On the other hand however many people had found it hard to cope with the news of the war. This also meant that when the media tried to put a positive spin on things, it would become (ironically) laughable. An example of this public disbelief is when during the Blitz, 85% of Hull’s buildings were destroyed by German bombers. Despite this, Hull was only referred to in news broadcasts as a “North-Eastern town”. To add insult to injury, all of the focus was on Coventry’s grief during the Blitz. This showed one mistake in Britain’s media and propaganda. This was somewhat insignificant however, compared to the positive effects that it gave out.
Another purpose of propaganda was to raise morale. One of the methods for doing this was for the BBC to broadcast comedy and musical radio programmes such as “It’s That Man Again” and “The Brains Trust”. Many people thought they were very successful, for example, Lil Lawrence from Kent said that “A good laugh kept you going better than anything else.” This shows that this form of propaganda was not only very successful but also very popular as 60% of the population listened to BBC radio in 1939. This meant this morale boost was very effective and had a very positive impact on the country.
Another example of this being a success was the film “Target for Tonight”. It was an inspirational war story about the mission of a British Wellington bomber. This and other war films were often highly spoken about and a wonderful form of propaganda. Mary McColl from Dumbarton said of the film that she came out of it ‘feeling proud to be British’. This again shows us that morale-boosting propaganda was very successful.
However, sometimes propaganda aimed at producing a positive reaction toward morale and patriotism backfired on the government. For example, there was a poster released in 1939 which said “Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution; Will Bring Us Victory”. Even though this poster was meant to encourage people to take an active role in defending Britain from the Axis powers, it was misinterpreted so that people thought that their courage etc. would bring them (the government) victory. This was one of many errors on the MoI’s part which meant that they were often labelled the “Ministry of Misinformation”. This shows that early propaganda was not very effective in bringing the government’s point of view and ideas across. As the war progressed however the MoI became more experienced and produced better propaganda and a more positive impact on the British public than in the earlier years of WW2.
The final type of propaganda is Britain’s defence. During the war Britain had to defend its people from the threat of bombing and invasion. One example of use of propaganda to this effect is a poster designed by Dudley S Cowes and issued by the Ministry of Health that says “Leave Hitler to me sonny – YOU ought to be out of London”. Propaganda such as this was successful because over 1 and a half million women and children were evacuated from cities once war was declared. This shows this propaganda had a large effect on Britain
On the other hand, there were many posters and leaflets in cities to encourage people to take part in the blackouts which happened to combat the threat of the air raids. One example of such a poster is “Shine your torch downwards” which encourage people to not let light escape upwards. The downside to these blackouts was that many burglars took advantage of the situation and looted houses and shops. The darkness was a perfect cover for these criminals, labelled “bomb-chasers”. It could be argued that this is a very negative side to this propaganda but I do not believe it is the fault of it. Also this burglary of material wealth was probably outweighed by the number of lives saved by these blackouts.
In conclusion, I think that propaganda was extremely successful and had a very strong positive impact on the British public. It helped the government achieve what it needed to in order to aid Britain throughout the wartime period. The theme that saw the most impact was morale. This is because it was easy for the BBC to broadcast comedy and music to the country. The defence saw probably the least as it was harder to get the message accessibly into people’s homes with the minimal effort that morale was raised with. Overall I believe propaganda was a major part in winning the war against the Axis powers and therefore was a massive success.
