THE VOICE OF FREEDOM

New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 821, 22 April 1955, Page 7

THE VOICE OF FREEDOM

-Story of the BBC at War

URING the last war a woman in Germany heard ‘from official German sources that her submariner husband. had been killed in action. She arranged for a memorial service, but on the morning that it was to take place she, listening to the banned BBC, heard the British announcement that her husband was, in fact, a prisoner of war. Not daring to act on information received from this forbidden source, she decided to go on with the service, but, on reaching the church, she found that she was alonethe other mourners had not turned up. They, too, were listeners to the BBC. The story of the BBC in wartime is told. in a special programme This is London, broadcast first at the time of the twenty-first anniversary of the establishment of the Empire Service, and to be heard here in a recorded transcription on April 24. While broadcasting from London was a weapon of war, it was at the same time cementing friendship between allies and linking together all thé forces

of the Commonwealth. It was also stimulating and extending the resistance to Nazi domination, Even the leaders of the Third Reich paid their unwilling tribute by the very fact that they so strenuously jammed

the voice of London. Goebels himself who, in 1942, described the BBC broadcasts as "childish, stupid, short-sighted" by 1943 was speaking of the "masterly skill" with which "poison for the German people" was concealed behind a mask of "objective-seeming news." The authority that the BBC came to have during the war years was gained because, despite the violent temper of the times, it still tried to be objective in its néws. In the long run, it was thought, a case is best argued from events that could be proved to have happened and not from lies which, however plausible at the time, would, inevitably be discovered. At the beginning of the war the

BBC had to fight to get an absolute minimum number of transmitters and the General Overseas Service with foreign language broadcasts was only in its infancy. The

Latin-American and ‘Arabic services had begun only in 1938 and the other foreign language broadcasts had not been undertaken because it was felt that the dictators would be irritated. In the end a decision was taken precipitately, and only a few hours before Mr, Neville |. Chamberlain’s return from Munich the BBC was asked to begin broadcasts that same night in French, German and Italian. Their first broadcasts were translations of his own message.

With the establishment of foreign-language broadcasts it became important that the staff should know what theother services — especially those of Germany and Italy-were saying,

and thus the famous Monitoring service was born. Monitoring is ‘still today an indispensable source of information for broadcasters all over the world. The BBC’s broadcasts to Europe during the war were of four kinds. There were the masses of ordinary listeners who listened to keep up their spirits in the twilight of German occupation; the active listeners who became members of the Resistance groups or contributors to the clandestine press. As more was learnt in London about the underground organisations, the BBC undertook special broadcasts for the clandestine press, delivered at dictation slowness so that each word could be written down and passed on. Then again there were allied agents who listened for directly operational reasons. The code messages for them, the orders to be translated into direct acts of war against the occupying forces were at first a mere trickle, but by D-Day had grown to a flood. The BBC did a great deal to strengthen morale at home as well, Their Variety Shows and Outside Broadcasts carried on under conditions of extreme difficulty. All the programmes to Forces overseas were sent from London’s only underground: theatre, the Criterion, almost directly. below Eros’s empty plinth. The stage became a studio, the Royal Box a Control Room, and the Royal Retiring Room an audition room. A rope hanging from the circle to the stalls was there in case the producers had to come down in a hurry. The Criterion stage was old, and when two grand pianos were put on it, they sank through like waterlogged cows. Every evening Vera Lynn arrived at 6 o’clock and settled down to sleep before being awakened at 2.15 a.m. for her Starlight programme and later Anne Shelton did the same. One of the most dramatic wartime programmes ever pro-

duced was a "live" broadcast to North America on August 24, 1940. It was a round-up of London actually produced from the Control Room at Broadcasting House and roving from point to point in the blitz outside. There was a distinguished list of British, American and Canadian commentators, and to them the following grimly amusing instructions were issued: "In the unlikely event of bombs falling within range would commentators (assuming they are still in one piece) please observe the following points: (1) Be truthful but discreet and remember that impromptu remarks made in the excitement of the moment ars, liable to exaggerate rather than to minimise distress; (2) avoid horrors. In fact, unless there is overwhelming reason to do so, do not mention casualties; (3) use the utmost discretion in assessing damage." _ Those instructions may be taken to indicate the kind of brdadcasting the BBC gave the world in wartime-level-headed. realistic and unafraid. Famous voices will be heard again in This is London. They include King George VI and Princess Elizabeth; Sir Winston Churchill; Neville Chamberlain; Tommy Handley; the American commentators Ed Murrow and Raymond Gram Swing; and the mysterious Colonel Britton, who was later revealed as Douglas Ritchie, Head of the European News Department of the BBC. Lastly, and perhaps most important, there is the great voice of Big Ben himself. The narrator of This is London is Robert Harris, with Marius Goring and Lindley Fraser. The programme will be heard in ZB Sunday Showcase at 9.35 p.m. on April 24,