The air waves over Continental Europe, the British Isles and Iceland these days are pulsing with the virtually incessant beat of Morse code for the letter "V," with the opening notes of Beethoven's fifth symphony—three short ones and one long one, signifying the musical equivalent of the telegraphic letter and with propaganda broadcasts in twenty-five languages and patois, The reason for this unique radio' activity is that Britain has launched a war within a war with the slogan "V for Victory." Everywhere throughout Germany, throughout the countries she has overrun, throughout Italy and throughout such neutral territories as Sweden and Portugal, Britain's "V" war has been raging with fierce intensity ever since it was formally launched recently by a man whom the British public knows nothing about, a man who calls himself "Colonel Britton."
The immediate purposes of this strange "V" campaign are several One is to solidify anti-Nazi sentiment among millions of men, women and children. They are being urged to spread the cult of "V for Victory," to look on the letter "V" as a symbol representing their ultimate freedom from Nazi domination.
They are being told to spread the lette, by word of mouth, by written signs on public buildings, in streets and on vehicles and to submit it by Morse code, either sung to the tune of the famous opening notes of Beethoven's symphony or by tapping it out with the fingers on doors, in shops and in public conveyances. This "V" campaign is also intended to be a steadily growing source of annoyance to the Germans, and in some quarters here it is felt that in the long run it may weaken German moral.
The "V" war is spreading rapidly, according to reports reaching London through newspapers published in neutral countries and through other sources, and to spread it further Colonel Britton is supervising "V" propaganda broadcasts over the British Broadcasting Corporation. How much it has solidified the union of hate against the Germans thus far has not been accurately determined. But British officials have high hopes for the success of this campaign and they advance one argument on which they base these hopes.
German propaganda officials, it is pointed out, were quick to realize the implications of this "V" war. To counteract its effect the Nazis adopted the letter as their own war slogan despite the fact that their dictionaries do not contain any word beginning with the letter "V" that stands for "victory. But they did not let that deter them. They looked up the Latin word for victory, gave it the German spelling "Viktoria" and sent out word that Germans and German sympa-thiers were at liberty to use the "V" in public places as representing German victory.
Thus the "V" war is now being fought strenuously on both sides by radio, and it remains to be seen whether European masses will be convinced that the letter ^V" stands for an Allied victory over the Germans or for a Nazi victory over the Allies. The British claim that the advantage in this new war is on their side because their "V" programmes are being broadcast to people in occupied countries, who have every reason to hate their present masters, while the German propaganda seeds fall on unfertile ground.
According to various reports, reaching London through devious sources, curious incidents are taking place in this tV" war. The British have one story that after German propagandists had sent out he announcement that the letter "V" stoód for German victory, one Gauleiter in Norway failed to receive the instructions from Berlin. The next day he overheard some Norwegians using the letter and, taking it for granted that they were up to subversive activities, arrested them. Subsequently word came that it was permissible to display either by chalked signs on street cars or by holding up the second and third fingers in a V form when friends met friends, and the culprits, who, according to the British version of the story, were actually using the letter in its ins lish meaning, had to be released.
In this connection the British assert that their "V" campaign is being used by European civilians in" the presence of German soldiers, policemen and others, much to the annoyance of the Nazis. In numerous cases, they suspect, the "V's" are being used in the pro-British and pro-Allied sense and not in the German sense, but they can do nothing about it since Berlin had decreed that the letter means "Viktoria." This has given rise to some speculation as to whether a recent broadcast over the Hilversum station that opened with Beethoven's symphony was intended as an expression of pro-nazism or directly the opposite.
BBC officials disclaim any connection with the direction of the "V" war beyond permitting their facilities to be used for the polyglot broadcasts that have been going on without pause since the new war was formally declared recently. Colonel Britton is the directing head—a sort of general chief—of this war on the Allied side and no one is permitted to interview him or photograph As to the broadcasts, which, incidentally, begin with the Morse Code letter "V" as a time signal, they take place as many as fifteen times daily and many of them run simultaneously. So it is computed that the total programme daily amount to 25 hours 35 minutes.
BBC foreign-language broadcasters are constantly on the job and the tongues they speak include Czech, Dutch, English, Flemish, French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Luxembourg, patois, Magyar, Polish. Slovak. Albanian, Bulgarian, Danish, Finnish, Greek, Norwegian, Portuguese, Rumanian.' Serbo-Croat, Slovene, Spanish and Swedish. The programmes include—besides exhortations to keep using the letter "V" in various ways—music and speeches, At present the British are broadcasting in German a song designed to make German soldiers on various fronts feel homesick ani get "fed up" with fighting far from their native towns. It was a German newspaper reaching this country that gave British propagandists the idea for the song. In zn obscure paragraph appeared a four-line stanza written by a nostalgic German soldier. The English translation is given as:
We are on the move from morn till night Our wives forever lost to sight; And far from hearth and far from home We are forced through distant lands to roam.
Taking up the nostalgia theme, some one composed two stanzas and set the words te music, using the anonymous German soldier's words as the chorus, Little information is available about Colonel Britton except that -he is an Englishman and speaks several languages, Where he makes his broadcasts in the "V" war is a closely guarded secret "for reasons of security" Whether he is a British Government official or whether he is closely connected with the BBC no one will say.
The "V" war has captured the imagination of the British public, but some persons are not at all satisfied with the manner in which the people have already taken to the widespread use of that letter. These persons argue that the "V" is not needed here as a symbol for British victory and that it should. be a battle cry only for the peoples of oppressed European countries.
But whether they like it or not, the "V" is visible everywhere in advertisements and newspapers cartoons, on theatre placards and even in designs of pastry on display in bakery shop windows.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.