Editing Sefton Delmer (section)

==Wartime==

Delmer returned to Britain and worked for a time as an announcer for the [[BBC German Service|German Service]] of the [[BBC]]. After Hitler broadcast a speech from the [[Reichstag (building)|''Reichstag'']] offering peace terms, Delmer responded immediately, stating that the British hurl the terms "right back at you, in your evil-smelling teeth".<ref>{{Cite book |title=Black Boomerang |last=Delmer |first=Sefton |publisher=Viking |year=1962 |oclc= 377705 |location=New York |page=11}}</ref> When, in 1945, Delmer learnt that he had been placed on Germany's ''[[The Black Book (list)|Special Search List]]'' for arrest after the invasion of Britain, he concluded that it was this broadcast that had put him there.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Trow |first1=M. J. |author1-link=M. J. Trow |title=The black book: what if Germany had won World War II: a chilling glimpse into the Nazi plans for Great Britain |date=2017 |publisher=[[John Blake (English journalist)|John Blake Publishing]] |location=London |isbn=9781786065155 |chapter=Introduction}}</ref> Delmer's instant (but unauthorised) rejection had a great impact on Germany, where [[Joseph Goebbels]] concluded it had to have come from the government.<ref>[[Michael Balfour (historian)|Balfour, Michael]]. ''Propaganda in War 1939–1945: Organisation, Policies and Publics in Britain and Germany'', [[Routledge & Kegan Paul]] pp. 195–196.</ref> The forthright reaction caused consternation in Berlin, where it was assumed that it could not have been made without official clearance, but the lack of authorisation was later condemned in a House of Commons debate, with [[Richard Stokes (politician)|Richard Stokes]], M.P., deploring that the response had been made without the authority of parliament.<ref>{{cite web |title=House Of Commons Tuesday, 15th October, 1940 |url=https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/1940-10-15/debates/abe62195-22af-4f2d-a229-33301a7677e9/CommonsChamber |website=UK Parliament |publisher=[[Hansard]] |access-date=10 April 2024}}</ref><ref>Delmer (1962) pp. 11–12</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Briggs |first1=Asa |author1-link=Asa Briggs |title=The history of broadcasting in the United Kingdom |date=1970 |publisher=Oxford University Press |oclc=468509302 |page=230|volume=3}}</ref>

Delmer considered that British wartime attempts to counter German propaganda were misguided, with broadcasts aimed at anti-Nazis who did not need convincing, in what today we call an [[Echo chamber (media)|echo chamber]] of like-minded people. When he was in a position to do so, he broadcast posing as a fanatical Nazi who was critical of the Nazi leadership, using salacious material about officials' [[sadomasochistic]] orgies, luring in listeners and breaking taboos about insulting Nazi officials. About 40% of German soldiers listened to Delmer's stations; they were among the top three in Munich, and very effective.<ref name=pomerantsev>{{cite news| last=Pomerantsev | first=Peter | title=The man who tricked Nazi Germany: lessons from the past on how to beat disinformation |newspaper=The Guardian | date=2 March 2024 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/mar/02/the-man-who-tricked-nazi-germany-lessons-from-the-past-on-how-to-beat-disinformation}}</ref>

===Radio stations===

[[File:Crowborough-aerials-1024x872.jpg|thumb|The [[Aspidistra (transmitter)|Aspidistra transmitter]], Sussex, used for Delmer's ''Atlantiksender'' propaganda broadcasts]]

In September 1940, Delmer was recruited by the [[Political Warfare Executive]] (PWE) to organise [[black propaganda]] broadcasts to Nazi Germany as part of a [[psychological warfare]] campaign.<ref>Twigge, Stephen & Edward Hampshire, & Graham Macklin. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=35MVAQAAIAAJ British Intelligence]'', ([[National Archives]], 2008), pp.&nbsp;72–73.</ref> Leonard Ingrams of the PWE gained clearance for Delmer to work for the Political Intelligence Department of the [[Foreign Office]]. The operation joined a number of other "research units" operating propaganda broadcasts, based at [[Wavendon#Wavendon Tower|Wavendon Tower]] (now in [[Milton Keynes]]), but in Spring 1941, Delmer was given his own base, a former private house in nearby [[Aspley Guise]].<ref>Delmer (1962) p. 37</ref><ref name=EH>{{cite web |title=Political Warfare Executive Studio, Milton Bryan |url=https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=1401210&resourceID=5 |publisher=[[English Heritage]] |access-date=29 March 2023}}</ref> 

The concept was that the radio station would undermine Hitler by pretending to be a fervent Hitler-Nazi supporter. Under Delmer's leadership a number of notable people played a part: [[Muriel Spark]],<ref name="Smith">{{cite web |last1=Smith |first1=James |title=The Political Warfare Executive – what's in a (cover) name? |url=https://sites.durham.ac.uk/writersandpropaganda/2018/11/12/whats-in-a-cover-name/ |website=The Political Warfare Executive, Covert Propaganda, and British Culture |publisher=Durham University |access-date=1 January 2021 |date=12 November 2018}}</ref> [[Ellic Howe]],<ref name="clutch">{{cite web |title=PWE Ellic Howe |url=http://clutch.open.ac.uk/schools/emerson00/pwe_page11.html |website=clutch.open.ac.uk |publisher=CLUTCH Club |access-date=1 January 2021}}</ref> and Delmer's college friend, the cartoonist [[Osbert Lancaster]]. Some of Lancaster's ''[[Daily Express]]'' cartoons were reprinted into booklets aimed at civilians under German occupation and dropped by the [[Royal Air Force|RAF]].<ref name="Woodward">{{cite web |last1=Woodward |first1=Guy |title=Cartoons and propaganda: Osbert Lancaster at the PWE |url=https://sites.durham.ac.uk/writersandpropaganda/2020/01/28/cartoons-and-propaganda-osbert-lancaster-at-the-pwe/ |website=The Political Warfare Executive, Covert Propaganda, and British Culture |publisher=[[Durham University]] |access-date=1 January 2021 |date=28 January 2020}}</ref>

Delmer's first, most notable success was a shortwave station: ''[[Gustav Siegfried Eins]]'' (Gustave Siegfried One), G3 in the Research units. It was "run" by the character "Der Chef", an unrepentant Nazi, who disparaged both [[Winston Churchill]] ("that flatfooted son of a drunken Jew") and the "Parteikommune", the "Party Commune" supporters who betrayed the Nazi revolution. The station name, "Gustav Siegfried Eins" (phonetic alphabet for "GS1") left a question in listeners' minds – did it mean ''Geheimsender 1'': (Secret Transmitter 1) or ''Generalstab 1'' (General Staff 1)? 

''GS1'' went on the air on the evening of 23 May 1941 — earlier than intended, to exploit the capture of Hitler's deputy, [[Rudolf Hess]], in Britain. {{ill|Peter Seckelmann|de}},  a former German writer of detective stories who had fled Nazi Germany, was recruited from a [[Royal Pioneer Corps|Pioneer Corps]] bomb-disposal squad in London and he was the first member of the team to arrive at the discreet house known as "The Rookery" in Aspley Guise.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Howe |first1=Ellic |author1-link=Ellic Howe |title=The black game: British subversive operations against the Germans during the Second World War |date=1982 |publisher=[[ Michael Joseph (publisher)|Michael Joseph]] |location=London |isbn=9780718117184 |page=110}}</ref> He played "Der Chef". (In Delmer's [[autobiography]] ''Black Boomerang'' he acknowledges that "Some of the names of persons mentioned in this book have  been camouflaged [ … ]" and Seckelmann was there named "Paul Sanders". ) A journalist, {{ill|Frank Lynder|de}}, using the name "Johannes Reinholz", arrived soon after and played the adjutant to "Der Chef".<ref>Delmer 1962, page 1</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Lloyd |first1=Mark |title=The art of military deception |date=2003 |publisher=Pen & Sword |location=Barnsley |isbn=9781844680108|chapter=Second World War deceptions}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hirschfeld |first1=Gerhard |author1-link=Gerhard Hirschfeld |title=Exile in Great Britain: Refugees from Hitler's Germany |date=1984 |publisher=Berg |location=Leamington Spa, Warwickshire |isbn=9780907582212 |page=149}}</ref> Both men assisted Delmer with the scripts.<ref>Delmer (1962) pp 36–38, 44</ref> The recordings were made on disc and taken by courier for transmission from a Foreign Office transmitter at nearby [[Gawcott#Signal Hill|Signal Hill, Gawcott]].<ref name=EH/>

When Sir [[Stafford Cripps]] discovered what Delmer was involved with (through the intervention of [[Richard Crossman]], who had sent him a transcript from the broadcast of one of Delmer's more salacious inventions), Cripps wrote to [[Anthony Eden]], then [[Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs|Foreign Secretary]]: "If this is the sort of thing that is needed to win the war, why, I'd rather lose it."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.psywar.org/cripps|title= Sir Stafford Cripps and the German Admiral's Orgy|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070117221303/http://www.psywar.org/cripps |archivedate=17 January 2007|author=Lee Richards|website=PsyWar.Org|year=2007}}</ref> Delmer was defended by [[Robert Bruce Lockhart]], who pointed out the need to reach the sadist in the German nature. GS1 ran for 700 broadcasts before Delmer killed it off in late 1943 with gunfire heard over the radio intimating that the authorities had caught up with "Der Chef". Owing to an error by a non-German-speaking transmitter engineer, the programme was accidentally repeated and "Der Chef's" dramatic on-air murder was broadcast twice.<ref>Delmer (1962) p. 80</ref>

Delmer created several stations and was successful through a careful use of intelligence using gossip intercepted in German mail to neutral countries to create credible stories. Delmer's credit within the intelligence agencies was such that the [[British Admiralty|Admiralty]] sought him out to target German submarine crews with demoralising news bulletins. For this, Delmer had access to [[Aspidistra (transmitter)|Aspidistra]], a 500&nbsp;kW radio transmitter obtained from [[RCA]] in the US (their largest off-the-shelf-model), which Section VIII bought for £165,000. Use of Aspidistra, which began in 1942, was split between PWE, the [[British Broadcasting Corporation|BBC]], and the [[Royal Air Force|RAF]]. 

Delmer's creation was ''[[Deutscher Kurzwellensender Atlantik]]'' (or popularly ''Atlantiksender''). This station used US [[jazz]] ([[Art in Nazi Germany|banned within Germany]] as decadent) and up-to-date dance music from Germany (extracted via Sweden and RAF courier), as well as an in-house German dance band. Important details on naval procedures came from anti-Nazis identified in [[POW]] camps, whose mail was sifted to create personalised announcements. The presenter ("Vicki") was [[Agnes Bernelle]], a refugee of part-Jewish origin from Berlin.<ref>{{cite news |last1=David |first1=Alexander |title=Obituary: Agnes Bernelle |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-agnes-bernelle-1081116.html |access-date=25 August 2023 |work=[[The Independent]] |date=17 March 1999 |language=en}}</ref>

''Christ the King'' (G.8) broadcast an attack on the conscience of religious Germans, telling of the horrors of the labour and concentration camps, through a German priest.<ref>Delmer (1962) pp. 139–141</ref>

===Soldatensender Calais===

[[File:Sefton Delmer's WW2 'black propaganda' radio studio at Milton Bryan.JPG|thumb|Purpose-built radio studio at Milton Bryan for "Soldatensender Calais"]]''[[Soldatensender Calais]]'' ("[[Calais]] Armed Forces Radio Station") was another clandestine radio station Delmer directed at the German armed forces. Based in [[Milton Bryan]] and connected by high-quality telephone lines for transmission from the [[Aspidistra (transmitter)|Aspidistra transmitter]] at [[Crowborough]],<ref>{{cite web |title=P. W. E. Milton Bryan |url=https://clutch.open.ac.uk/schools/emerson00/milton%20bryan_1.html#:~:text=Milton%20Bryan%20Propaganda%20Station%2C%20built,of%20a%20modern%20transmitting%20station. |website=kmi.open.ac.uk |publisher=[[Open University]] |location=[[Milton Keynes]]}}</ref> ''Soldatensender Calais'' produced [[Live radio|live]] broadcasts, a combination of popular music, "cover" support of the war, and "dirt" – items inserted to demoralise German forces. Delmer's black propaganda sought to propagate rumours that German soldiers' wives were sleeping with the many foreign workers in Germany at the time. Bernelle, again, was presenter.

The station also proved to be popular on the German home front.<ref>Rankin (2008) p. 310</ref> While the station was in the format of a German military station, it did not pose as an actual Nazi station; but although listeners knew the station was run by the British, they listened to and trusted it, and could use the excuse that they thought it was a legitimate German station if caught listening to it.<ref name=pomerantsev/> 

Delmer also oversaw the production of a daily "grey" German-language newspaper titled ''Nachrichten für die Truppe'' ("News for the Troops"), which first appeared in May 1944, much of its text being based on the ''Soldatensender Calais'' broadcasts. ''Nachrichten für die Truppe'' was written by a team provided to Delmer by [[SHAEF]], and disseminated over Germany, Belgium and France each morning by the [[Special Leaflet Squadron]] of the US [[Eighth Air Force]].<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=|editor1-first=|title=The Psychological Warfare Division Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force: an Account of its Operations in the Western European Campaign 1944–1945 |date=1945 |publisher=[[Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force|SHAEF]] |location=Bad Homburg, Germany |oclc=2511848 |page=170 |edition=2008}}</ref>

When [[Siegfried Line#Clashes|fighting entered Germany]] itself, black propaganda was used to create an impression of an anti-Nazi resistance movement.

At the end of the war in Europe, Delmer advised his colleagues not to publicise the work they had been involved in, lest unrepentant Nazis claim (as had been the case after the [[First World War]]), that they had been defeated by unconscionable methods, rather than on the battlefield.<ref>Rankin (2008) pp. 588–9</ref> Consequently, former Nazis were able to claim, without contradiction, that they had assisted the fictitious resistance movement; Delmer described this [[unintended consequence]] as a "black boomerang".<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Lee |editor1-first=Loyd E. |title=World War II in Asia and the Pacific and the war's aftermath, with general themes : a handbook of literature and research |date=1998 |publisher=Greenwood Press |location=Westport, Conn. |isbn=9780313293269 |chapter=War in Science, Technology, Propaganda}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Plock |first1=Vike Martina |title=The BBC German Service during the Second World War : broadcasting to the enemy |date=2021 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=Cham, Switzerland |isbn=978-3-030-74091-7 |page=186}}</ref>

In December 1945, Delmer was appointed an Officer of the [[Order of the British Empire|Order of the British Empire (OBE)]], with the citation specifying merely that he was "Controller of a Division, Foreign Office".<ref>{{cite news |title=Additional Officers of the Civil Division |work=[[The London Gazette]] |issue=37412 |date=9 January 1946 |page=277}}</ref>