On July 19th, 1941, a "Colonel Britton" broadcast to all European Occupied countries the following message. "Events are taking place that are of great significance in this war. The importance of these events will probably not be realised for a long time, and, in fact, the events themselves are not likely to be noticed. But it's in connection with them that I asked you a week ago to start a "V" campaign - V's in sight and sound - which would work up to a climax tomorrow, July 20. Now I want to tell you what should be your contribution to making July 20 one of the milestones in the war. July 20 is the date of Europe's mobilisation against the Germans. Tomorrow the V Army - Europe's invisible army of many millions - will come into being. You're listening to me now in your home. Thousands and thousands of others are listening too. The mobilisation will begin at midnight 24 hours from now, and it will continue throughout the day. You are eligible to join the V Army, and I ask you to join." (Sadly I don't have the text of his earlier broadast of the 12th ) So what happened??? Was this the origin of the "V" sign painted/chalked on Occupation posters and walls all over Europe? Or was that more spontaneous? Was this all some great psi-war op??? And who on earth was the "Colonel Britton" in question??? In newspaper articles about the broadcast in the UK, he was described as "a prominent member of the "British Intelligence Service""
is this the chap BBC - Archive - WWII: The Soviet Union Joins the Allies - Sir Stafford Cripps Sir Stafford Cripps served as an Ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1940 to 1942 as part of the coalition government. In 1940 Cripps unsuccessfully tried to warn Stalin and the British Foreign Office about 'Barbarossa', Hitler's plan to attack Russia. After Hitler attacked in June 1941, Cripps became the key negotiator for a British-Soviet alliance. Colonel Britton was the pseudonym of Douglas Ritchie, a 36-year-old Assistant News Editor at the BBC. He expanded the V for Victory campaign in 1941 and 1942 in the occupied territories, where it was designed to subvert German rule with various methods of resistance. Since the English-language service was not tightly controlled by the Ministry of Information, the campaign flourished. COLONEL BRITTON Douglas Ritchie BBC WW2 Broadcasts CARD | eBay
From Time Magazine... A Belgian refugee named Victor de Laveleye first had the idea. In a shortwave broadcast from London to his countrymen he asked them to chalk the letter V (for victoire) in public places as a sign of confidence in their deliverance. That was six months ago. Nobody took the idea very seriously then—except in Belgium, then in The Netherlands and France. But last week, as news leaked out of Europe, the world awoke to the fact that something almost as frivolous as a parlor game might play an important part in international politics. On British Broadcasting Corp.'s shortwave program one night last month was heard the voice of a Colonel Britton. There is a Colonel Reginald Brittan in England, a 76-year-old retired Colonel of the Sherwood Foresters, but BBC made its Colonel Britton a mystery man. He spoke polished English, French, German, Dutch, Polish, Czech, Norwegian. Colonel Britton, shyly at first, then with growing confidence, plugged the V campaign. He urged the people of the occupied countries to mark the letter everywhere, even on the backs of German officers. According to reports that leaked out in a few places, they actually did. "He told people how to tap it out in Morse Code, three dots and a dash, recommended it as a signal for calling waiters, knocking on doors, blowing auto horns, bugles and train whistles. Soon that tat-tat-tat-too was heard all over Europe. He told them to call for Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, whose opening "fate-knocks-at-the-door" motif is three short bars and one long one. Beethoven V became a peculiarly popular concert piece. The Colonel told Europeans to sit in cafés with their legs stretched out V-wise. He told them to wave to one another with the first two fingers of the hand spread V-wise. He told them to make the letter V with their knives and forks in restaurants, to set stopped clocks at five after eleven. The Moscow radio jammed German broadcasts with the Morse V. The R.A.F. flew over Europe in V-formation—and it was so noted in official communiqués. In Belgium the Flemish composer R. A. F. Verhulst became a national celebrity when posters advertising the performance of one of his operas featured his four initials. (The Germans caught on and tore the posters down.) Like a fresh wind blowing in from the sea, the campaign spread over Europe. V, which stood for victory in English and victoire in French, became vryheid (freedom) in Dutch, vitezstvi (victory) in Czech, vitestvo (heroism) in Serbian, and in Norwegian ve vil vinne, which means just what it sounds like in pidgin English. To Nazis all Europe's eternal tat-tat-tat-tooing was foolish and exasperating. First the Nazis tried to suppress or ignore it. Growled Norway's Quisling Propaganda Minister Gudbrand Lunde: "Don't think you will win the war by making silly noises in restaurants." In France 6,000 people were arrested for distributing paper Vs. Then Germany's Propaganda Chief Paul Joseph Goebbels had what he thought was a bright idea, or perhaps it was given to him by a visiting friend. Italy's Popular Culture Minister Alessandro Pavolini, who was also on the receiving end of the campaign. On the principle of if-you-can't-lick-'em-join-'em, the Nazi Propaganda Ministry announced that V stood for Nazi victory—Viktoria—thereby impairing the purity of the German vocabulary by importing a foreign word, for the native German word for victory is Sieg. Germans were urged to use the symbol. In rendering this decision Dr. Goebbels made a mistake: since the V-sign was no longer verboten, the Germans could not suppress it. This week Britain's Britton brought his campaign to a climax, proclaimed "the week for mobilization" of "Europe's invisible V army." Winston Churchill blessed the campaign with these words: "So long as the peoples of Europe continue to refuse all collaboration with the invader, it is sure that his cause will perish and that Europe will be liberated." Colonel Britton promised more, hinted that at the proper time the V army would be called into action against the invaders. Until then its members were asked only to fight for independence as best they could, to "splash the V from one end of Europe to the other." In the polished, conspiratorial tones to which thousands of Europeans have lately become familiar, Colonel Britton concluded: "You are asked to join a disciplined army. It is a strange army, but one to which it is an honor to belong. It is an army which the Germans fear. . . . The Germans will not drown out the knocking of fate, however loud they beat. For when they tap out the V they are merely signaling their own impending doom. We shall hurry it as much as we can. . . . "I advise you to read from the Old Testament of the Bible, the Book of Daniel, Chapter 5, Verse 5, that is Chapter V, Verse V, and read to the end of the chapter.* Good luck to you." Colonel Britton's campaign was ingenious. It was more. It was the first antidote prescribed for the apathy of Europe. It was the first organized attempt to unite the spirit and forces of resistance. Symbols are strangely powerful in politics, and a symbol had been found for a future revolution against Fascism. If kept alive, V might come to stand, in Germany and all conquered countries, for a great underground movement against Naziism, for democracy's vast Column V. * ". . . God hath numbered thy kingdom and hath finished it. Thou art weighed in the balance and art found wanting. Thy kingdom is divided and is given to the Medes and Persians."
Here's an interesting wrinkle from Hansard! COLONEL BRITTON, BROADCAST (PROTEST). HC Deb 04 March 1942 vol 378 c665W 665W § Earl Winterton asked the Minister of Information why no reply has been sent by his Department to a protest by Mr. C. H. Alison, arising out of a broadcast by Colonel Britton on 16th January last, in which he attacked a private individual in France, who does not hold any public position in that country and who is related to Mr. Alison by marriage? § Mr. Bracken The letter was passed by the Ministry of Information to the Political Warfare Executive who were responsible for this broadcast. But it would not be in the national interest to disclose their reasons for mentioning a particular name in this talk. Was "Colonel Britton" fulminating against specific named collaborators???
NOT so strangely for those of us who grew up in a generation that saw the BBC forget the "Blue Peter Baby", and looked forward eagerly to the next installment in various "Nationwide" magazine programme articles that never appeared... It seems the BBC actually lost some interest in the project after it began to gain momentum on its own! In February 1943, in relation to another question asked in the House about a Japanese propaganda broadcast that had advised disaffected Indian Nationalists to listen to "Colonel Britton" on the BBC and copy his methods...Leo Amery answered the question to the effect that Colonel Britton hadn't actually broadcast on the BBC for the last ten months! Sabotage Propaganda: 25 Feb 1943: House of Commons debates (TheyWorkForYou.com) Only the Beeb...:p
I recently came across an essay my mother wrote, as a college student in the 1940s, on this subject. Like you she used the quote above in her piece and gave credit to Time magazine. I thought you might be interested. Maybe there’s a way to look up Time Magazine archives to be sure. Thanks for your informative article.
