"V" WARFARE AGAINST THE GERMANS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 169, 21 July 1941, Page 5

"V" WARFARE AGAINST THE GERMANS

CAMPAIGN BEGUN CODE SIGNAL OF THE OPPRESSED PEOPLES PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFORT IS EXPECTED TO GROW (Recd. 6.40 p.m.) Rugby, July 19. Silent warfare of millions throughout German - occupied countries against their oppressors has begun. As Big Ben ceased striking midnight, Colonel Britton, in a dramatic broadcast, launched the "V” campaign. “Mobilisation of the ‘V’ Army has begun," he said. He read the following message for all occupied countries from the Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. Winston Churchill: ‘Thfe ‘V’ sign is a symbol of the unconquerable will of the occupied territories and a portent of the fate awaiting Nazi tyranny. As long as rhe 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 added: “At this moment men qpd women all over Europe are dedicating themselves to a continuation of the war against Germany until the ‘V’ is triumphant.” Said Colonel Britton:—

“The act of enlistment is simple. You are asked to do two things—take a vow at the earliest moment to continue faithfully to fight in the best way you can for your country's independence and honour and that of the other nations enslaved by Nazi Germans. You are also asked to take every opportunity on this day to demonstrate to the Germans the mobilisation of the ‘V’ army by putting ‘V’ on walls everywhere. You can put them by beating out a V sound whenever you get the chance. Let ‘V’ be splashed from one end of Europe to the other.”

Tapped out on restaurant tables, and doors, tooted on ships’ whistles and sirens, and once even, in the form of the first, bars of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, played from the Naticontrolled Hilversum radio in Holland, this code signal is worrying the Nazis in the occupied territor es. It is the Morse signal for “V,” which has come to be the accepted expression in the occupied territories of the longing for victory and freedom from the Nazis. A broadcast from the 8.8. C. stations directed to the occupied territories of Europe recently suggested that the campaign should be brought to a climax on July 14, Bastille Day in France. Later, however, the 8.8. C. asked their European listeners that the climax should be postponed till July 20.

“J am not going to tell you the reason for this,” the announcer said,

“for that is just what Hitler would like to know. I can tell you that it is a good reason, as you will realise by the time Sunday comes.” “Till Sunday, July 20, therefore.” he exhorted his listeners, “in the dark hours and at all convenient, but secret. times, write the ‘V’ on walls, on roads, on cars, on trams, or on posters. You will find many other ways of doing it. To printers, for instance, I would suggest ‘V’ misprints. Work it to a great crescendo by Sunday."

“I can assure you." the announcer concluded, “the Nazis are getting very worried.”