BLATANT FAKE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 October 1942, Page 4

BLATANT FAKE

NAZI BROADCAST ACCOUNT OF DIEPPE BATTLE. A blatant fake put over on the German radio after the Dieppe raid caused much amusement to some listeners at the 8.8. C. An announcement from a German station that its war observer would broadcast in English an account of the Dieppe battle, brought a little band of producers and script writers into a listening room. Hoots of laughter greeted the said observer’s opening remarks. He alleged that he was standing on the cliffs at Dieppe and giving a running commentary on crashing Spitfires, burning tanks, etc., etc. 8.8. C. producers couldn’t help being amazed at the Germans’ luck in having an Eng-lish-speaking commentator, complete with recording car, on the cliffs at Dieppe at exactly the right time. The actual commentary itself was amusing. The speaker said, in a perfectly flat, uninterested voice: “Here is a Spitfire crashing.” Then came sound effects of a Spitfire which—judging by the noise—crashed not more than three feet from the commentator. Next, without a pause or any change of tone, he went on to describe four tanks being demolished in swift succession, again with suitable “effects” noises. This “eyewitness”— or eyewash witness-account was thought too gdod a ioke to be kept to a small circle of 8.8. C. staff. So a recording of it was put out in a 8.8. C. Radio News reel in the African Service. Later, Combined Operations accepted the B.B.C’s. offer to send discs of the recording to some of the returned Dieppe raiders in a south of England hospital—purely for entertainment value.