Radio Londres
Encyclopedia
Radio Londres was a radio
broadcast from 1940 to 1944 from the BBC
in London
to Nazi occupied France. It was entirely in French
and was operated by Free French Forces
who had escaped the German occupation. It served not only to counter the Nazi propaganda broadcasts of Radio Paris
and Radio Vichy, but also to appeal to the French to rise up and to send coded messages to the French Resistance
.
opened its studio to the first members of the resistance who fled France's occupation by Germany. Radio Londres was born and would become the daily appointment of the French people for four years. It opened its transmission with : "Ici Londres ! Les Français parlent aux Français..." ("This is London! The French speaking to the French..."), now a very famous quote in France. It was the voice of Free French Forces
under Charles de Gaulle
, who on 18 June 1940 made his famous Appeal of 18 June, inviting his compatriots to resist and rise against the occupation.
By means of broadcasts from Britain, the French Resistance
found a voice that could be heard on the continent, serving to counter the Nazi propaganda
broadcasts of Radio Paris
and Radio Vichy. Realizing the negative effect it had on their occupation, the Germans quickly prohibited listening to Radio Londres. Radio Londres also encouraged rising up against the occupation, including De Gaulle's calls to empty the streets of Paris for one hour, demonstrations, and the preparation of D-Day
, or the V for Victory campaign, involving drawing a V sign on walls as an act of subversion. It also sent coded messages to the French resistance (see below).
Breaking with the formal style of the French radio stations, some young announcers (Jacques Duchesne
, Jean Oberlé
, Pierre Bourdan, Maurice Schumann
and Pierre Dac
) changed the tone with personal messages, sketches, songs, jokes and comic advertising.
, an operative with the Special Operations Executive
had the idea of sending seemingly obscure personal messages to SOE agents out in France to reduce radio traffic to and from SOE agents.
Broadcasts would begin with "Before we begin, please listen to some personal messages." It was clear to nearly everyone that they were coded messages, often amusing, and completely without context. Representative messages include "Jean has a long mustache" and "There is a fire at the insurance agency," each one having some meaning to a certain resistance group. They were used primarily to provide messages to the resistance, but also to thank their agents or simply to give the enemy the impression that something was being prepared. Because of the flood of messages and the limited number of Germans available to work to decipher them, the Nazis were not able to keep up. Often by the time they were able to decipher a message, the operation ordered would have already been carried out, prompting the occupiers to focus their efforts on jamming
the messages instead.
From the beginning of June 1944, the Allies
inundated the network with messages. On June 1 alone, over 200 messages were sent, making it clear to those listening that something was in the works. Although in some places the Axis
jamming was more effective than others, the background noise and static were not enough to drown out the sound of Beethoven's 5th Symphony
, the first four notes of which correspond to the dot-dot-dot-dash of the Morse code
letter V for Victory.
Shortly before the D-Day landings of June 6, 1944, Radio Londres broadcast the first stanza
of Paul Verlaine
's poem "Chanson d'automne
" to let the resistance know that Operation Overlord
, the invasion, would begin within 24 hours.
Blessent mon cœur d'une langeur monotone ([The violins of autumn] wound my heart with a monotonous languor) was the specific call to action.
By late 1944, Allied victory in France sounded the end of Radio Londres.
« Les Français parlent aux Français » sur Chemins de mémoire Ici Londres - Les messages personnels de la BBC Radio France - Inauguration de l'Espace Radio Londres (Announcement of conversion of the spaces into a museum) Les actions de résistance. Aurélie Luneau, Radio Londres - 1940-1944 - Les voix de la liberté, éd. Librairie Académique Perrin, 2005, 349p.. ISBN 2262023875 and ISBN 978-2262023874
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
broadcast from 1940 to 1944 from the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to Nazi occupied France. It was entirely in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and was operated by Free French Forces
Free French Forces
The Free French Forces were French partisans in World War II who decided to continue fighting against the forces of the Axis powers after the surrender of France and subsequent German occupation and, in the case of Vichy France, collaboration with the Germans.-Definition:In many sources, Free...
who had escaped the German occupation. It served not only to counter the Nazi propaganda broadcasts of Radio Paris
Radio Paris
Radio Paris was a French radio broadcasting company best known for its Axis propaganda broadcasts in Vichy France during World War II.Radio Paris evolved from the first private radio station in France, called Radiola, founded by pioneering French engineer Émile Girardeau in 1922...
and Radio Vichy, but also to appeal to the French to rise up and to send coded messages to the French Resistance
French Resistance
The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...
.
Origin and purpose
In 1940, the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
opened its studio to the first members of the resistance who fled France's occupation by Germany. Radio Londres was born and would become the daily appointment of the French people for four years. It opened its transmission with : "Ici Londres ! Les Français parlent aux Français..." ("This is London! The French speaking to the French..."), now a very famous quote in France. It was the voice of Free French Forces
Free French Forces
The Free French Forces were French partisans in World War II who decided to continue fighting against the forces of the Axis powers after the surrender of France and subsequent German occupation and, in the case of Vichy France, collaboration with the Germans.-Definition:In many sources, Free...
under Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
, who on 18 June 1940 made his famous Appeal of 18 June, inviting his compatriots to resist and rise against the occupation.
By means of broadcasts from Britain, the French Resistance
French Resistance
The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...
found a voice that could be heard on the continent, serving to counter the Nazi propaganda
Nazi propaganda
Propaganda, the coordinated attempt to influence public opinion through the use of media, was skillfully used by the NSDAP in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's leadership of Germany...
broadcasts of Radio Paris
Radio Paris
Radio Paris was a French radio broadcasting company best known for its Axis propaganda broadcasts in Vichy France during World War II.Radio Paris evolved from the first private radio station in France, called Radiola, founded by pioneering French engineer Émile Girardeau in 1922...
and Radio Vichy. Realizing the negative effect it had on their occupation, the Germans quickly prohibited listening to Radio Londres. Radio Londres also encouraged rising up against the occupation, including De Gaulle's calls to empty the streets of Paris for one hour, demonstrations, and the preparation of D-Day
D-Day
D-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
, or the V for Victory campaign, involving drawing a V sign on walls as an act of subversion. It also sent coded messages to the French resistance (see below).
Breaking with the formal style of the French radio stations, some young announcers (Jacques Duchesne
Jacques Duchesne
Jacques Charles René Achille Duchesne was a French general of the 19th century. He was born at Sens on March 3, 1837. He entered Saint-Cyr in 1855, and became a Lieutenant in 1861.-Career:...
, Jean Oberlé
Jean Oberlé
Jean Oberlé was a French painter who became a member of the French Resistance.Born in Brest in 1900, he illustrated a number of contemporary books and worked for different Parisian newspapers and magazines, of which le Crapouillot was the most important.He won the Prix Blumenthal in 1934.In 1940,...
, Pierre Bourdan, Maurice Schumann
Maurice Schumann
Maurice Schumann was a French politician, journalist, writer, and hero of the Second World War who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs under Georges Pompidou in the 1960s and 1970s...
and Pierre Dac
Pierre Dac
André Isaac , better known as Pierre Dac was a French humorist and Résistance activist.He was born in Châlons-sur-Marne and died in Paris....
) changed the tone with personal messages, sketches, songs, jokes and comic advertising.
Coded messages
Georges BéguéGeorges Bégué
Georges Bégué or George P. Begue was a French engineer and agent in the Special Operations Executive.-Early life:...
, an operative with the Special Operations Executive
Special Operations Executive
The Special Operations Executive was a World War II organisation of the United Kingdom. It was officially formed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton on 22 July 1940, to conduct guerrilla warfare against the Axis powers and to instruct and aid local...
had the idea of sending seemingly obscure personal messages to SOE agents out in France to reduce radio traffic to and from SOE agents.
Broadcasts would begin with "Before we begin, please listen to some personal messages." It was clear to nearly everyone that they were coded messages, often amusing, and completely without context. Representative messages include "Jean has a long mustache" and "There is a fire at the insurance agency," each one having some meaning to a certain resistance group. They were used primarily to provide messages to the resistance, but also to thank their agents or simply to give the enemy the impression that something was being prepared. Because of the flood of messages and the limited number of Germans available to work to decipher them, the Nazis were not able to keep up. Often by the time they were able to decipher a message, the operation ordered would have already been carried out, prompting the occupiers to focus their efforts on jamming
Radio jamming
Radio jamming is the transmission of radio signals that disrupt communications by decreasing the signal to noise ratio. Unintentional jamming occurs when an operator transmits on a busy frequency without first checking whether it is in use, or without being able to hear stations using the frequency...
the messages instead.
From the beginning of June 1944, the Allies
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
inundated the network with messages. On June 1 alone, over 200 messages were sent, making it clear to those listening that something was in the works. Although in some places the Axis
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
jamming was more effective than others, the background noise and static were not enough to drown out the sound of Beethoven's 5th Symphony
Symphony No. 5 (Beethoven)
The Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67, was written by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1804–08. This symphony is one of the most popular and best-known compositions in all of classical music, and one of the most often played symphonies. It comprises four movements: an opening sonata, an andante, and a fast...
, the first four notes of which correspond to the dot-dot-dot-dash of the Morse code
Morse code
Morse code is a method of transmitting textual information as a series of on-off tones, lights, or clicks that can be directly understood by a skilled listener or observer without special equipment...
letter V for Victory.
Shortly before the D-Day landings of June 6, 1944, Radio Londres broadcast the first stanza
Stanza
In poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger poem. In modern poetry, the term is often equivalent with strophe; in popular vocal music, a stanza is typically referred to as a "verse"...
of Paul Verlaine
Paul Verlaine
Paul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.-Early life:...
's poem "Chanson d'automne
Chanson d'automne
"Chanson d'automne" is a poem by Paul Verlaine, one of the best known in the French language. It is included in Verlaine's first collection, Poèmes saturniens, published in 1866...
" to let the resistance know that Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord was the code name for the Battle of Normandy, the operation that launched the invasion of German-occupied western Europe during World War II by Allied forces. The operation commenced on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy landings...
, the invasion, would begin within 24 hours.
- Les sanglots longs
- Des violons
- De l’automne
- Blessent mon cœur
- D’une langueur
- Monotone.
Blessent mon cœur d'une langeur monotone ([The violins of autumn] wound my heart with a monotonous languor) was the specific call to action.
By late 1944, Allied victory in France sounded the end of Radio Londres.
External links
- Google Books: Radio London and Resistance in Occupied Europe: British Political Warfare
- Google Books: The Cambridge Companion to Modern French Culture By Nicholas Hewitt
- Google Books: Brassey's D-Day Encyclopedia: The Normandy Invasion A-Z. By Barrett Tillman p.52.
- Google Books: The Second World War: Ambitions to Nemesis By Bradley Lightbody p.214
« Les Français parlent aux Français » sur Chemins de mémoire Ici Londres - Les messages personnels de la BBC Radio France - Inauguration de l'Espace Radio Londres (Announcement of conversion of the spaces into a museum) Les actions de résistance. Aurélie Luneau, Radio Londres - 1940-1944 - Les voix de la liberté, éd. Librairie Académique Perrin, 2005, 349p.. ISBN 2262023875 and ISBN 978-2262023874