Morale Operations Branch
Encyclopedia
Morale Operations was a branch of the Office of Strategic Services
during World War II
. It utilized psychological warfare, particularly propaganda, to demoralize the German forces in Europe.
formed the Morale Operations Branch of the Office of Strategic Services
on March 3, 1943. Donovan admired the perceived effectiveness of Nazi propaganda and saw the United States’ lack of similar operations as a significant weakness. To that end, he created the Morale Operations branch, which used deception and subversion to undermine belief in the German Wehrmacht
, Hitler, and Nazism
.
The Morale Operations Branch had outposts in several locations across the globe. Usually these stations were close to U.S. Army combat stations or integrated into Army intelligence posts. By 1945 the Morale Operations Branch had one station in Algeria, Egypt, France, and Britain, two in Sweden, and six in Italy. The most important of these stations was in London, Britain.
The Morale Operations branch obtained copies of these leaflets and immediately produced their own facsimiles. The Germans believed these false documents were genuine and began distributing them. The first of these leaflets indicated that the German high command did not believe their soldiers would be able to hold the line and “encouraged soldiers to scorch the earth before dying in a last stand for Nationalist Socialism.” The second ordered all soldiers to shoot any officers who attempted to surrender or retreat. A third pamphlet ordered soldiers to carry out the evacuation of civilian populations by force (Morale Operations hoped that this would create traffic congestion and clog supply lines).
Ultimately the Germans denounced all Skorpion West pamphlets, including the ones that the German propaganda team had created, as enemy propaganda and ordered all troops to ignore their messages.
officers that implicated various German soldiers and officials in pro-Allied behavior. One such letter implied that the Gestapo
had killed German Major General Franz Krech after plotting to defect to the Allies. In actuality, Greek guerillas had ambushed and killed Krech.
, Morale Operations agents interviewed German POWs who had worked as mail clerks to discover how the German postal service functioned. Morale Operations then created replicas of German mailbags and stuffed them with various forms of printed propaganda. They placed these bags near trains after an Allied air raid in hopes that the Germans would believe the bags were genuine and thus unwittingly distribute the propaganda. The German postal service delivered a total 320 bags of Morale Operations propaganda. Postwar interrogations of German prisoners revealed that many soldiers received Das neue Deustchland as a result of this operation.
, Soldatensender broadcast the names of hundreds of Germans in an attempt to cast suspicion on as many Germans as possible. As a result of this the Gestapo
arrested and executed roughly 2,500 Germans.
, the former German Army Chief of Staff, died after the attempt on Hitler’s life during Operation Valkyrie
, although the Nazi regime never acknowledged his death. During the Joker Campaign a Morale Operations agent, pretending to Beck, broadcast several messages from London to German soldiers and civilians. These messages blamed German losses on Nazi incompetence and urged the German people to overthrow Hitler and sue for peace in hopes that this would stop the Allies from annihilating their country.
, was one of the most successful radio operations of the war. It reportedly came from an anti-Nazi Rhineland group and initially provided accurate information, prompting Wehrmacht commanders to trust its information. After the Allies had broken through the Moselle region however, Radio 1212 issued false reports, evacuation and mobilization orders, and rumors in order to create maximum confusion and hysteria. The station even created a fictional resistance group and encouraged listeners to join.
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency, and it was a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. It utilized psychological warfare, particularly propaganda, to demoralize the German forces in Europe.
Origins
William Joseph DonovanWilliam Joseph Donovan
William Joseph Donovan was a United States soldier, lawyer and intelligence officer, best remembered as the wartime head of the Office of Strategic Services...
formed the Morale Operations Branch of the Office of Strategic Services
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency, and it was a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency...
on March 3, 1943. Donovan admired the perceived effectiveness of Nazi propaganda and saw the United States’ lack of similar operations as a significant weakness. To that end, he created the Morale Operations branch, which used deception and subversion to undermine belief in the German Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
, Hitler, and Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
.
Organization
The Morale Operations Branch comprised five sections: the Special Communications Detachment, the Radio Division, the Special Contacts Division, the Publications and Campaigns Division, and the Foreign Division. The Special Communications Detachment was responsible for “combat propaganda operations in coordination with the U.S. Army in Europe.” The Radio Division “conducted all black or clandestine radio programs.” The Special Contacts Division “distributed propaganda to partisan groups.” The Publications and Campaigns Division “produced leaflets, pamphlets, and whispering campaigns.” The Foreign Division “conducted miscellaneous [Morale Operations] activities abroad.” Collectively these divisions carried out psychological warfare operations for the U.S. Army.The Morale Operations Branch had outposts in several locations across the globe. Usually these stations were close to U.S. Army combat stations or integrated into Army intelligence posts. By 1945 the Morale Operations Branch had one station in Algeria, Egypt, France, and Britain, two in Sweden, and six in Italy. The most important of these stations was in London, Britain.
How Much Longer?
The “How Much Longer?” campaign was the first major black propaganda leaflet campaign. The campaign produced sixteen different leaflets. Each of these featured a cartoon depicting a burdensome situation and asked how much longer German citizens would tolerate it. These leaflets were “distributed throughout Italy, southern France, and the Balkans.”Skorpion West
Skorpion West was another successful leaflet campaign. After the German defeat at Normandy, a German propaganda team located in France created optimistic leaflets in an effort to boost morale. Germany then airdropped these leaflets over their lines to bolster the spirits of the German soldiers.The Morale Operations branch obtained copies of these leaflets and immediately produced their own facsimiles. The Germans believed these false documents were genuine and began distributing them. The first of these leaflets indicated that the German high command did not believe their soldiers would be able to hold the line and “encouraged soldiers to scorch the earth before dying in a last stand for Nationalist Socialism.” The second ordered all soldiers to shoot any officers who attempted to surrender or retreat. A third pamphlet ordered soldiers to carry out the evacuation of civilian populations by force (Morale Operations hoped that this would create traffic congestion and clog supply lines).
Ultimately the Germans denounced all Skorpion West pamphlets, including the ones that the German propaganda team had created, as enemy propaganda and ordered all troops to ignore their messages.
Operation Hemlock
Operation Hemlock was a poison-pen letter campaign consisting of anonymous letters sent to GestapoGestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
officers that implicated various German soldiers and officials in pro-Allied behavior. One such letter implied that the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
had killed German Major General Franz Krech after plotting to defect to the Allies. In actuality, Greek guerillas had ambushed and killed Krech.
Death Notices
The Morale Operations Branch also sent letters to the families of German soldiers. These letters indicated that the recently deceased was a victim of a mercy killing at the hands of a German doctor. Other letters claimed that Nazi Party officials had stolen valuable possessions while he lay on his deathbed.Lichtenau Letter
One Morale Operations letter appeared to be a Christmas greeting from the mayor of Lichtenau. At first glance it appeared as a morale booster for Nazi soldiers, but it also contained several indications of hardships resulting from the war. The letter included claims that government had drafted civilians into the military, that young teenagers were becoming pilots after only a few weeks of training, and that loved ones back home were sacrificing their health to promote the Nazi cause.Das neue Deutschland
The Morale Operations branch created the Das neue Deustchland newspaper to appear as if a fictional clandestine peace party in Germany had written it. The goal of the newspaper was to promote an anti-Nazi revolution and the re-establishment of a liberal democracy. Morale Operations sent thousands of peace party membership applications to enemy soldiers and civilians in Europe, leading Himmler to denounce the paper and threaten soldiers with execution if they read it.The Harvard Project
The Harvard Project created a four-page weekly business publication, Handel and Wandel, which appeared to analyze world economic news. The leaflet suggested that if Germany expelled the Nazi regime, Allied and German businessmen could work together to defend capitalism from an impending wave of Bolshevism.Operation Cornflakes
During Operation CornflakesOperation Cornflakes
Operation Cornflakes was a World War II Office of Strategic Services PSYOP mission in 1944 and 1945 which involved tricking the German postal service Deutsche Reichspost into inadvertently delivering anti-Nazi propaganda to German citizens through mail....
, Morale Operations agents interviewed German POWs who had worked as mail clerks to discover how the German postal service functioned. Morale Operations then created replicas of German mailbags and stuffed them with various forms of printed propaganda. They placed these bags near trains after an Allied air raid in hopes that the Germans would believe the bags were genuine and thus unwittingly distribute the propaganda. The German postal service delivered a total 320 bags of Morale Operations propaganda. Postwar interrogations of German prisoners revealed that many soldiers received Das neue Deustchland as a result of this operation.
Soldatensender
Soldatensender was a Morale Operations grey radio station that broadcast anti-Nazi propaganda hidden in news, music, and entertainment. It quickly became the most popular station in Western Europe. Morale Operations also used it to report news on German military failures, which eroded Nazi morale. After the 1944 coup against Hitler during Operation ValkyrieOperation Valkyrie
Operation Valkyrie was an emergency continuity of government operations plan developed in Nazi Germany for the Territorial Reserve Army of Germany to execute and implement in case of a general breakdown in civil order of the nation...
, Soldatensender broadcast the names of hundreds of Germans in an attempt to cast suspicion on as many Germans as possible. As a result of this the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
arrested and executed roughly 2,500 Germans.
Joker Campaign
German General Ludwig BeckLudwig Beck
Generaloberst Ludwig August Theodor Beck was a German general and Chief of the German General Staff during the early years of the Nazi regime in Germany before World War II....
, the former German Army Chief of Staff, died after the attempt on Hitler’s life during Operation Valkyrie
Operation Valkyrie
Operation Valkyrie was an emergency continuity of government operations plan developed in Nazi Germany for the Territorial Reserve Army of Germany to execute and implement in case of a general breakdown in civil order of the nation...
, although the Nazi regime never acknowledged his death. During the Joker Campaign a Morale Operations agent, pretending to Beck, broadcast several messages from London to German soldiers and civilians. These messages blamed German losses on Nazi incompetence and urged the German people to overthrow Hitler and sue for peace in hopes that this would stop the Allies from annihilating their country.
Volkssender Drei
The Volkssender Drei campaign created the first Morale Operations radio station on the European continent. An agent claiming to be Hoffman, a German commander and the son of the general who signed the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, broadcast messages on a nightly basis. These messages stated that Hoffman had liberated a small town in the mountainous region of Germany and encouraged other German commanders to do the same. The program ended in October 1944 when the Allies purportedly liberated the fictional city.Operation Anne / Radio 1212
Operation Anne, also known as Radio 1212Radio 1212
Radio 1212 or Nachtsender 1212 was a black propaganda radio station operated from 1944 to 1945 by the Psychological Warfare Branch of the US Office of War Information under the direction of CBS radio chief William S. Paley, who was based in London...
, was one of the most successful radio operations of the war. It reportedly came from an anti-Nazi Rhineland group and initially provided accurate information, prompting Wehrmacht commanders to trust its information. After the Allies had broken through the Moselle region however, Radio 1212 issued false reports, evacuation and mobilization orders, and rumors in order to create maximum confusion and hysteria. The station even created a fictional resistance group and encouraged listeners to join.
External links
- The Office of Strategic Services: Morale Operations Branch — Central Intelligence Agency CIA page on OSS Morale Operations