Wartime Morale and Propaganda During World War 2

Wartime Morale and Propaganda during WWII

Morale is the spine in your back, the lift to your chin, the song on your lips, the grit in your craw. Morale is the spirit that makes you say defiantly "Is that so?" when you are told you aren't man or woman enough to do something - and makes you do it! Morale gives you the heart to smile when the going is toughest; it gives you the spunk to wisecrack when the danger is greatest (Hunt 250). In the absence of a credible positive ideology, motivation was always a problem; in return, this led to fluctuations in morale. Consequently, raising and sustaining morale became all important, and morale itself developed into one of the unique obsessions of the Allies during the Second World War (Fussell 143). The ultimate goal of each army is to increase their own morale with positive and negative methods, while at the same time, diminishing the enemy's morale. Morale is far and away the most potent weapon in the whole arsenal and is comprised of civilian, artificial, individual, positive, and negative components, which are all achieved through different methods and contribute to the overall morale. In accordance to these components, physical, psychological, and external forces are all morale-defining factors, and their signs, contributions, importance, and effectiveness are observed during combat.

In waging war, civilian morale is quite as important as military morale; indeed, the morale among the soldiers and sailors is largely dependent on the morale at home. The soldiers must feel that the fighting morale at home is equal to their own (Hunt 254). Home morale is essential to the maximum production of tools during war and to the fighting spirit at the front (Clausewitz 95). During the Second World War, civilian morale was the main target, and by the new technique, "strategic bombing." On the allied home front manufacturers that produced mass quantities of frivolous commodities like beer, tobacco, and chewing gum moved their products by arguing their indispensability to high morale (Fussell 145). Morale was thought of as a lot of "little" things. These little things were used to lift the spirits and keep up the courage, and to provide comfort for the reason that they are part and parcel of our American way of life (Fussell 145).

In attempt to sustain the civilian morale, artificial morale began to surface. Since morale is so overwhelmingly important, the governments, of course, do everything they can to build it up and keep it up. Sometimes their methods are positive, and sometimes they are negative (Hunt 255). Negative methods were used more often than the positive (Clausewitz 161). The simplest negative method of maintaining morale consists in keeping news of defeats from the people. Eventually the people must be told, but if the bad news is kept long enough, they can be prepared so well for the news that its shock is greatly lessened (Hunt 255). Optimism was another negative method often used to soothe the home front through letters from the soldiers, photographs, and by turning serious matters into trivial messages. The uses of these particular negative methods of upholding morale are, at best, only stopgates. In the end, the bad news always leaks out, and when it becomes common knowledge, the people are likely to be resentful. Worse, they are likely to lose faith in the authorities and when people loose faith in its leaders, morale is diminished (Hunt 256). Our government has promised not to keep bad news from us, and is wisely avoiding this artificial method of building morale (Fussell 164).

Negative methods were also used among each other on the front lines. A notable feature of the Second World War is the youth that fought in it (Clausewitz 231). In general the younger soldiers have a much higher morale than experienced soldiers due to the fact of innocence, lack of experience, and pride (Fussell 50). Older more established soldiers often used a negative method known as "chickenshit" to lower the morale of the novice soldiers. Chickenshit can be described as anything that makes the military experience worse than need be (Hunt 294). Although this external factor's approach did damage the initial morale of the soldier, it was not used to weaken him, but rather prepare them for battle, making them long for it (Fussell 81). The overall effect of chickenshit did have a positive outcome on the overall morale. Although the young boys did increase their physical strength, their mental strength was revolutionized and now possessed the maturity of an adult. These psychological factors - self-confidence, courageous attitude, attainable goals and expectations, interpersonal relations - that the soldiers now maintained are more complex and have a much more substantial impact than physical factors.

One last negative method of building artificial morale in the Second World War was partaking in the psychological warfare battle (Hunt 235). What is psychological warfare? It is the systematic preparation and execution of many operations through the use of various techniques, such as terror, to destroy an enemy's morale, while at the same time, potentially ever-increasing the morale at home (Hunt 237). It also has another important function, which is to influence public opinion among nonbelligerants using propaganda and education (Fussell 164). A psychological warfare campaign is a war of the mind. Your primary weapons are sight and sound. It can be disseminated by face-to-face communication, audio/visual means (television), audio media (radio or loudspeaker), visual media (leaflets, newspapers, books, magazines and/or posters). The weapon is not how it is sent, but the message it carries and how that message affects the recipient ("Psychological Operations"). The use of propaganda acts as the offensive arm and converts people to behaving differently and having different beliefs. The educational mean of this battle acts as the defensive arm and is used to build morale at home; however, it is also used to keep the people at home from crossing bridges erected by enemy propagandists (Hunt 238). Since the Second World War, the use of psychological operations has come into its own as an effective weapon system ("Psychological Operations"). Perhaps the most ambitious and spectacular cover and deception operation of the Second World War was the effort of the Allies to convince the German high command that the upcoming Allied invasion of Europe would occur across the beaches near the Pas de Calais, rather than the narrow sand strips and cliffs of Normandy nearly 100 hundred miles away ("Psywar").

During the war America's most prevalent uses of propaganda were the deviation of rumors spread throughout the prisons and the dropping of newspapers and leaflets