RFC/RAF Leaflet Drops

[PhilB]

This is an interesting piece about early psyops. Was leaflet dropping eventually agreed to be lawful and did Scholtz & Wookey slip back into obscurity?

The Allied leaflets enraged the Germans, who actually placed captured British pilots who dropped them on trial for their lives. In one very famous case, the Germans condemned two British pilots, Captain E. Scholtz and Lieutenant H.C. Wookey to prison. The two pilots were shot down and captured near Cambrai on 17 October 1917. They were charged with "the distribution in September 1917 of pamphlets detrimental to German troops." They were tried, found guilty of treason, and sentenced to 10 years at hard labor. The British government threatened severe reprisals against German officers, so in April 1918 the pilots were pardoned by the Kaiser and sent to a regular POW camp at Karlsruhe. According to Blankenhorn, the Americans, "fully aware of the enemy threats, made it a point to fly defiantly low as possible and drop their leaflets directly on German positions." This so embarrassed the British that they returned to the airplane for leaflet drops in the last weeks of the war. He also states that some British pilots burned the leaflets in their hangars to avoid carrying them over enemy lines.

Dr. Philip M. Taylor, author of "Munitions of the Mind - A History of Propaganda from Ancient World to the Present Day," Manchester University Press, Manchester and New York, 1995, discusses the legal issue in more depth:

For most of 1918 , the principal method of distributing enemy propaganda was leaflets not airplane. This was because at the end of the 1917, four captured British airmen were tried by a German court martial for ‘having distributed pamphlets containing insults against the German army and Government among German troops in the Western Theatre of War.’ Although two of the accused were acquitted due to lack of evidence, and although the court itself questioned the ruling about whether this act was a violation of international law, two officers were sentenced to ten years imprisonment. When news of this punishment reached the war office in January 1918, all leaflet dropping by airplane was suspended. Reprisals were threatened, resulting in the pardoning of the two British officers, who were returned to their camps and treated as normal prisoners of war. But the Air Ministry remained reluctant to commit its men and machines to leaflet raids and the suspension order remained in force until October 1918, barely a month before the end of war.

http://www.psywarrior.com/GermanWWIPSYOP.html

[centurion]

Leaflets were first dropped in the Baltic area by unmanned hot air balloons in the latter stages of the Napoleonic Wars . They were produced by the British cooperating with Sweden and aimed at the moral of troops from the smaller German states forming part of the French forces, their morale was already pretty rocky. It seems this outraged Napoleon himself who considered it underhand ie something he hadn't thought of first.

The French dropped leaflets from balloons during the siege of Paris 1870/71

The same approach with unmanned balloons was used in WW1 by the British against the Germans

The Italians carried out leaflet drops from aircraft in WW1

There's at least one thread somewhere on the forum on leaflet dropping in WW1 which includes more details of the case quoted above.

[fetubi]

There's at least one thread somewhere on the forum on leaflet dropping in WW1 which includes more details of the case quoted above.

Centurion's right about this - and as well I would direct you to "Air Power and War Rights" by J.M. Spaight - written in 1924. As I recall this has a good section on the evolving legalities and attitudes to such drops - it's not exactly a book for bedtime reading, but it would definitely get to the reference shelf on my Desert Island simply because it is so thorough on these more legalistic and less considered aspects of air warfare.

If you want I can try and scan a bit of it in and send it to you.

Regards,

Trevor

[Terry_Reeves]

The RFC also dropped leaflets over Coventry on December 1917, to try and persuade striking engineering workers to return to work. The strike affected the output of aircraft in Coventry, which was the centre of aircraft production in the UK.

TR

[centurion]

This covers a good deal

http://www.psywarrior.com/WWIAllies.html

http://www.psywarrior.com/WWIAlliescont.html

[centurion]

The RFC also dropped leaflets over Coventry on December 1917, to try and persuade striking engineering workers to return to work. The strike affected the output of aircraft in Coventry, which was the centre of aircraft production in the UK.

TR

Leaflet drops were done over a number of British cities to publicise Tank Bank Weeks

[b_wilkin]

Hello everybody,

I recently started a research on propaganda dropping over the lines. I found documents stating that propaganda material was commonly send to RFC/RAF units. Aviators were expected to throw those leaflets during their observation/bombing missions. I even saw some papers from RFC squadron commanders stating that the job had been done (in propaganda files at the National archives). I was wondering if RFC/RAF squadrons have traces of such missions in their logs or if it was kept secret and not mentionned in registers. I didn't have time to have a look at squadron papers so I was wondering if any of you knew something about that matter (these missions were probably only attributed to biplane squadrons).

I found an interview of two pilots on an old Cross and Cockade who were shot, captured and judged for propaganda missions. (a quiet famous story since German were threatening aviators doing propaganda missions).

Thank you

Bernard

[b_wilkin]

Balloons were indeed used following the court martial trial but that was at the end of 1917 so it means that planes were used before. Since propaganda really develloped in 1916, it means that there is a whole year at least of RFC missions. Hard to find any information !

My worry is mostly to know if those missions are registered in the archives or if leaflets were sent secretly to squadrons. Anybody used to consult squadron's files ?

Cheers