The Washington times., 1919-03-28
GERMANS HUNGER
HELPED END WAR

WITH THE THIRD ARMY IN THE
RHINELAND, March 2S.-Now that
the need for secrecy has passed, it Is
possible to tell something about
little known branch Of the American
armies-the field propaganda section.
Although its chief weapons were
only brains, ink, and paper, the heId
propaEanda section undoubtedly saved
many lives. brought IN many prison
ers. and weakened the Germans mo-
raIe and shortened the war thereby.
1t was decided to concentrate
American propaganda upon three main
points-the German shortage OF food,
the constantly increasing NUMBER OF
American soldiers landing in France,
and the arguments in President Will
sons speeches.
The feld section consisted Of mo-
tor trucks and a balloon outft, with
fourteen men. under Lieut.. George
Nicholas Int, jr., Of Pocatello, ldaho.
Lieutenant Int had lived in Germany
spoke German, and understood the
Teutonic mind.
The Germans were circulating q
story among their troops that the
Americans killed their prisoners
This tale was designed to force the
German machine gunners to hght 10
the last breath. Several hundreds OF
thousands Of copies OF General Per
shinK's general order relative to the
humane handling OF prisoners were
printed in German. The aviatorS
flung showers OF the leaflets over the
front lines. And the propaganda had
almost immediate effect. Machine
gun crews surrendered and eagerly
order, which they had picked up.
PrOpaEandIsts Hammer.
Then the propagandists began to
hammer upon the two weak points OF
the Germans-the food shortage and
the number Of Americans in France.
In keeping the Germans informed OF
the number Of Americans landing, the
field section used only the ofncial
figures from Washington. This Is
probably the fret time IN history that
a belligerent was anxious for the en-
emy to know the number OF troops
he had.
In difference to the German weak
ness for charts and tables, the hg-
ures were arranged to show the in
crease in the American army month
by month.
After a few weeks Of this lombard
unent. a Ieafet with a series Of "Ques-
tions for German soldiers" was sent
over. These questions were designed
to start the German to thinking about
what the mood OF American soldiers
meant to him
On top of these appeals was piled
another appeal in the shape OF a list
of the rations served to German
M
food were enumerated with particular
emphasis upon white bread, real
cohfee and tobacco and butter and
other foodstuffs unknown to the Ger
man ration. This proved to be one
of the strongest arguments-the GER
man stomach yielded easier than the
German mind. At various points on
the front deserters came into our
lines with copies Of the ration list IN
their hands.
Germans Given COPies.
After each OF President wilson's
speeches and notes to Germany hun
dreds of thousands of copies Of trans
Iations were strewn over the German
lines. Within two days after the
speeches American airplanes were
dropping copies over the lines. Fol-
lowing the collapse Of Bulgaria, Aus |
tria and Turkey. the propaganda sec
ton redoubled its appeals to the |
minds of the German soldiers. The
appeal concluded, 'Why do your ofti-
GERS hide such things from you? Be-
cause old soldiers know how to save |
themselves. At night come in tWoS !
and threes over to our lines.
After the St Mihiel salient was
wiped out the whole front was show
cred with leaflets showing a signin- |
cant map OF the salient before and
after" and the statement Ground
held four years by the Germans
taken within twenty-seven hours by
the Americans and a table showing
the number OF prisoners and guns
taken. During the Argonne-Meuse
hrhfinZ a series Of "dailY progress"