Psychological WarfareLinebarger, Paul Myron Anthony
History
Psychological Warfare
Linebarger, Paul Myron Anthony
Psychological warfare
=Other Action Leaflets.= In World War II there were ample opportunities
to surrender on most fronts. In subsequent conflicts, however, it is
quite possible that surrendering will be physically unfeasible, because
the surrenderee will have no one at hand to whom to surrender (see
below, pages 248-250). Recourse may then be had to a type of leaflet
only occasionally used in World War II--the leaflet which calls on enemy
troops to perform some action other than surrender. The commonest of
these is desertion--when it is known that enemy forces are being held in
a dangerous spot by their own command, and when there is a fair
probability that heavy artillery or air attack can be concentrated on
the area which has been strewn with leaflets. (A bluff normally fails,
and moreover discredits later operations of the same kind, whereas a
successful and fulfilled threat builds up cumulative credibility among
the enemy audience.) When long range weapons are used, it may be
possible to address troops by leaflet before the attack, suggesting that
they remove themselves, as individuals, to places of safety; such an
operation would assist enemy disorganization. The author knows of no
case where the Germans did this with their V-l or V-2 bombs, but figure
3 applied to both civilians and troops in the cities marked for
destruction by incendiary B-29 raids.
Black action appeals may teach the enemy troops how to malinger, may
present political or ethnic arguments to troops known to be members of
minorities or satellite nationalities (for example, Poles in Nazi
service), with the intent that these mutiny, or may--at the very end of
a war--call upon enemy troops as units to cease resistance and to await
a later opportunity for organized surrender.
=Loudspeaker Units.= The use of the amplified human voice developed
slowly in World War II. Improvised units were set up in North Africa,
in the Italian landings, at Anzio, and in the Normandy operations. At
times these talked over valuable groups of enemy prisoners, but their
range did not go beyond two hundred yards, which sharply limited their
utility. The Navy was simultaneously experimenting with Polly Planes in
the Pacific, which flew at considerable altitudes over islands and
talked to the Japanese troops on the ground.
[Illustration: _Figure 69: Improved Surrender Leaflet._ The new leaflet
which did bring the Japanese in was better phrased. It did not mention
the nasty word, _surrender_, but said, "I Cease Resistance." It also
showed the Japanese how to carry the leaflet so as to persuade the
triggery Americans that he was not holding a hand grenade behind it. The
back of the leaflet, instead of being left blank, showed happy Japanese
prisoners enjoying American captivity, their faces left identifiable as
Japanese but blanked out enough to head off individual identification.
Compare this with figure 4, the Passierschein we used on the Germans.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account