World War: War of Flying Words

If words were shells and epithets bombs, the Armies of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin would both be in smithereens. Not only is the Russian-German war the first contest between comparably mechanized armies; it is the first battle between comparably imaginative propagandas.

Paper Ammunition. A Russian Army communique told how an observer spotted three Germans crawling on their bellies toward a Russian barbed-wire entanglement. The Russian commander ordered his men to hold fire, be alert. One of the Germans reached the entanglement and pinned to the barbed wire a sheet of paper, then turned back. The Russians ran out and read the inscription. According to the communique, it said in German: “Down with bloodthirsty Hitler!”

Canvas Tanks. An official Russian statement said that a leader of scouts, Junior Lieut. Sobchenko, while looking at a column of tanks through field glasses, “noticed that the body of one of the tanks unexpectedly gave in under the pressure of the elbow of an officer who leaned against it. Careful observation revealed that of 20 tanks constituting the column, only one was a genuine tank. The others were wooden structures covered with canvas and mounted on caterpillars. Only the real tank that led the column could fire shells, the others conducted only machine-gun fire.”

When night fell, said the communique, the column was destroyed. German official comment: “Fairy tales.”

Joe’s Pride. German forces proudly let it be known that they had captured a mammoth 120-ton tank bearing the name PRIDE OF STALIN. The trouble with Comrade Stalin’s pride was said to be that it could go only six miles an hour.

Adolf’s Pride. The Germans cabled to the U.S. a picture which they said showed some Nazi shock troops proudly holding a Russian battle flag which they had captured in bitter fighting. Anyone who could read Russian could see that the flag was a Boy Scout pennant. Its inscription: Be Prepared—Be Prepared.

Fair Stratagem. Telephone Operator Borissova in “Town N” was said by the Russians to have plugged in a call from a stranger in a phone booth. The stranger asked the location of some “communication enterprises.” She said: “One moment please; I’ll look up the information.” She called the militia, who went to the booth, found a Nazi parachutist.

Unfair Stratagems. The German press complained bitterly that the Russians were “unfair.” They would lie about a field as if dead, and when the Germans had passed by would rise up and shoot from behind. Or else they would wave a white flag, indicating surrender; but when the Germans moved unsuspectingly closer, would open fire.

Workers in Action. As Soviet communiques boasted about how Russian workers were straining themselves, a German-language broadcast on the Moscow radio said: “German workers: You are being forced to work in the factories at a terrible speed. . . . Work more slowly, so that Hitler’s end will be quicker.

“Defense workers: Every dud which leaves a munitions factory is a shot against Hitler. Do your best to see that there are among you many manufacturers of duds.”

General in Action. The Nazis told a few ignominious stories on themselves. Said a war reporter on the Berlin radio: “Every one of our tanks had been shot to pieces. . . . We had to crawl away on our stomachs and our general wriggled back just as we did. He threw away his mackintosh so as to be able to wriggle more quickly. After a few hundred yards we got up just in time to see the Russians leaving their hiding place and charging towards us. Fortunately we had a good start and, running as fast as we could, we and the general just managed to jump into a lorry which took us back to our base.”

Wish You Were Here. Soviet Vice Commissar of Foreign Affairs Solomon Abramovich Lozovsky, who, with his windswept whiskers, eyebrows and mustache, and with his record of having escaped from jail more often than any other living Communist, is the most colorful figure to emerge during the campaign, uttered the most colorful prophecy: “Hitler will leave the Soviet Union faster than he entered and, unlike Napoleon, he will see the Kremlin only on picture post cards.”