Axis Radio
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| Douglas Boston aircraft of the Royal Air Force taking part in Operation Jubilee, the raid on Dieppe, 19 Aug. 1942 (source) |
The portions in parenthesis were censored by Allied officials.
Bill Downs
CBS London
October 1942
The people of Britain have to depend on Axis radio nowadays to find out just what their Commandos are doing, and this morning the Berlin radio gave them an earful. The Berlin announcer revealed that there have been at least four raids on the Occupied coast of Europe since the first of September. The raids apparently were not large attacks—just small landing parties assigned to test the German defenses, take prisoners and get information out about military installations. It was these raids which led Adolf Hitler to order the chaining of the Dieppe prisoners. Apparently these small scale attacks must have been too successful for German comfort. The German announcer said this latest series of Commando attacks were concentrated on the Normandy coastal region.
The German announcer then made a statement which sounds mighty good to the British man-in-the-street whether it's true or not. The announcer said the Commando raids were in preparation for what he called "a major invasion of the coast of Normandy." You notice he didn't say "an attempted major invasion"—he said invasion.
All in all, the stuff that has been pumped over the Axis controlled radio stations the past few weeks sounds pretty encouraging. Vichy is showing unprecedented concern about what is going on in North Africa. Only the other day Paris radio said American army contingents are "arriving daily" on the Gold Coast and in Liberia and the Belgian Congo as well as in South Africa.
Goebbels formally declared that the Germans can soon expect a major Allied offensive in Egypt, and the people of France just the other morning were told to prepare for Allied air, sea and land activity and to keep away from military areas.
In many ways, Germany today is in the same position which Britain found herself at the end of 1940. Germany has officially announced that she will be on the defensive this winter. Although this statement might be propaganda, most military experts believe it's true. (It appears that the time has at last arrived for the United Nations to reveal itself. How, where and when is a military secret—but it's a secret that must be causing great concern in Berlin and Rome).
This morning's authoritative London Times, which often acts as the unofficial spokesman for the government, had this to say in its leading editorial discussing future strategy. (The Times said "The British Isles on the continent of Africa have stood siege for three years ?) . . . the time approaches for their Allied garrisons, along with the armies from the unreduced strongholds of Russia and China, to turn upon their assailant and carry the war into the heart of hostile lands."
[Handwritten footnote: Not only the London Times, but all of Britain feels the same way]
