British propaganda during World War II British propaganda during World War II took various forms . Using a wide variety of media , it called for actions needed for the war , such as production and proper behaviour in the blackout , painted a dark picture of the Axis powers , and praised the Allies . Media . Cinema . " The story of the British cinema in the Second World War is inextricably linked with that of the Ministry of Information . " Formed on 4 September 1939 , the day after Britain ' s declaration of war , the Ministry of Information ( MOI ) was the central government department responsible for publicity and propaganda in the Second World War . It was the Ministry ' s function to " present the national case to the public at home and abroad " . The MOI was keenly aware of the value of commercially produced entertainment films in furthering the national cause generally and maintained close contact with film makers : The Ministry both advised the producers on the suitability of subjects which they had suggested , and proposed subjects which we thought would do good overseas . Whenever the Ministry had approved a subject we gave every help to the producer in obtaining facilities to make the film . As a result , the typical British war film attempts to construct a gripping suspense story which at the same time conveys propaganda ideas in support of the Allied cause . Kenneth Clark , as head of the Films Division of the MOI , argued in 1940 that the public must be convinced of German brutality , stating " we should emphasise wherever possible the wickedness and evil perpetrated in the occupied countries " . Subsequently , the Home Planning Committee felt it essential to portray fully " the evil things which confront us . . . to fortify the will to continue the struggle " . By 1942 , the fear of invasion ( as depicted in films such as " Went the Day Well ? " ) had receded , and film makers began to turn to the brutal reality of life in occupied countries . " The Day Will Dawn " ( 1942 ) was a film about the Norwegian resistance , while " Uncensored " told the story of the Belgian resistance . " Tomorrow We Live " depicts the French Resistance and the heroism of ordinary French civilians , while " One of Our Aircraft Is Missing " ( 1942 ) shows Dutch civilians risking their lives to help a group of British airmen back to England . Films were also imported . Churchill ordered the entire sequence of Frank Capra ' s " Why We Fight " to be shown the public . Newsreels . Newsreels had particular effect on American audiences , the dome of St . Paul ' s over the ruins being a particularly significant image . Posters . Posters were widely used in the propaganda campaigns . Their content ranged from simple instructions to purely motivational content . One series of posters for London Transport featured Billy Brown of London Town . The April 1939 Motivational posters trio . These posters were a series of three issued as a motivational poster by the British Government in 1939 . The three posters in the series were , " Freedom is in peril , defend it with all your might " . " YOUR COURAGE , YOUR CHEERFULNESS AND YOUR RESOLUTION WILL BRING US VICTORY " ( All versions capitalised , second printing included considerable underlining of nouns for even more emphasis ) and Keep Calm and Carry On The original designs were approved for mass production and distribution in April 1939 . Leaflets . Leaflets were widely used for propagandizing enemy - held territory , by dropping them from airplanes . As early as the Phoney War , pamphlets were being dropped . On the anniversary of Hitler ' s premature declaration of victory against the Soviet Union , in 1941 , copies of the " Völkischer Beobachter " reporting the story were dropped on Germany . One Italian one invoked Garibaldi , who had said that Italy ' s future was linked with Great Britain ' s , declaring the bombings the " curse of Garibaldi . " Books . A few weeks after D - Day , crates of books were landed in Normandy , to be distributed to French booksellers ; an equal number of American and British efforts were included . Radio . Radio was widely used , with broadcasts in 23 languages ; it proved to be rather simpler to the occupied countries than to Germany itself . Edward R . Murrow ' s broadcasts of the Blitz were particularly useful in propagandising the United States , because of his calm , factual , and unopininated manner ; he received full rein and facilities , even access to Churchill . His reports of British courage and tenacity helped stimulate hope . Transmitters in England would also pose as broadcasting from Germany , where mostly factual reports would be studded with lies . Themes . Resistance . During the Phoney War , the book " Why Britain is At War " sold a hundred thousand copies . In 1940 in particular , Winston Churchill made many calls for the British to fight on , and for British units to fight until they died rather than submit . His calls for fight to victory inspired a hardening of public opinion . Determination raised the numbers of the Home Guard and inspired a willingness to fight to the last ditch , in a manner rather similar to Japanese determination , and the slogan " You can always take one with you " was used in the grimmest times of the war . Victories . British victories were announced to the public for morale purposes , and broadcast to Germany for purposes of undermining morale . Even during Dunkirk , an optimistic spin was put on how the soldiers were eager to return . When the U - boat commander Günther Prien vanished with his submarine " U - 47 " , Churchill personally informed the House of Commons , and radio broadcasts to Germany asked , " Where is Prien ? " until Germany was forced to acknowledge his loss . The turn of the war made BBC ' s war commentaries much more stirring . Work . Propaganda was deployed to encourage people to volunteer for onerous or dangerous war work , such as factories or Home Guard . Male conscription ensured that general recruitment posters were not needed , but specialist services posters did exist , and many posters aimed at women such as Land Army , or ATS . Films and posters encouraged women to go to work in munitions factories . Posters were also targeted at increasing production . Pictures of the Armed Forces often called for support from civilians , and posters juxtaposed civilian workers and soldiers to urge that the forces were relying on them and instruct them in the importance of their role . People were encouraged to spend holidays assisting at harvest , even when they were also encouraged to stay home . Evacuation of children . Posters urged children to be sent from London . Both pamphlets and posters urged that evacuated children not be brought back . Many were , in fact , brought back during the Phoney War , and the government redoubled efforts to persuade them to let the children remain away . Others praised those who took such children in , such as depicting a housewife in a line of uniformed women as she welcomes children . Blackout . Posters outlined what to do when traveling in a blackout . Instructions included the advice that flashlights should be pointed downwards , to avoid blinding people , that care should be taken while crossing roads . and that when alighting from a train , passengers should check that the door opened on to a platform . Preventing waste . Propaganda was deployed to encourage people to economise on travel , save waste paper , and to obey rationing . The propaganda film " They Also Serve " dealt with housewives ' conservation efforts . People were also called to " make do " so that raw materials would be available for the war effort . Even an unattended kettle , boiling over , was waste . This was to be applied at work , as well , even though the firm was paying for wasted fuel . Recipes were spread for cooking efficiently and nutritiously on the restricted diet that included many substitutions . The Ministry of Food urged that it was not clever to take more than your share . While bread was not rationed , wholemeal bread was encouraged . Propaganda also publicised that pregnant women could get orange juice and vitamin pills by bringing their ration books and medical certificate to the Food Office . Waste paper required recycling to save shipping . The Squander Bug campaign simply urged spending less . Because the war limited other options , the bus system was overloaded , and posters urged people to walk for short distances , to ease the burden . For train journeys , posters urged consideration of whether the trip was necessary and the importance of food and ammunition carried by train . Posters also encouraged growing food in gardens . The difficulties of the Battle of the Atlantic led to the slogan " Dig for Victory ! " Every garden could be used for this purpose . Because potatoes could be grown this way , the character " Potato Pete " was created to remind people that potatoes did not take up room on ships . Radio broadcasts encouraged the notion that growing your own food was a form of recreation , not wartime sacrifice . Salvage operations were depicted as transforming scrap to weapons . An exhibition , " Private Scrap " was created to demonstrate the uses of scrap and underscore the link between civilian efforts and the military forces . Iron railings and aluminum pots were targeted . Housewives ' salvage efforts were presented militaristically , even depicting weapons as coming directly from the efforts women to save scrap . Axis . British propaganda , like American propaganda , presented the war as an issue of good versus evil , a factor that allowed them to rouse the population to fight a just war , and use themes of resistance and liberation to occupied countries . Anti - German . Much was made of the dictatorial nature of Hitler ' s government . Germany was treated as a particular font of evil within the Axis , and a greater threat than Japan and Italy . Churchill presented Hitler as the central issue of the war . The Germans were also presented as evil , with some stating that the concentration camps would not have been possible on French or British soil . The sinking of the SS Athenia , killing civilians including Americans , on the first day of the war was widely exploited as demonstrating that the U - boat was the same instrument of terror as in World War I ; the Germans attempted to counter it by claiming the British had sunk the ship themselves to blacken Germany . The film " Men of the Lightship " was created to foment anti - German feeling ; not only do the Germans attack a lightship , not traditionally regarded as a proper target , but machine - gun the survivors in the water , so that only one lives . Posters depicted Germans in a sinister light . Propaganda shifted from downplaying raids to playing them up , to inspire hatred of the enemy , and sympathy with neutrals , despite the encouragement that this might give the enemy and its potential impact on the calm of the populace . Atrocity reports were presented both as summaries of known facts and news reports as they occurred . Alternate history novels depicted Nazi invasions of Great Britain as a form of " cautionary tales " . Up until 1943 , these were grim tales , presenting British victims ; after that , a more heroic note increased . The instant — and unauthorised — rejection of the peace terms of Hitler ' s July 19 , 1940 speech by Sefton Delmer on the BBC produced a great impact on Germany ; Goebbels believed it had to show governmental inspiration , and while propaganda efforts were made to talk the British around , the German press were instructed to attack the rejection . The speed of the rejection unquestionably led the great impact , which authorisation would have prevented ; this produced consternation in the government , as the effect was desirable , but they did not know whether such a spokesman would again happen to say what the government wanted . Anti - Japanese . Although Winston Churchill found the disaster at Singapore and the loss of Burma , Hong Kong , and Malaya humiliating , Brendan Bracken , the minister of information regarded it as impossible to rouse the British to sentiments similar to those the British public held toward Germany , as the Japanese were across the globe and the Germans there , and his views prevailed . The Pacific war was regarded as peripheral by most British , but anti - Japanese sentiment was used in one African recruiting poster . Posters depicting British and Australian unity often featured a Japanese figure . The British attack on Burma was taken chiefly so that the British could say that they had taken back their colonial possessions with their own armies . It was so neglected in news and propaganda that it was termed the " forgotten army . " Similar campaigns were conducted in Malaya and Singapore , for the same reason , even though military officials preferred joining forces with the American campaigns . A pamphlet for soldiers , " The Japanese in Battle " set out to debunk the myth of the Japanese superman after the initial wave of Japanese victories . " The Spectator " supported the bombing of Japan on the grounds of the atrocities committed against downed airmen and in China . Anti - Italian . Italy ' s entrance to the war was derided for their having waited until victory looked secure , but the anti - Italian feeling never reached the pitch of anti - German sentiment . Allies . Propaganda fomented support for allies in the war , first for the European nations and then for the USSR and USA , with support for the Commonwealth being pervasive . Promoting disunity was , in fact , a major desire of Axis forces . Depictions of forces included Malays , West Africans , and Soviet . Many posters depicted soldiers from different countries , such as Australian and British , many Commonwealth countries , varied occupied countries , and many Allied countries , or British and American sailors . Merchant ships were used to dramatise Lend - Lease . Resistance movements were also depicted , sometimes with Allied agents or receiving message from them . Soviet Union . Prior to the German attack on the Soviet Union , the USSR was treated with hostility , such as when a paper explained that Tchaikovsky was a product of Tsarist , not Bolshevist , Russia . This treatment became more favourable after Germany ' s attack . The British Ministry of Information put out a booklet on countering ideological fears of Bolshevism , including claims that the Red Terror was a figment of Nazi imagination . This inspired George Orwell to leave the BBC and write " Animal Farm " , which was suppressed by the Ministry until the end of the war . Until long after the war , the British supported the Soviet claim that the Nazis had staged the Katyn Massacre . The Battle of Stalingrad received particular attention as a great victory . To occupied countries . The V Campaign targeted the occupied countries , using " V " to represent the French word for " victory " and the Flemish for " freedom " , and the opening of Beethoven ' s Fifth Symphony where the opening notes match the Morse code for " V " , for broadcasts . This alarmed the Germans until Goebbels conceived the idea of trying to reframe the use of a German composer as a German victory . British propaganda was circulated in occupied countries through the efforts of the underground movements . To the United States . The British Security Coordination was created to propagandise the United States to enter the war , and presented massive amounts of propaganda which they successfully concealed as news reports , not one of them having been " rumbled " as a propaganda piece during the war . Careless talk . Careless talk propaganda discouraged talking about sensitive material where it could be overheard by spies , showing either an Axis eavesdropper or depicting a death caused by such information leaking . It was also intended to prevent morale sapping rumours from spreading . The first posters were illustrated by a comic artist . After concluding that such talk was not a serious source of intelligence , and would often be dismissed as a plant , the campaign was not increased . This also was the theme of the film " The Next of Kin " . Keep Mum . Originating in a 1940 campaign with the catchphrase ' Be Like Dad , Keep Mum ' , the best - known image from this campaign is the 1942 poster ' Keep Mum , She ' s Not So Dumb ' by the architect and artist Gerald Lacoste . It depicts a glamorous blonde woman reclining , and officers from each branch of the Armed Forces about her talking to each other . It is implied that the officers are talking military secrets , on the ( wrongful ) assumption that the woman is only a " dumb blonde " and so will not pass these secrets onto the enemy . The campaign was issued in 1942 to all ranks , with this particular image intended for mess es and other places where officers met . At the end of May , " Advertiser ' s Weekly " noted that ' sex appeal ' had been introduced in the form of a beautiful spy , who they insisted on ' christening Olga Polovsky after the famous song ' . In June 1941 they further noted that , having covered public house talk , wayside conversations with strangers , and ' harmless chat ' with friends when on leave , the government believed they had identified ' the major problem ' at last . The campaign was to make a direct appeal along the lines of ' Cherchez la femme ' , as a reminder that ' when in the company of a beautiful woman , remember that beauty may conceal brains ' . Service personnel seemed particularly ready to disclose their station and line of work . Careless Talk Costs Lives . The best known images from this series are by Fougasse , depicting people giving away secrets in everyday situations ( e . g . sitting on the bus , not seeing caricatures of Hitler , Goebbels , and Goering sitting behind them ) .