Difference between revisions of "Political Warfare Executive"

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During World War II, the '''Political Warfare Executive''' (PWE) was a British clandestine body created to produce and disseminate both white and black propaganda, with the aim of damaging enemy morale and sustaining the morale of the Occupied countries.
 
During World War II, the '''Political Warfare Executive''' (PWE) was a British clandestine body created to produce and disseminate both white and black propaganda, with the aim of damaging enemy morale and sustaining the morale of the Occupied countries.
  
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==People==
 
==People==
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*[[Robert Bruce Lockhart]] - Director General, 20 March 1942<ref name="Garnett124">David Garnett, The Secret History of PWE: The Political Warfare Executive 1939-1945, St Ermin's Press, 2002, p.124.</ref>-.
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*[[Richard Crossman]] - Regional Director for Germany, circa 23 September 1941<ref name="Garnett86">David Garnett, The Secret History of PWE: The Political Warfare Executive 1939-1945, St Ermin's Press, 2002, p.86.</ref>-.
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*Colonel Sutton - Regional Director for France, circa 23 September 1941<ref name="Garnett86"/>-.
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*Mr Barman - Regional Director for Scandinavia, circa 23 September 1941<ref name="Garnett86"/>-.
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*[[Terence Harman]] - Regional Director for the Low Countries, circa 23 September 1941<ref name="Garnett86"/>-.
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*[[Ralph Murray]] - Regional Director for the Balkans, circa 23 September 1941<ref name="Garnett86"/>-.
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*Colonel [[H.R.G. Stevens]] - Regional Director for Italy, 1 December 1941<ref name="Garnett87">David Garnett, The Secret History of PWE: The Political Warfare Executive 1939-1945, St Ermin's Press, 2002, p.87.</ref>-.
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*[[Moray McClaren]] - Regional Director for Poland and Czechoslovakia, 21 February 1942<ref name="Garnett87"/>-.
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*[[Ritchie Calder]] - Director General for Plans and Campaigns, 20 August 1942<ref name="Garnett125">David Garnett, The Secret History of PWE: The Political Warfare Executive 1939-1945, St Ermin's Press, 2002, p.125.</ref>-.
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*[[David Stephens]]<ref name="Garnett125"/>
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*[[David Garnett]]<ref name="Garnett125"/>
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*[[Sefton Delmer]] - Director of Special Operations, 2 June 1944<ref name="Garnett127">David Garnett, The Secret History of PWE: The Political Warfare Executive 1939-1945, St Ermin's Press, 2002, p.127.</ref>-.
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*Brigadier [[Eric Sach (PWE)|Eric Sachs]] - Director of Political Warfare Intelligence, 30 November 1942.<ref name="Garnett129">David Garnett, The Secret History of PWE: The Political Warfare Executive 1939-1945, St Ermin's Press, 2002, p.129.</ref>-.
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*[[Leonard Ingrams]]<ref name="Garnett"130">David Garnett, The Secret History of PWE: The Political Warfare Executive 1939-1945, St Ermin's Press, 2002, p.130.</ref>
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*[[Rex Leeper]]<ref name="Garnett86">David Garnett, The Secret History of PWE: The Political Warfare Executive 1939-1945, St Ermin's Press, 2002, p.131.</ref>
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*[[David Bowes-Lyon]]<ref name="Garnett135">David Garnett, The Secret History of PWE: The Political Warfare Executive 1939-1945, St Ermin's Press, 2002, p.135.</ref>
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*[[Walter Adams]]<ref name="Garnett136">David Garnett, The Secret History of PWE: The Political Warfare Executive 1939-1945, St Ermin's Press, 2002, p.136.</ref>
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*[[Elizabeth Wiskemann]]<ref name="Garnett142">David Garnett, The Secret History of PWE: The Political Warfare Executive 1939-1945, St Ermin's Press, 2002, p.142.</ref>
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*[[Gordon Vereker]]<ref name="Garnett145">David Garnett, The Secret History of PWE: The Political Warfare Executive 1939-1945, St Ermin's Press, 2002, p.145.</ref>
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*Col. [[F.W.C. Morgans]]<ref name="Garnett152">David Garnett, The Secret History of PWE: The Political Warfare Executive 1939-1945, St Ermin's Press, 2002, p.152.</ref>
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*[[P.C. Vellacott]]<ref name="Garnett154">David Garnett, The Secret History of PWE: The Political Warfare Executive 1939-1945, St Ermin's Press, 2002, p.154.</ref>
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*[[Harold Keeble]]<ref name="Garnett186">David Garnett, The Secret History of PWE: The Political Warfare Executive 1939-1945, St Ermin's Press, 2002, p.186.</ref>
 
*[[John Baker White]], Director General of the [[Economic League]], promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1942 when he joined the [[Political Intelligence Department]]
 
*[[John Baker White]], Director General of the [[Economic League]], promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1942 when he joined the [[Political Intelligence Department]]
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==Bibliography ==
 
==Bibliography ==
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*[[Office of Strategic Services]]
 
*[[Office of Strategic Services]]
  
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==External links==
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==External links, Notes==
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===External links===
 
*[http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/oss/oss.htm OSS - The Psychology of War]: Over 2000 images of OSS documents show an unknown side of World War II, revealing many programs not written about in any history books.
 
*[http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/oss/oss.htm OSS - The Psychology of War]: Over 2000 images of OSS documents show an unknown side of World War II, revealing many programs not written about in any history books.
 
* [http://www.psywar.org PsyWar.Org - Black Propaganda and propaganda leaflets database]: A website with various articles on black propaganda and psychological warfare. The site has an extensive library of propaganda leaflets from WWI to the present day.
 
* [http://www.psywar.org PsyWar.Org - Black Propaganda and propaganda leaflets database]: A website with various articles on black propaganda and psychological warfare. The site has an extensive library of propaganda leaflets from WWI to the present day.
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*[http://clutch.open.ac.uk/schools/emerson00/pwe_main.html CLUTCH PWE website]
 
*[http://clutch.open.ac.uk/schools/emerson00/pwe_main.html CLUTCH PWE website]
 
*[http://www.seftondelmer.co.uk/ Sefton Delmer Black Propaganda Website]
 
*[http://www.seftondelmer.co.uk/ Sefton Delmer Black Propaganda Website]
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===Notes===
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<references/>
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[[category:Spooks]]
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[[Category:British Propaganda]]
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[[Category:Propaganda]]
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[[Category:PWE]]

Latest revision as of 16:14, 10 March 2015

Microphones-2-.jpg This article is part of the Propaganda Portal project of Spinwatch.

During World War II, the Political Warfare Executive (PWE) was a British clandestine body created to produce and disseminate both white and black propaganda, with the aim of damaging enemy morale and sustaining the morale of the Occupied countries.

The Executive was formed in August 1941, reporting to the Foreign Office. The organisation was governed by a committee initially comprising Anthony Eden (Foreign Secretary), Brendan Bracken (Minister of Information) and Hugh Dalton (Minister of Economic Warfare), together with officials Rex Leeper, Dallas Brooks and Robert Bruce Lockhart as chairman (and later Director General). Roundell Palmer (the future 3rd Earl of Selbourne) later replaced Dalton when he was moved to become President of the Board of Trade. Ivone Kirkpatrick, an advisor to the BBC and formerly a diplomat in Berlin, also joined the committee, while Leeper left to become British Ambassador to Greece.

PWE included staff from the Ministry of Information, the propaganda elements of the Special Operations Executive, and from the BBC. Its main headquarters was at Woburn Abbey with London offices at the BBC's Bush House. As the Political Warfare Executive was a secret department when dealing with the outside world PWE used the covername Political Intelligence Department (PID).

The main forms of propaganda were in the form of radio broadcasts and printed postcards, leaflets and documents. PWE created a number of clandestine radio stations including Gustav Siegfried Eins, Soldatensender Calais and Kurzwellesender Atlantik. In order to deliver its subversive messages, PWE also disseminated reliable news and information on events in Germany and the occupied countries, gathering intelligence from other services and agencies, including POW interrogations, and newspapers obtained from occupied countries, and bombing raid photo analysis. This latter source was used to broadcast lists of streets (and even individual houses) that had been destroyed, and on occasion to mock up faked "real time" reports of actual raids.

After D-Day most of PWE's white propaganda staff transferred to the Psychological Warfare Division (PWD/SHAEF) of SHAEF

At the end of World War II PWE were tasked with the re-education of German Prisoners of War. As with different types of propaganda, PWE used the same 'white', 'grey', and 'black' classifications for German POWs. Prisoners classed as 'black' were considered dangerous ardent Nazis, with regular non-political soldiers classed as 'white'.

People

Bibliography

  • The Secret History of PWE - Political Warfare Executive 1939-1945, (St Ermins Press, 2002), David Garnett. ISBN 1-903608-08-2
  • The Fourth Arm - Psychological Warfare 1938-45, (Davis-Poynter, 1977), Charles Cruickshank. ISBN 0-7067-0212-3
  • The Black Game - British Subversive Operations Against the Germans During the Second World War, (Michael Joseph, 1982), Ellic Howe. ISBN 0-7181-1718-2

See also

External links, Notes

External links

  • OSS - The Psychology of War: Over 2000 images of OSS documents show an unknown side of World War II, revealing many programs not written about in any history books.
  • PsyWar.Org - Black Propaganda and propaganda leaflets database: A website with various articles on black propaganda and psychological warfare. The site has an extensive library of propaganda leaflets from WWI to the present day.
  • The PsyWar Society: The website for the PsyWar Society - an international organisation for psychological warfare historians and collectors of aerial propaganda leaflets.

Notes

  1. ↑ David Garnett, The Secret History of PWE: The Political Warfare Executive 1939-1945, St Ermin's Press, 2002, p.124.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 David Garnett, The Secret History of PWE: The Political Warfare Executive 1939-1945, St Ermin's Press, 2002, p.86. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "Garnett86" defined multiple times with different content
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 David Garnett, The Secret History of PWE: The Political Warfare Executive 1939-1945, St Ermin's Press, 2002, p.87.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 David Garnett, The Secret History of PWE: The Political Warfare Executive 1939-1945, St Ermin's Press, 2002, p.125.
  5. ↑ David Garnett, The Secret History of PWE: The Political Warfare Executive 1939-1945, St Ermin's Press, 2002, p.127.
  6. ↑ David Garnett, The Secret History of PWE: The Political Warfare Executive 1939-1945, St Ermin's Press, 2002, p.129.
  7. ↑ David Garnett, The Secret History of PWE: The Political Warfare Executive 1939-1945, St Ermin's Press, 2002, p.130.
  8. ↑ David Garnett, The Secret History of PWE: The Political Warfare Executive 1939-1945, St Ermin's Press, 2002, p.135.
  9. ↑ David Garnett, The Secret History of PWE: The Political Warfare Executive 1939-1945, St Ermin's Press, 2002, p.136.
  10. ↑ David Garnett, The Secret History of PWE: The Political Warfare Executive 1939-1945, St Ermin's Press, 2002, p.142.
  11. ↑ David Garnett, The Secret History of PWE: The Political Warfare Executive 1939-1945, St Ermin's Press, 2002, p.145.
  12. ↑ David Garnett, The Secret History of PWE: The Political Warfare Executive 1939-1945, St Ermin's Press, 2002, p.152.
  13. ↑ David Garnett, The Secret History of PWE: The Political Warfare Executive 1939-1945, St Ermin's Press, 2002, p.154.
  14. ↑ David Garnett, The Secret History of PWE: The Political Warfare Executive 1939-1945, St Ermin's Press, 2002, p.186.
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