World War, 1939-1945, Propaganda Collection: Air Dropped and Shelled Leaflets and Periodicals. -- 1939-1945; predominant 1942-1945. --72 cm. of textual records.

Collection consists of over 1,000 air dropped and shelled leaflets and periodicals created and disseminated during the Second World War. The majority of items in this collection were printed by the Allies then air or container dropped, or fired by artillery shell over German occupied territory. Many leaflets and periodicals have original publication codes and were printed in over 10 languages. Only shelled leaflets, Germans to Allies (115 items), are in English.
“During World War II, air dropped and shelled leaflets and periodicals were used as a means of psychological warfare, a method of demoralizing the enemy. Leaflets could accomplish this in several ways: threaten destruction of enemy area, prompt the enemy to surrender, offer rewards for downing enemy aircraft, facilitate communication, etc. The Psychological Warfare Division of the Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Forces (PWD/SHAEF) was responsible for creating the majority of the leaflets in this collection. Leaflets were delivered across Europe to enemy or occupied territory by bomber aircraft of the U.S. Strategic Air Forces, the special leaflet squadron of the Eighth Air Force based in England, and by the training planes and Bomber Command aircraft of the Royal Air Force (R.A.F.). Leaflets and periodicals were air-dropped, dropped in containers, and fired by artillery shells. By the end of the war, billions of leaflets, in over 26 languages, were printed and disseminated.” (Erdmann, J. M. [1969]. Leaflet operations in the Second World War: The story of the how and why of the 6,500,000,000 propaganda leaflets dropped on axis forces and homelands in the Mediterranean and European theaters of operations. Denver: Denver Instant Printing.)

The collection has been arranged in the following four series (click on the links below for finding aids in pdf format):

Air Dropped Leaflets
Country or geographic arrangement:
Belgium
Czechoslovakia
Denmark
Finland/USSR
France
Germany
Greece
Holland
Hungary
Italy
North Africa
Norway
Poland
Romania
Syria-Lebanon-Dakar
USSR-Germany
Vichy Occupation
Yugoslavia

Thematic arrangement:
Black Propaganda
Dropped in Containers on France and Belgium
French-British-German Various
Phoney War

Shelled Leaflets
Allies to Germany
Germany to Allies

Air Dropped Periodicals
Belgium
Channel Islands
Denmark
France
Germany
Greece
Holland
Italy
Norway
USSR – Germany

Shelled Periodicals
 Feldpost

Also included, in relation to series 1, is:
Appendix A:  List of air dropped leaflets by country and code

Title based on content of collection.
Most of the collection was acquired from Michel Brisebois in 2008 (accessions 20-2008, 25-2008 and 39-2008); a small part was acquired from Mr. Brisebois in 2007. Mr. Brisebois assembled the collection from various sources over a period of many years.
There are no access restrictions.
Finding aid is available (click on links above).
Further accruals are expected.

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