The army behind the armyPowell, E. Alexander (Edward Alexander)
History
The army behind the army
Powell, E. Alexander (Edward Alexander)
United States. Army; World War, 1914-1918 -- United States
has an opportunity to delve into the files of the German Intelligence
Bureau, however, I imagine that he will find ample evidence that the
showers of leaflets falling from the blue played no inconsiderable part
in the collapse of the German war-machine. But, whatever the results of
our efforts in this direction, as revealed by the light of history, the
American people can be assured that never was a campaign of propaganda
waged with such scrupulous regard for the truth. Though certain of our
allies sent out material for distribution over the enemy lines which took
considerable liberties with the truth, to put it mildly, and though the
French quite frankly made use of Bolshevistic arguments, appeals, and
promises, the distribution of our own propaganda leaflets was delayed
time after time in order that the General Staff might sift and weigh the
statements which it contained until they contained nothing save sincerity
and truth.
In the weeks that followed Foch’s great offensive in the summer of 1918,
it became increasingly apparent to those who were in a position to judge,
that German morale, both in the heart of the empire as well as at the
front, was imperceptibly but none the less steadily deteriorating. No one
realized the significance of this to the Allied cause better than the
chief of the Psychologic Subsection, who determined to watch the progress
of the movement, just as a physician watches the progress of a disease,
and to indicate its trend by means of a chart, like those on which nurses
record the variations in the pulse and temperature of their patients. In
pursuance of this plan, which was put into execution about the 1st of
September, 1918, a daily report was prepared which contained in brief
form all news in any way relating to German morale which had come in from
all sources during the preceding twenty-four hours. At the end of each
week an interpretation of the drift of these news items was attempted in
a weekly report. Using as a basis for its estimates material contained
in these reports, supplemented by information obtained from every source
open to Military Intelligence, the subsection worked out its famous
“Chart of German Civilian Morale,” which, during the closing months of
the war, occupied a conspicuous place on a wall of Secretary Baker’s
office. The chart was drawn on a sheet divided into cross-sections,
each of which represented a day, while the heavy black line, writhing
across the paper like a dying serpent, showed the wavering morale of
Germany’s civil population. Secondary lines depicted in graphic form the
German military situation, the degree of political unity in Germany,
the situation in Austria-Hungary, the state of the food supply in the
Central Empires, and the U-boat sinkings. But it was, of course, the line
indicating the state of civilian morale which most accurately gauged the
situation. Starting in August, 1914 (nearly three years before our entry
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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