This interesting German antisemetic propaganda leaflet to France folds to show
a helmet marked “U.S.A Army” on the front and the back. One helmet has the text:
“Helmet” and the other has the text “or Hide?” When turned over, there
is an antisemetic propaganda statement:
The American News Bulletin says:
American Army authorities granted 910,000 draft deferments.
To whom?
113 blacks.
909,807 Caucasians, including 543,000 Jews.
In America, as in France, the Jews prefer: “to hide”
rather than wear the helmet and make war.
Germany to French Soldier in Rome - Easter
This German leaflet targeted French civilians and implied that the British lied in
their propaganda. It is in the shape of a winged Church bell. The front text is
“Easter 44” which was 9 April 1944. The back has a short message:
I have just returned from Rome…
The English weren’t there yet…
Perhaps…on Trinity Sunday?
A Head of Broccoli?
This strange German leaflet to France at first looked like a head of broccoli or
perhaps a bouquet for a pretty girl. The back is all text and says:
How happy you would be in this beautiful month of May, under the sign of this
charming flower - without your government of misfortune and this English war, for which
you pay the costs!
The Germans also dropped a number of odd shaped leaflets on Italy. My images of them
are very blurry, found on a BBC Television; 2 December 1982 documentary called Collecting
Now that depicted my old friend Reginald Auckland's impressive collection of aerial
propaganda leaflets. Reginald was one of the founding fathers of leaflets collecting,
picking them up in England after German raids in WWII. We later worked together as
officers of the Psywar Society.
One is a donkey shaped leaflet that bore the face of Winston Churchill. Another is
in the shape of a phonograph record with the title Il Vecchio Disco. There
is also an interesting mechanical leaflet that shows Churchill and Roosevelt smiling with
the text Before Invasion. When a tab is pulled the smile turns into a frown
and the text to After Invasion.
Just as the German often attacked the Allies for their sayings such as “home by
Christmas,” in this leaflet they point out that some Allied newspapers claimed that
Rome would fall by Easter and that has not happened. The implication is that all the
Allied proclamations of victory were false.
A Last Appeal to Reason by Adolf Hitler
Speech before the Reichstag, 19 July 1940
Germany did not want to fight the British Empire. Great Britain declared war on Germany
after the Wehrmacht attacked Poland. Hitler decided to try to appeal to the British
personally so dropped this newspaper over the British Isles, hoping to somehow convince
the British that they should ally themselves with Germany. During the war, both the
British and Americans would drop miniature newspapers on Germany, small enough to carry
over a million in one aircraft. In this case, the Germans may have printed one of the
largest leaflets ever dropped. This was a full-sized newspaper.
Imitation is the Sincerest form of Flattery
This leaflet is not really an odd shape so the reader can make a case that it does not
belong here. But it is an odd image. The Germans have taken a patriotic American flyer
asking citizens to buy war bonds to support the war effort, and turned it into an
anti-American leaflet. The front is identical to the American flyer. The back starts off
like a patriotic message, but then the Germans quickly change it into an anti-American
leaflet. We know it is German because the alpha-numeric code starting with “Asc”
was one used by the Germans in Western Europe in 1945. Some of the changed text on the
back is:
BUY WAR BONDS – The more you buy – the longer the slaughter will last. The
longer the slaughter lasts – the greater your chance of being unemployed - - - should
you get home again…So BUY WAR BONDS. Your turn to die – like F.D.R.s prosperity
of 1933 – is just around the corner.
The German “Puzzle” Leaflet
The Germans often 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 is expected to put the
puzzle together to see the image.
The German “Stamp” leaflets
We have just looked at what may be the largest leaflet ever dropped from aircraft.
Now we see what must be the smallest leaflet planned to be dropped from an aircraft, tiny
mock postage stamps. As part of their espionage campaign, the British had begun forging
and parodying German stamps early in the war. These stamps ridiculed German leaders and
were meant to be sent into Germany and its occupied territories to lower German morale and
raise the morale of the formerly free people now under German rule.
The Germans were furious. They wanted retaliation and thus produced a prodigious
number of mock British stamps and placed propaganda symbols like the Jewish Star of David
and the Communist hammer and sickle on them. In the six German parodies of the Great
Britain 1937 King George VI, the Star of David appears atop the crown at top center and in
the thistle at top right. The hammer and sickle appears in the flower at top left and
replacing the "pence" symbol in the value field. The six value of the stamp are:
1/2 pence green, 1 pence red, 1 1/2 pence lilac-brown, 2 pence orange, 2 1/2 pence blue,
and 3 pence violet. These stamps were also heavily overprinted with a number of different
propaganda slogans.
The original plan was to drop them over Great Britain so no gum was placed on the
back. This plan never came to fruition. The stamps were so small and so light that dropped
from aircraft they would have probably been blown by the wind 20 miles, landing in the
English Channel. As a result, German agents were given the stamps and sent to various
neutral territories to place these stamps into circulation. The agents saw the opportunity
to make a quick buck so most of them sold the stamps to philatelic dealers and such and
made a tidy profit. For those that want to know more about philatelic propaganda I
recommend my article Stamp Propaganda.
The German Tree Leaf for France and Belgium
In early 1943, Churchill announced that the Allied invasion of Europe would take
place during the year. At the end of 1943, with Germany still controlling the continent,
the German propagandists produced a leaflet that was disseminated in occupied France and
Belgium. The text is:
I fell out of the tree, oh Churchill!
Where are you? Where are your soldiers?
In reality, The Allies changed the 1943 invasion of Europe (Operation Round-up) to
the invasion of North Africa (Operation Torch). The Allies would not have had the manpower
and materiel that they had in 1944, but the German defenses would have been weaker. Some
historians believe that holding off the invasion of Europe for one year lengthened the
war. There was a second similar leaflet produced by the Germans for France.
[Find in Leaves, you can show just the front or both sides]
The British also prepared a leaflet in the form of a tree leaf. In late 1941, they
dropped a leaflet in the form of an oak leaf on Germany. The leaflet has an autumn-brown
color. There is a masthead of a newspaper on both sides, with added text above and below.
The British might have copied the newspaper headlines from a genuine German newspaper, but
more likely, it is a propaganda text meant to embarrass the Nazi hierarchy and show them
to be liars. The newspaper depicted is the Münchner Neueste Nachrichten (Munich’s
latest news) Vol. 93, New Years´ issue, No. 366, Munich.
The text at the top and bottom on the front of the oak leaf leaflet is:
The leaves are falling. The promised final victory fails to appear.
The newspaper headlines are:
1941 Shall be the year of final victory.
The New Year’s order of the Führer to the Wehrmacht.
The year of the Hercules.
The world at the turning point.
The text at the top and bottom on the back of the leaflet is:
In Russia fallen leaves cover fallen soldiers. And snow covers the
leaves which cover the fallen soldiers.
The newspaper headlines are:
<
Into the year of the final victory 1941.
Orders of the day to the Wehrmacht departments. General field marshal
von Brauchitsch. To the Army!
Order of the day of the Führer and Supreme Commander to the
Pan-German Wehrmacht. The year 1941 will bring the completion of the biggest victory of
our history.
Appeal of the Reichsführer SS.
The British Political Warfare Executive (PWE) prepared the leaflet. It was given the
code number EH.527. The secret British propaganda organization "Department EH"
was located in room 207 of "Electra House,” (the Imperial Communications Center
on London's Victoria Embankment), in early 1939. It was the source of the "EH"
leaflets. The British government mobilized the department on 25 August 1939 and moved it
to Woburn Abbey for greater secrecy and safety. The PWE replaced Electra House in August
of 1941. Curiously, the name of the early department head and chief forger was Ellic Howe, (codename Armin Hull)
also an "EH."
The oak leaf leaflets were first dropped on the night of 30 November and last dropped
on the night of 29 December 1941. The number of leaflets produced in unknown but it is
known that the Allies dropped them on Kiel, Wilhelshaven, the Hauge, Frankfurt,
Dusseldorf, Saarbrucken, Aachen, Bremen and Koblenz.
THEREFORE WAR
Courtesy of psywar.org
I asked my friend, British researcher Lee Richards if he could think of any odd-shaped
leaflets and he said, “What about the long concertina leaflet?” Lee was talking
about an uncoded 1940 “EH” leaflet that was folded into six pages and opened up
to 76 x 18.5 centimeters. The British sent 97,000 of these leaflets to Germany by balloon
between 28 February and 26 March 1940, and dropped 80,000 more of these leaflets from
aircraft between 18 and 24 March 1940. One side is all text and statistics and says in
part:
THEREFORE WAR
DO YOU BELIEVE THAT GERMANY CAN PREVAIL AGAINST THE ECONOMIC MIGHT OF BRITAIN AND
FRANCE?
Population
France 41.9 million
French Empire 64.9 million
Great Britain 46.0 million
British Dominions 28.4 million
British Colonies 72.7 million
India 352.8 million
[Total] 606.7 million
Greater Germany 83.1 million (Including BohemiaMoravia)
The other side of the concertina leaflet depicts various war scenes of military might
and says in part:
France and Britain have made common cause to defeat the evil spirit of Nazism which
seeks continually to dominate other peoples by force. To that end, which our two nations
will pursue to the last, we have pooled the immense resources of the French and British
world Empires. Our armies are fighting shoulder to shoulder: together our war Navies have
swept German shipping from the Seven Seas: our merchant services are carrying on
uninterrupted trade with neutral countries. We are sharing our vast reserves of raw
materials, of food supplies and petrol: in the manufacture of armaments and other
munitions of war we are exchanging our experience and ideas.
In the last war it was three years before France and Britain achieved unity of
command; in only the third month of this our world Empires have already established not
only unity of command but also amalgamation of all means of war. This complete
identification of all out interests will inevitably bring us victory in this war, as in
the last.
First victory, then the peace, which shall provide that every nation, including
Germany, shall have the right to enjoy an ordered, prosperous, and tranquil life. But if
the German people wish to escape from the maze of aggressions and wars into which their
unscrupulous leaders have conducted them, they have the remedy in their own hands. We, the
British and the French, will lay down our arms only when we can treat with a Government
whose word can be trusted, and when we are satisfied that the wrongs done to weaker
nations can be righted, and lasting security established.
U-boat Volunteers Forward
Courtesy of psywar.org
The British also liked to make what we call “mechanical leaflets.” These are
leaflets with tabs to pull that change the image and meaning of the leaflet. One example
is G.7 (“G” for “Germany”) that targeted U-Boat crews. Such leaflets
tended to be a bit heavier than the usual ones, and I am sure there was no formula to tell
where they would fall when dropped from aircraft. This leaflet was designed by the British
Political Warfare Executive and dropped from 5 April to 4 September 1942. The front
depicts a modern and sleek German submarine and a proud sailor. When the tab is pulled we
see the submarine being destroyed by mines and the sailor now drowned under the sea. The
back is all text and that also changes when the tab is pulled. The text on the front is:
VOLUNTEERS FORWARD FOR THE U-BOAT SERVICE
We journey against England.
PULL
The text visible after pulling tab:
SHORT SERVICE
We journey down to a cool grave.
Some of the text on the back is:
WHO ARE THE LUCKY ONES IN THE U-BOAT SERVICE?
HOW LONG IS THE PERIOD OF SERVICE?
The text visible after pulling tab:
The 2,000 German U-boat sailors who are now prisoners of war. They are the lucky
survivors. For every two German U-boat sailors who are rescued by the British and taken
prisoner, five are drowned.
Life insurance companies in neutral countries estimated a year ago that the average
expectation of life of a German U-boat sailor on active service was 62 days. Since then
the figure has been reduced.
This is the New Order
Courtesy of psywar.org
Another British Political Warfare Executive mechanical leaflet is B.12 (“B”
for “Belgium”). This pop-up mechanical card was also produced in French
(EH(F).106), Dutch (H.24/42) and Arabic (RW.0213). 12,960 copies were printed and first
dropped 11 August 1942 and last dropped 15 October 1942. At first glance the card seems to
depict a German officer feeding a Belgian family. When properly manipulated the German
officer is seen stealing the food from the Belgian family. The text is:
THIS IS THE NEW ORDER
Belgians have to shoulder the expenses of the German occupying forces. The official
German figures in the Brusseler Zeitung give the amount of 15,000 million of francs a
year. This means 2,000 francs per head per year, including women and children. Between the
end of December 1940 and August 1941 the national debt increased by 45 percent.
Belgium produces enough potatoes to provide every inhabitant with 8 kilos a week.
What is the allowance now? The Belgian cattle stock could provide 725 grams of meat a week
for every inhabitant. Don’t forget that the German Army of occupation devours 1,000
tons of meat a year. From the moment the Boche entered Belgium and requisitioned the
cattle the milk production was reduced by 50 percent.
Whatever shortage there is exists because the German devours everything himself. And
what he doesn’t eat himself he sends to Germany for the Boche families.
The New Order Illustrated:
Germany stealing your food
Whatever shortage there is exists because the German devours everything himself. And
what he doesn’t eat himself he sends to Germany for the Boche families.
The New Order Illustrated:
Germany stealing your food
Leaflets to be burnt
An Unknown B-24 Bomber Leaflet in Spanish
This is a very
strange leaflet. The text is in Spanish and it has no code number that could
be used to identify its maker. It does not mention its target, which
could be Fascist Spain or any of the nations in South and Central America
that might have joined the Allied cause or been neutral in WWII. We know
that the British had been active in neutral Portugal but this leaflet
depicts an American B-24 Consolidated Liberator heavy bomber. That implies
it is an American leaflet. American "white" leaflets from the military or
Office of War Information are routinely coded. The leaflet is printed on the
front only. There is a pencil notation, "Locke #7," on the back, but we have
no idea what that means. We must consider that the leaflet might have been
prepared by the Office of Strategic Services which would be a "black"
leaflet and uncoded.
At the left
there is the image of a bomb and the finder is asked to touch the bomb
with a lit cigarette to see what German city will be bombed next. If you
look carefully, you can see a slight discoloration in the paper as lines
going down to each German city listed. I assume that it is a chemical that
will ignite and leave a burning trail to each city. The text talks of
revenge on the Germans who have bombed other cities now having their own
cities bombed. The text is:
WHERE in Germany will the next rain of bombs rain fall?
Touch this
1000-kilogram bomb with the light of your cigarette and see which city was
bombed first.
The Nazis are
being repaid in their own coin and in spades. When the Luftwaffe was
destroying everything with unheard-of cruelty, Goering assured the German
people that they would never suffer such torment. But Goering lied! Nazi
cruelty is getting its just deserts - from thousands of planes every night.
One after
another, endlessly, come the huge American planes. Nearly 10,000 kilometers
in radius. Eight tons of bombs per plane. Implacably precise aim in daylight
raids! The enormous power of America will tip the balance in the struggle
for the Four Freedoms for all the peoples of the world.
BERLIN – HAMBURG – BREMEN – NUREMBERG - LEIPZIG
Although only 5 random cities are listed here, all German cities
are on the list!
Leaflets to be Folded
During WWII and afterwards several
leaflets were prepared that needed to be folded to get their message across.
The first are the “Pig Leaflets.” There are several varieties of this one,
but they have one thing in common, when you fold the four images of a swine,
they come together to form some enemy leader. In most cases this was Hitler,
but some other leaders have met the same fate, Mussolini for one, and most
recently Russia’s President Putin after his invasion of Ukraine. The British
were known to make these for use in German-occupied territories like Holland
and Poland. They were also produced in the United States as an anti-Hitler
patriotic gag.
This second leaflet is a large one that at
first glance appears to be a NAZI Swastika. As you do each fold you get to
see the British text and end up with a “V” for victory:
British Victories all over Europe
Look at…
In Poland and Soviet Russia
In Yugoslavia and Greece
I France and the Lowlands
In Norway and Denmark
Your Happiness at Home in Australia
The Japanese made a great many leaflets during the early stages of WWII when they were
all-victorious. This leaflet dropped on New Guinea by the Japanese is one of a number of
folding or “trick” leaflets that the Japanese created for Australia and New
Guinea for use against the Americans and Australians. I have seen at least five different
ones but I think this is the most interesting. It is a bit on the sexy side, but seems to
make the most use of image and color.
When fully folded 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 officer 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!
Black tablet version of Kiri Leaflet
The United States prepared two leaflets in the form of leaves for the Japanese. One has
a white tablet, the other a black tablet. The black tablet version is a very realistic
looking "kiri" tree leaflet dropped on the Japanese in 1943 and 1944. The Kiri
tree is known as "Royal Paulownia." It is native to the Orient. It is also
called the Chinese Empress tree and the Princess tree. The early fall of the kiri tree
leaves is considered a bad omen in Japan.
The text on the front is:
A falling Paulownia leaf is the unlucky omen of the inevitable destruction of the
military power of Japan. As these leaves scatter about they do nothing but pile up sorrow
and bad luck.
The text on the back is:
Before spring comes a second time, American bombs, falling like Paulownias falling
from far away, will bring disaster and bad luck.
Life Magazine of 9 July 1945 mentioned American psychological operations
and the kiri leaf in a pictorial story entitled: Leaflets dropped on home islands
attack Nippon’s militarist caste. Some of the story said:
Last week Japanese civilians were told that they must help defend the Jap home
islands when the Americans invade and were warned that they must “not allow
themselves to be taken prisoner or die dishonorable deaths.” If obeyed, the order to
commit suicide rather than surrender would produce a terrible holocaust. The Americans are
trying to crack the core of this credo by deluging Japan with propaganda leaflets and
broadcasts.
Along with factual leaflets, the Americans drop one that is shaped like a kiri leaf
which capitalizes on the peculiarly Japanese obsession with the poetry and omens of death.
Every B-29 raid on Japan now drops about 750,000 pieces of propaganda on Japan…The
Japs are urged to fight against the U.S. leaflets with “strong nerves” and
warned of severe penalties for failing to turn in the leaflets to the nearest police
station.
Aerial Salute to USO
Leaflets were not always dropped on the enemy. Sometimes they were dropped on your own
citizens to raise morale and money. This leaflet in the form of a bomb, dated 2 June 1941,
was dropped over New York City and publicized the United Service Organization, dedicated
to serving and raising the morale of military personnel. It both seeks to raise over 10
million dollars in funding and seeks volunteer to help run the 360 service clubs. The text
on the back of the bomb said in part:
No…This isn’t a BOMB
It was dropped not to destroy but to build. Dropped by one of your defenders from
one of the planes that guard our nation’s skyways. Dropped to tell you that you can
help your defenders. How? The U.S.O. has been formed as a nationwide citizen effort to
show our soldiers, sailors and Marines how much we appreciate what they are doing for us.
It plans to operate 360 service clubs for soldiers, sailors and other youth serving
our nation’s defense. The U.S.O. will be GHQ for men on leave. It will operate where
it is needed – in little town near the big camps. Tomorrow U.S.O. launches a
nationwide campaign to raise $10,765,000 to operate its program. Join the Army behind the
Army. Get back of our soldiers, sailors and defense workers with the U.S.O.
IT’S YOUR CHANCE TO SERVE!
Korean War
Dummy Airfield Streamer Number 15
One of the strangest propaganda items dropped by United Nations aircraft was this
streamer, dropped over “dummy” airfields (areas where deceptive models of
buildings and aircraft were placed by the North Koreans in an attempt to fool the United
Nations into wasting bombs on valueless targets). It was hoped that by pointing out that
their deception had failed, the Communist leaders would lose “face” and be
embarrassed in front of the local people and their own soldiers.<
This 23 June 1952 streamer was requested by the United States Fifth Air Force from The
Eighth U.S. Army in Korea and says:
The United Nations knows that your leaders have built dummy airfields
in this area!
The aggression and lies of the Communists cannot be concealed!
Slogan Streamer 8666
A second “slogan streamer” is coded 8666 and was prepared on 4 August 1952.
It is targeted at Chinese forces in Korea and depicts poverty-stricken people and the
text:
Under the Communists, the rich become poor and the poor become poorer
German Flight officer Lieutenant Hiddessen drops a streamer during WWI
Note: We are not sure exactly how these Korean War streamers were dropped. In WWI
streamers were often used to drop messages on the enemy such as to report the death of a
pilot in aerial battle. The streamer was used to catch the attention of the target
audience. Usually, they would be tied to a weight or a bag of sand so as to be fully
opened when dropped. I doubt that was done during the Korean War so they may have been
dropped folded, or perhaps some other method was used to drop them fully extended.
Leaflet 8656
This 30 June 1952 U.S. Eighth Army Headquarters leaflet is the only example of a
triangular propaganda leaflet that I have ever seen. It is a very odd shape and one
wonders how the flight characteristics of the leaflet were figured out by the
propagandists who were assigned the task of dropping it on a target site with some
accuracy. The leaflet was dropped on Chinese troops and depicts a Communist soldier being
forced to confess to fellow troops on the front, and the same troops escaping from the
dark to the light on the back. Leaflet 8650 used the exact same theme. There was a belief
that pointing out the demeaning and embarrassing nature of these so-called
“confessions” might motivate an enemy to desert the Communist forces. The text
is:
THREE CONFESSIONS, ONE EXAMINATION IS A CRUEL TRICK THE COMMUNISTS
USE TO ENSLAVE YOU.
Come over to the United Nations and you won’t have to torture
yourself.
Come over to the United Nations and be free of humiliation by the
Communists.
Come over to the United Nations and you will not be
“pressed” with three confessions and one examination.
I thought the readers might be interested in the Chinese Communist concept of
confessions so pulled out my 1972 Peking copy of Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse Tung
(“The Little Red Book”) and found this passage:
41186100 - Circular Leaflet
After the end of World War II, the Nationalist and the Communist Chinese continued to
fight a civil war from July 1946 to September 1949 that eventually led to the defeat of
Chiang Kai-shek and the escape of his Kuomintang government, his army, and over a million
refugees to the island of Taiwan. Ever since, both sides have occasionally sent leaflets
to each other through artillery, balloons and even kites and floats.
The Chinese appear to like circular leaflets. When leaflets are airdropped the size and
proportions are very important because the disseminator wants to know exactly how far and
how fast the leaflet will drop and how much ground it will cover. Since these Chinese
leaflets were carried by balloon and there was no worry about rotation and coverage, they
could prepare the leaflets in any form that they wished. A second leaflet in the circular
format has the Chinese character for “Happiness” on the front and a short
message explaining how that happiness is to be found on Taiwan on the back.
The leaflet above again depicts Red Chinese Air Force defector Li Xianbin. The picture
shows him being welcomed by throngs in Taipei. The text is:
On November 11, 1965, at 2:30, Li Xianbin heroically piloted his Ilyushin 28 no.
0195 jet bomber towards Free Taiwan.
Text on the back of the leaflet outlines the system of awards payable in gold for
defectors from the mainland. The caption at the bottom notes that holding on to this
leaflet can serve as proof of intent to defect.
51213800 - Happy New Year
A number of the Chinese Nationalist leaflets are very "arty." That is to say,
they have various forms that make them different from the standard 3 x 6-inch U.S.
leaflet. In this case, the leaflet is in the form of a Chinese screen. The two doors on
the front open to show the leaflet message inside. The text on the outside basically says
"Happy New Year." The propaganda message appears when one opens the screen. The
title on the inside is:
To heed the glorious call of President Chiang, uniting against the Communist Party,
is the only bright path to salvation for us and for the nation!
The text lists Chiang Kai-shek's three proclamations to members of the political and
military establishment on the mainland, which are basically: Do not actively resist us
[during our invasion to re-take the mainland] and we will not harass you; if you accept
Kuomintang leadership and abide by the ten stipulations proclaimed in 1962 you will be
able to keep your political or military rank; the ultimate goal is to be rid of Mao Zedong
and construct a China based on the Three People's Principles of Sun Yat-sen.
51110100 - Defecting Militia Leader
Some of the Chinese leaflets are cut in such a way that opening the leaflet (like a
greeting card) exposes the picture and message inside. In this case, part of the first
page has been cut out to expose some of the picture beneath on the second page. A number
of leaflets were prepared like this one with different fancy designs in the cut-away
portion. In this case, the text to the left of the vignette says:
Paving the way for Communist Party cadres to stride toward freedom:
Chinese Communist militia leader Zhang Zongyao (Chang Tsung-yao
The text tells of how the Communist militia officer defected to Taiwan, found a way to
freedom and set an example for his fellow officers.
Operation Desert Storm
Shatt al Arab Card
I add this Coalition in the form of a postcard not because of its shape, but because of
its weight. Normal 6 x 3 inch leaflets are printed on 20 pound paper and the mathematical
drift formula details exactly where they will fall when dropped from an aircraft. The
Coalition decided to print these cards on 110 pound paper. As a result they did not
auto-rotate properly and there was no telling where they would fall. Therefore, they were
usually dropped from helicopters low to the ground where the target was in plain sight.
This cardboard leaflet depicts an Iraqi soldier carrying Saddam on his back. The sign
reads “Shatt al Arab.” The crow is evil omen. The text is parody of popular
Iraqi song telling of a man's difficulties with his love:
I crossed the Shatt al Arab as you wished, and I obeyed your orders.
I feel death at the door, and I feel I am at my last breath, and I sigh deeply.
The back of the card features the Joint Forces seal and 27 flags of the Coalition.
Early in the deployment four different leaflets were prepared on cardboard. The
leaflets are very handsome and sturdy, but were not accurate when air-dropped. These
leaflets are very powerful from a graphics standpoint because they show all the flags of
the coalition nations on one side in full color. Although they are the most attractive of
the Gulf War leaflets, we might say that they were a failure. The first airdrop of 113,000
leaflets was on the night of 12 January.
Note: Weight is the most common specification of paper because it is sold on a weight
basis. Basis weight is the weight in pounds of a ream containing 480, 500 or 1,000 sheets
cut to a basic ream size. The weight of this cardboard leaflet was 6 times greater than a
standard paper leaflet.
Israel vs Lebanon -2006
Cedar tree deodorizer
On 12 July 2006, Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon crossed the border
into Israel, killed eight soldiers and abducted two others. Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan
Nasrallah said that a prisoner exchange was the only way to secure the release of the
soldiers, who he said were being held in a “secure and remote” location. He
said:
No military operation will return them. The prisoners will not be returned except
through one way: indirect negotiations and a trade.
The Israelis immediately retaliated. It was not only propaganda leaflets that the
Israelis dropped on Lebanon. They also dropped at least one cedar-scented automobile
deodorizer in the shape of the national symbol of Lebanon, the cedar tree. The propaganda
aspect was the tiny head of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah peeking out from
behind the tree, symbolically hiding behind and among the people of Lebanon. One report
stated that:
Hundreds of people were scrambling the streets to pick up the Cedars…If
anyone is reading this from the Israeli Defense Forces; you have to know that these are
the sort of creative things that work...It's much better than throwing leaflets with a
list of the names of 100 Hezbollah soldiers dead.
There is a brief text at the bottom of the air freshener that quotes a well-known
Lebanese idiomatic expression that means “get away from us,” but also means:
Leave us with a good smell
I spoke to a source in Lebanon who told me that the air fresheners were very
popular. However, as we have seen in recent conflicts where soldiers and civilians were
told that enemy leaflets had been laced with infectious disease, apparently there was an
attempt on the part of Hezbollah to convince the Lebanese that the air fresheners had been
irradiated by the Israelis and were deadly to handle.
This has been a very quick look at the fascinating field of odd-shaped propaganda
leaflets used in various wars and operations. Any reader wishing to comment is encouraged
to write the author at sgmbert@hotmail.com.
