68Curiously, at the same time the 4th Group produced the inappropriate leaflet showing a female in a bathing suit, they produced a second leaflet showing a Vietnamese woman in traditional garb that was completely appropriate and certainly a better medium for a propaganda message. Text over the primly dressed beauty is:
WHY DO YOU DENY YOURSELVES THE SATISFACTION OF LIFE?The back is all text:
LIFE IS FULL OF JOY. YET, WHAT GOOD IS LIFE WHEN YOU TURN YOUR BACK ON IT?The animal-like existence that the Army of Vietnam forces you to lead brings no happiness, only denial, without hope, love or offspring. You have nothing to look forward to change this hopeless situation. Rally now to the open arms of the Republic of Viet Nam.A former officer of the Seventh PSYOP Group reported on another Vietnam propaganda item with a sexual theme.
I have this 17 x 22 inch poster leaflet made by the same guy who made the 4th group bathing beauty leaflet. He paid professional actors to do the shots. He rented the site for $2,000. There was nothing pornographic, just a semi-bare butt and the like. I never used the leaflet.
An even more unsuccessful black and white leaflet has a photograph of a naked female on the front. The girl was a "professional" who worked in the "White Orchid" in Vientiane, the capitol of Laos. The back had a 1972 calendar and a standard Royal Government of Laos safe conduct pass. The text on the pass is
Rumor has it that the propagandist who designed this leaflet was reprimanded.To all North Vietnamese soldiers in Laos:You are offered the chance to escape death and live in safety and peace for the duration. The Royal Lao Government and people will welcome you and treat you as a brother. Show this pass to any Royal Government citizen or soldier and he will guide you to safety.
Signed: The Commander in Chief, Lao National Armed Forces.
John L. Plaster tells of an unauthorized “black” use of sex by America’s secret soldiers in SOG: the Secret Wars of America’s Commandoes in Vietnam, Simon & Schuster, N.Y., 1997. He says:
But the most mind-blowing dirty trick I ever saw was conceived by my good friend Floyd “Pigpen” Ambrose. He went all the way to Bangkok to have a printed poster of his own design, showing a nude, large-breasted Asian woman, which he’d tack on trees beside major enemy trails.Richard H. Schultz tells more about these posters in The Secret War Against Hanoi, HarperCollins, NY, 1999. He mentions the poster showing a woman with large breasts and then quotes a second text:
Imagine the shock of an NVA soldier, raised under a straitlaced Communist orthodoxy that prohibited pornography, who came upon Floyd’s poster – not to mention the provocative headline, which boldly asked in Vietnamese, “Who’s sleeping with your wife, and has she got jugs like these?” As the message grew more inflammatory, the print became smaller, luring the engrossed soldier closer – and closer – and he’d forget caution and step on the small mine Floyd had planted and lose a foot.
If your wife has jugs like these, she is probably sleeping with a Chinese military advisor in North Vietnam.He mentions a second poster
Colonel Dan Schungel, Chief of OP 35 in 1969, related: “In a place where we would think that there would be a lot of NVA troops going by on a supply mission or something like that, we would put up a dreadful poster of Ho Chi Minh [with a young boy] with a message under him saying something derogatory about Ho Chi Minh, and make it an easy reach of the Vietnamese soldier, anticipating that one would come and tear it down. Right below, we would put a little mine about the size of a shoe polish can that would blow off his foot when he stepped on it."The American PSYOP prohibition on sex propaganda is rarely found published in military documents. Occasionally a sentence or two will be discovered in an army regulation (AR) or field manual (FM). During the Vietnam War, a policy was published on this subject. PSYOP POLICY Number 70, dated 29 October 1968 is entitled “Use of Sex Appeal in Propaganda Programs and Material.” It is, "In accordance with U.S. Mission directives, this is mission Psychological Policy and Guidance and is to be implemented as Pertinent by all U.S. Elements in Vietnam." The published policy follows:
I. PURPOSE:To provide guidance on the use of sex appeal in propaganda programs and material.
II. SITUATION:
The mores of the peoples of Viet Nam differ greatly from those of Americans with regard to the relationship between the sexes and the limits to which one can go in exploiting the female form in communications media. The large majority of Vietnamese, particularly in rural areas, are still as conservative as Americans were eighty years ago. This conservatism also characterizes the North Vietnamese approach to women and sex, and is held up to the people of the north as a cardinal principal of "socialist morality.” The "cheesecake" approach is looked upon as decadent and symptomatic of "hedonism and moral rot" in capitalist society.
III. PSYOP OBJECTIVE:
To avoid giving offense to Vietnamese canons of good taste and to prevent providing Communist political cadre with material which can be made to suggest the existence of moral laxity and corruption in both the Government of Vietnam and its American ally.
IV. GUIDANCE:
The use of "sex appeal" and the youthful female form in PSYOP material should be limited to young women dressed in appropriate Vietnamese traditional clothes. This type of illustration should be in support of and directly related to the PSYOP message. “Cheesecake” or the exploitation of the female form either clothed or semi-clothed and depicted in such a manner as to appeal to the sexual instincts will be avoided.
VC Sex LeafletThe Viet Cong rarely, if ever, depicted a naked woman on a leaflet. Some of the Communist leaflets imply sex, but it is never illustrated. For instance, one leaflet pictures a woman in bed with the blankets covering all but her eyes and the text: I am waiting for you darling. The back of the leaflet is all text and says in both English and Vietnamese:
Martin Herz, who was a chief leaflet writer of the Psychological Warfare Division of SHAEF during WWII mentions the Viet Cong use of sex in propaganda in an article entitled ‘”Lessons from VC/NVA Propaganda.” He says:Darling!I'm longing for your return home. Our happiness is here in our sweet home, NOT IN SOUTH VIETNAM!
NO REENLISTMENT!
Sex is ineffective as a theme. Sex as a theme addressed to American troops suggested itself to the NVA/VC just as it suggested itself to the Germans and Japanese in WWII. It did not work and must have been quickly abandoned, for I have seen only one example in an extensive collection of enemy leaflets. We, on our side, learned the same lesson, but had to learn it again and again, since some of our commanders seemed reluctant to believe that the prudish VC/NVA couldn’t be influenced by such appeals.The classified United States Military Assistance Command Vietnam Command History Volume II 1967 mentions a suspected Viet Cong sexual plot. It says that the Viet Cong came up with an interesting PSYOP campaign to use their attractive young women. It was called the “Beautiful Girl Scheme.” They would attract beautiful young women to work in urban areas frequented by Americans. They would elicit information and learn the ways of the Americans. They would then return to their rural areas where they would disrupt American combat operations. They would solicit sexual advances from Allied troops and, where successful, clutch the man tightly; call for help and this expose the “American rapist” to the people.
I should point out that there are all kinds of pornographic and sexual leaflets offered on auction sites on the Internet. Looking at those auction sites, one would think that the entire war was fought with sexual leaflets. As I have shown above, with the exception of a few very rare "black" unauthorized items by some American troops, there really was no use of sexual leaflets in Vietnam. I asked retired Colonel Charles V. Nahlik who spent several years during the war holding down important PSYOP positions what he recalled of sex leaflets. His answer:
I never heard of that being done anywhere at any time during the Vietnam War.
SEXUAL WAR STORIES
In the military you hear a lot of war stories about the enemy using sex in various campaigns. Certainly 98% of these stories are myths, but since it is interesting propaganda, and sometimes used by one side or another (especially to discourage fraternization), perhaps we should mention them.
A number of the stories come from WWII. One that almost sounds like it could be true was told to me by a Panzer major of the SS Viking Division on the Eastern Front. He said that along a distant tree line his men saw a group of naked Russian women. His men gathered to look at the women with binoculars and were suddenly hit by a Russian artillery barrage, killing several of them. It sounds like a fake story, but he was an SS Major so I have to think that it could be true.
There are similar German stories from the USSR. Wehrmacht troops stated on several occasions that they saw Russian girls taking baths naked in lakes and streams. It may have been sexual PSYOP to concentrate the Germans, or it may just have been that the women were unable to wash themselves properly wearing underwear.
In one case, the sexual propaganda backfired. A German soldier told of finding a very insulting Russian sexual leaflet on the Eastern Front in 1941 that discussed how German women were stretching their vaginas with all the sex they had while their men were at the front. The soldier took personal offense at the insult to his wife and German women in general, and said that afterwards, no pardon was given to any Russian soldier that he came across.
Two interesting stories come out of Vietnam. The first claims that when the French were surrounded while fighting the Viet Minh, they would send a soldier out each night to the local stream to fetch water. Allegedly, the guerrillas would let the French succeed three or four nights in a row and even have sex with local girls at the stream, but about every fourth or fifth Frenchman would have his throat cut. According to the myth, the French were horny enough to play the odds each night. That story sounds more anti-French than pro-sex.
The best and most horrible story from the soldier’s standpoint is the myth about Vietnamese women that would fight for their cause by placing razor blades in their vagina. They would entice service members for sex with the expected result. That story makes you shiver just thinking about it, but it probably did a lot to discourage fraternization between American troops and Vietnamese women. Although I would have bet my life that it was a hoax, I have found one veteran who claims that it happened to a man in his unit. He told me that he was with the 3rd squadron of the 4th Cavalry, 25th Infantry Division, during the summer of 1968.
We were posting road security for a convoy during daylight hours. We would space our vehicles out on either side off of the road and erect a “cover” out of a poncho liner and bamboo poles so we could sit in the shade. One of our troopers went over to the wood line with a boom-boom girl. When he entered her his dick got split wide open. He grabbed his dick worrying that he was going to bleed to death and the girl just got up and walked off back into the tree line. He got medevaced out, and he got an article 15 on top of it all. He was out of action for maybe a month. We still give him shit about it when he attends reunions.I should point out that this idea of emasculating a rapist did not start in Vietnam. Back in the days of the British Navy and their sailing ships there was a little ditty that went:
The cabin boy, the cabin boy,Then from just about every war there is the story of the terrible sexual disease that cannot be cured. It started in WWII, carried on in Korea and probably hit its apex in Vietnam. The poor soldier with the incurable disease could not be sent home to infect his wife or girl friend so was always sent to some secret location to die. In WWII it was alleged to be Greenland. During the Korean War it was an island off the peninsula. In Vietnam it was the mysterious “Island of the Black Syph.” The island was known as Poulo Condore to the French and, in Vietnamese, Con Son Island. There are people today that still believe this story.
that naughty little nipper.
He lined his ass with shards of glass,
and circumcised the skipper.
Another story that is true is that in general when a soldier was deployed to a foreign country his first trip to a whore house was free. Like a drug pusher giving a prospective customer a “little taste” to get him hooked, the local girls would always be very generous to a new “Cherry man.” Of course, some wise guys went from whore house to whore house for months claiming to be cherry until they ran out naive girls or luck.
Fakes and Counterfeit Vietnam Sex Leaflets
Fake Reward Card
Fake Sex LeafletsReaders should be aware that many counterfeit Viet Cong sex leaflets have been offered for sale. If you look at the genuine leaflets made by the enemy, you will notice that they are on crude paper, often just typewritten, and seldom in color. No credible intelligence source that I know of has ever seen a Vietnam sex leaflet. The counterfeits, such as those shown above, are usually on modern paper or cardboard, better printed, and often in multiple colors. EBay abounds in fakes. Perhaps as many as 90% of the alleged Viet Cong leaflets offered for auction are modern reproductions or fantasies. Leaflets that should be crude and discolored are printed in full color on high quality pristine paper or cardboard. These can be identified as frauds because the color and quality of the leaflet is far beyond anything that the National Liberation Front or Viet Cong could produce 40 years ago. Curiously, all of the frauds are in mint condition, and many that feature nude women in full color and mint condition are obviously made to entice veterans to buy the fraudulent leaflet as a souvenir of their service. A Vietnam leaflet should only be purchased from an individual who either brought it back himself, or is able to identify and vouch for the person who did so.
Cold War Sexual PSYOP
Leaflet 4044Although this Communist North Korean leaflet was advertised as Korean War propaganda, I do not believe that it is. The texture and style of drawing indicates that it is a postwar “divide and conquer” leaflet of the type fired and ballooned over the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on a daily basis during the Cold War of the 1960s.
The leaflet numbered 4044 depicts a hairy American military policeman tightening his belt with his fly still open. I find it interesting that he wears two watches. I wonder if the Communists are implying that the Americans are also thieves as well as rapists. Beside the soldier, an unconscious bare-breasted Korean woman is on the ground with her hands tied to a stake. The Korean-language text is:
Your wives, sisters, and even mothers, are being raped by the Americans. How can you tolerate these atrocities? Americans are the enemy of Korea. Would you fight for Americans after seeing a rape like this? Pick up your rifles and kill the evil American devils.
We Prosecute…This North Korean poster implies that American soldiers have molested or sexually assaulted South Korean women. It attempts to build a feeling or hatred among the South Korean people toward the Americans and their military. The poster depicts the shadow of an ominous American soldier near a fearful Korean woman with her clothes ripped and torn. The text in both English and Korean is:
We prosecute the nefarious barbarism committed upon the South Korean women by the US Army.The use of the word “prosecute” is strange. I would have expected “protest.” Perhaps the poster is attempting to appear to be from the south and demanding prosecution of Americans that commit criminal acts in South Korea.
During the lengthy "Cold War" fought between the United States and the Republic of Korea against the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, both sides regularly used leaflets. In 1981, American propagandists sent a leaflet to the north that showed pretty girls in bathing suits posing in a beauty contest. The title of the leaflet was "Happy New Year." The back was a calendar for the year 1981. This leaflet surely infuriated the "Puritanical" North Koreans.
Although the official story is that no sexual leaflets were ever sent North, in 2010 I spoke to a Major assigned to Korea who had visited some Korean troops and told me that they showed him a scrapbook of products that had been sent north by balloon during the Cold War. He said:
They seemed to know their audience well. They were trying to communicate to unmarried men in their twenties. They printed and disseminated a few leaflets that displayed full frontal nudity. The North Korean society is rather prudish, so it may have not had the desired effect on all the finders. However, men do have raging hormones and that kind of forbidden pleasure might just add some strength to the message on the leaflet. Other leaflets had pictures of families sitting around tables covered with food and of all things, pictures of gridlocked traffic in Seoul.
German Democratic Republic - Cold WarThe DDR and the (West) German Federal Republic produced thousands of different leaflets which they sent to each other by balloon, small rocket, mail, and sometimes wind velocity all through the Cold War. They rarely used sexual images to strengthen their propaganda message. However, in the case of the leaflet above, a naked man and bare-breasted woman in gas mask are depicted. The fact that they are naked is simply a "gimmick" to catch the attention of the reader, since the message is entirely about pollution and the environment. Even that message is false, since the real agenda of the propagandists is for the Federal Republic to stop spending money on armaments, something that would make it very vulnerable to the Communist East Germans and their Russian occupiers. The title and text on the front of the leaflet are:
Back to the Stone Age?The back is a long 6-paragraph text. It says in part:
Cities under a dust cover. Rivers and lakes contaminated, food stuffs poisoned by DDT - an environmental catastrophe is approaching. What do you intend to do about it.
A miserly 0.01 billion marks are spent yearly on environmental research...
We can live safely and in peace if spending on military armament is cut and if the Federal Republic will work constructively on a European peace arrangement. This is the best environmental protection!
America's Use of Sex on their Own Soldiers
Marilyn Monroe Training LeafletThis U.S. Army war game training leaflet depicts the flag of the mythical state of Ridgeland and the text:
GUARANTEE OF HUMAN RIGHTSThe American soldier who presents this certificate will be removed from the battle zone, fed, given medical attention and repatriated.
Aziz KarbalaWhat is particularly interesting about this leaflet is that the back depicts the famous 27 May 1949 Tom Kelley photograph of Marilyn Monroe that would become the first centerfold of the very first issue of Playboy magazine in December 1953. The magazine sold over 54,000 copies, an amazing number for a new magazine with no advance publicity. Hugh Hefner did not date the magazine because he was uncertain there would be a second issue. He didn't know the magazine would become an icon of America's cultural history.
General of the Army
Ridgeland’s People’s Army
The Military Governor
In training exercises where PSYOP specialists get to test and refine their skills, leaflets with a hint of sex occasionally show up. One leaflet that just barely uses a sexual theme is coded “Army Ft. McPherson Ga 1277 / 51.” It depicts a young man in a swimming pool talking to a pretty girl on a diving board. The text on front is “This is what your life can be like in an Aggressor Rest Camp. It's up to you.” The back is all text and tells the American troops how to defect to the aggressor side where they will be sent to a "rest camp" to meet young women. Good practice for the troops, but not a very effective leaflet.
Sometimes these training leaflets are confused for genuine wartime products. In the case of the sexual leaflet above, the owner described it as a Korean War leaflet. The text, especially the use of the word "aggressors," and with no information on where or how to surrender, clearly shows that it is a training leaflet designed for use in a military wargame.
The U.S. Army has used sexual images in an attempt to educate and train soldiers for many years. One training bulletin, PS – The Preventive Maintenance Monthly is an official publication of the Department of the Army, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. Back in the 70s and 80s, it regularly depicted sexy girls (one blonde, one black girl) in halter-tops, short-shorts, and other revealing outfits breaking down M16 rifles or pulling the treads on tanks. The training Command apparently believed that the men were more likely to read the booklets if there was some light cheesecake in them. Looking at the same bulletins today, they have become much more politically correct, and all the women are "properly" dressed.
WWII map incentiveThe U.S. Army also placed pin-ups on the front of map documents during WWII in an attempt to assure that the person in command of a unit would use the latest available maps. Hans Moonen of the Netherlands has found two such items, one with a girl named Thelma on the front, the second with a girl named Yvonne. They are marked with such comments as, "Prepared & photolithographed by 66th Engr Top CO., US Army - Dec 1944." The sheets have the symbol of the Engineer Corps at the top above the pin-up. Some of the text on the front and back of the documents is:
Check your map edition! Here is the key!The "contours" remark is a double entendre. The female obviously has contours, and plenty of them. And, if you have taken a military navigation course you know that there are three kinds of map contours, usually supplementary or broken lines for 5 meters, intermediate or regular lines for 20 meters, and index or dark numbered lines every 100 meters.
Red figures indicate the latest map editions. The engineers supply maps with contours. Demand the latest edition. You owe it to your troops - see your division or corps engineer.
The back of the document depicts the latest map series and reminds the commander that any of the several hundred maps listed and marked in red are available in a new edition from the Engineers.
WWII Hostile Shelling ReportAnother official document that was often printed in a risqué form was the military shelling report. My old 1973 FM 30-5, Combat Intelligence explains the report.
Information on enemy bombing, shelling, or mortaring activity is initially disseminated by means of a BOMBREP, SHELREP, or MORTREP, as appropriate. Submission is the responsibility of the affected unit.The form required the unit to list the time and type of attack, the number of shells, the size and type of the armaments, direction, the damage, and other technical information. The information on enemy fire and its origin is useful to Intelligence and used by friendly artillery batteries for counter-fire. The form above is dated 1945. It was found by the Dutch collector Hans Moonen.
Korean War Shelling ReportDuring the Korean War, some troops were less than conscientious about filling out their shelling reports. In order to get units to carry and use the SHELREP, a form was prepared (8038 ETD-6000 - 17 August 1950) that depicted a naked girl at the top right and the text at her left, "Save me. Carry me with you. Use me. I may save you when you fill out my form. Send me back for a new one." It is impossible to say if field units used the form, but there is no doubt that many of the GIs carried and saved them.
Conclusion
Using sexual themes in an attempt to demoralize the enemy does not work. Instead of becoming emotionally crippled and unable to carry out their duties, "pin-up" pictures become collectors items and often have the effect of raising morale.
Does that mean we will no longer see sex in psychological operation? It is doubtful that American forces will use them. In one of the older military manuals, FM 33-5, Psychological Operations Techniques and Procedures there was a section on “theme taboos.” One of the taboos is “female figures not fully dressed* or references thereto; sexual stimulation except nostalgia induced within the confines of good taste; pornography.” It would appear that such vignettes are banned until we read the footnote. It is, “A waiver of the proscription against techniques, symbols, representations of themes listed above, if marked with an asterisk, may be sought with appropriate justification….” The United States does not want or support pornography in PSYOP, but is willing to bend the rules under certain circumstances.Vehicle pinup Operation Iraqi FreedomAt the same time, many third world countries have the opinion that the United States is a country of decadent, sex-obsessed infidels, opinions reinforced by photos as shown above. To disseminate such leaflets would only reinforce this opinion. There may be more sex in future U.S. leaflets, but if so, it will certainly be a black operation with deniability by our government officials.
No comments:
Post a Comment