Thread by @ChrisGreenwayUK

🧵80 years ago today, Germany staged a clever exercise in fake news, scoring one of its best WW2 information-warfare victories.
The result: a disaster in Anglo-American relations that Eisenhower said caused him "more distress and worry than did any similar one of the war". 1/18

Germany's fake-news coup was part of what the excellent book Hitler's Airwaves described as "without doubt the only truly innovative and effective operation the Nazi propagandists ever created during the Second World War". 2/18

The story began on 10 October 1944 when the Germans launched "Radio Arnhem" – or to be more accurate, "Arnhem Calling" as it called itself on the air.
The objective: to broadcast material in English to lure, then deceive and demoralise, allied forces on the Western Front. 3/18

Arnhem Calling was on air for over 16 hours a day, much of the time relaying the BBC and the Allied Expeditionary Forces Programme on a powerful signal that could easily be heard by US and British troops, especially as its frequency was close to that of the BBC Home Service. 4/18

With its audience accustomed to tune to its signal for music and news from London, "Arnhem" would intersperse the relays from the UK with its own "news", tailored to raise doubts in the mind of listeners about the war's progress, plus letters from POWs held by the Germans. 5/18

On 8 January 1945, "Arnhem Calling" broadcast what it said was a BBC report which heaped praise on Montgomery and suggested that Monty had rescued the "somewhat bewildered" US Army from defeat in the ongoing Ardennes Offensive (the Battle of the Bulge). 6/18

US troops who heard the fake report widely believed it to be a genuine BBC broadcast. The US press was also fooled, as the denigration of the Americans chimed with Monty's growing reputation for ill-considered and undiplomatic remarks about his US allies. 7/18

There was immediate US outrage, a row in the press on both sides of the Atlantic (not helped by ill-judged comments in some British papers) and bad feeling all round. The British government felt obliged to apologise to Eisenhower, even though the report was a fake. 8/18

"I need hardly tell you that the BBC would never broadcast anything that would be offensive to American troops, or to you," British Information Minister Brendan Bracken said in a personal letter to Eisenhower. 9/18

The BBC was upset, saying the press had been fools to fall for what was obviously fake news.
"Such attempts by the enemy to mislead listeners can generally be detected if the substance is weighed with a little commonsense," a 10 January BBC statement said. 10/18

The BBC statement, and an explanation of what had really happened, was published in the British and American press on 11 January. But it was too late – the damage had been done. 11/18

Dr Joseph Quinn @ww2research has written an excellent explanation of the whole affair for the blog of the National Archives (h/t
@psywarorg). 12/18 blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/how-nazi-fake-…

Dr Quinn says the incident "inflicted lasting damage on Anglo-American relations during the final four months of the Allied campaign in North-West Europe". 13/18

For those who like technical details:
"Arnhem Calling" was on the air daily at 0625-2300 – not from Arnhem but a studio in Hilversum. It used a powerful (120kW) transmitter at Lopik on 795 kHz (377 metres) – close to one of the frequencies (767 kHz) of the BBC Home Service. 14/18

Along with the mediumwave service on 795 kHz, it was also on shortwave (15220 kHz), which was heard in North America. 15/18

As well as relaying the BBC and the AEF Programme, and airing its own (fake) news, "Arnhem Calling" also relayed the "Jerry Calling" propaganda broadcasts to allied forces (which had earlier been known as "D-Day Calling" and "Invasion Calling"). 16/18

The fake news on "Arnhem Calling" was read by three female announcers, known collectively by Allied troops as "Mary of Arnhem". 17/18

"Arnhem Calling" & "Mary of Arnhem" merit a🧵of their own. Meanwhile, here's an off-air recording made by the British Army in Eindhoven on 16 Nov 1944, with news read by one of the "Marys". Famous film director Roy Boulting was in the recording crew. 18/18 iwm.org.uk/collections/it…