ENGLAND: Sefton Delmer, Master of Black Propaganda in WWII

Sefton Delmer, a British journalist turned master propagandist, played a shadowy yet pivotal role in the Allied efforts during World War II. Fluent in both German and English, Delmer's early career saw him rubbing shoulders with Hitler, gaining unique insights that he would later weaponize against the Nazis. 

During the war, Delmer led secretive black propaganda missions, creating fake German radio stations that broadcast misleading information to undermine Nazi morale. In this week's post, we delve into his cunning strategies and mysterious broadcasts that sowed confusion among enemy ranks. These efforts cemented his legacy as a pioneering force in psychological warfare.

Sefton Delmer was a master at propaganda against Germans in WWII 

EARLY LIFE

Born on May 24, 1904, in Berlin to Australian parents with Jewish roots, Denis Sefton Delmer was immersed in a bicultural environment from an early age. His father, Frederick, was a professor of English literature at Berlin University. This academic influence fostered a love for languages and learning in young Sefton. Delmer's early education took place in Germany, at the Friedrichswerdersches Gymnasium in Berlin. 

At the start of the First World War, Sefton and his family faced significant discrimination in Germany due to being British. Strong anti-British sentiment was propagated by the war effort. Delmer's father was arrested as a spy and taken to Ruhleben internment camp near Berlin, where he was held for many months. Sefton faced bullying and hatred at school from his peers. This was initially confusing for the young boy, as he did not fully understand what was happening. In 1917, his father was released, and the family was fortunate enough to arrange a transfer back to England under a prisoner exchange between the British and German governments. The family were expatriated to England, where Sefton did not fit in with the other British kids at all. 

He attended St. Paul's School in London, where he was again bullied for being a German émigré. There is a story that one day he noticed his socks were different from those of the other boys around him. Sefton was wearing the typical sailor-style socks popular in Berlin at the time. As soon as he got home, he begged his mother to buy him new socks. However, his mother had other things on her mind and dismissed him.

As an adult, he went to the University of Cambridge to study languages. There, he found himself more accepted by his peers than in his earlier schooling. His time at Cambridge not only solidified his command of multiple languages but also sharpened his analytical and journalistic skills.

PRE-WAR YEARS AND MINGLING WITH NAZIS

Sefton Delmer gained significant notoriety in the pre-war years for his insightful and daring coverage of Adolf Hitler and the burgeoning Nazi regime. After university, he worked as a freelance journalist and later became the Berlin correspondent for the Daily Express. Delmer had a front-row seat to the seismic political shifts occurring in Germany during the early 1930s. His reporting was marked by a rare combination of proximity and perceptiveness, allowing him to capture the true nature of the Nazi movement long before many of his contemporaries. Delmer became friends with Ernst Röhm, a leading member of the Nazi party. Röhm arranged for Delmer to become the first British journalist to interview Hitler in April 1931.

One of the most notable moments of Delmer’s pre-war journalism career was his exclusive trip with Adolf Hitler in 1932. Delmer traveled with Hitler on his private plane during the German federal elections campaign. At this point, he was truly "embedded with Nazi party activists." Delmer took the time to carefully observe Hitler and his propaganda. He personally witnessed how Hitler would transform from a sullen man, slumped in the corner of the room, to a demigod in front of the crowd.

Delmer was among the first British journalists to recognize and articulate the profound threat posed by the Nazi regime. His dispatches often highlighted the dangerous ideologies and aggressive ambitions of the Nazis, serving as an early warning to the international community. Delmer’s work during this period was instrumental in shaping public understanding of the growing menace in Germany.

In 1933, Sefton Delmer was present when Hitler inspected the damage done by the fire at the Reichstag. Hitler was furious about this event and likened it to an attack on the German people. At this time, Delmer was also under suspicion from both sides. The British government thought he was in cahoots with the Nazis, and the Germans thought he was an MI6 agent. The more Delmer denied these accusations, the stronger the beliefs on both sides became.

Around this time, he was transferred to Paris, where he became the head of the Daily Express Paris Bureau. Here, he met the beautiful artist Isabel Nicholas, and they got married in 1936.

Delmer was in the midst of all the important events career-wise during this period. He covered the Spanish Civil War, the invasion of Poland by the Wehrmacht in 1939, and the German Western Offensive in 1940.

RETURN TO ENGLAND

Delmer and his wife returned to England during tumultuous times. Sefton started working as an announcer for the German Service of the BBC. Delmer could not stop stirring the pot; he was just that kind of daring person. After Hitler broadcast his speech from the Reichstag, offering peace terms, Delmer responded quickly. He stated that the British hurl the terms "right back at you, in your evil-smelling teeth." This instant rejection had a big impact on Germany, while the British government was still formulating its response.

Goebbels assumed that Delmer's response was the official one. This strong reaction caused a lot of bad feelings in Berlin and condemnation in the House of Commons debate later on. Richard Stokes, MP, deplored the response, saying it came without the authority of Parliament. In 1945, when Sefton found out he was placed on Germany's Special Search List for capture, he thought it was because of this gaffe. This list comprised all the people that Germany planned to imprison once they successfully invaded Britain.

Delmer was also dismayed by England's attempts at countering German propaganda. He believed their radio broadcasts were aimed at anti-Nazis who were already on the same side as the Allies. From his life in Germany, and his experience with the Nazi party and Hitler during their rise in the 1930s, Sefton thought he had a much better grasp of how to reach people. He tried through various avenues to get recruited by the Secret Services or the SOE. However, it took many attempts before he could get his foot in the door. The shadow of doubt that he was working with the enemy had lingered over him.

In September 1940, Sefton's efforts paid off. He was recruited by the Political Warfare Executive (PWE) to organize black propaganda broadcasts to Nazi Germany. This was part of Britain's psychological warfare campaign. Delmer was assigned to work in the Political Intelligence Department of the Foreign Office. His clearance was gained by Leonard Ingrams of the PWE, an associate of Delmer's. This operation joined many other units that operated propaganda broadcasts based at Wavendon Tower. In 1941, Sefton was given his own place, a former private house in Aspley Guise, as his operations grew.

SPREADING BLACK PROPAGANDA IN GERMANY

The concept of Sefton Delmer's radio stations was simple: undermine Hitler's propaganda by pretending to be Nazi sympathizers. Delmer determined that he needed to sound German enough (and indoctrinated enough) so that if the authorities caught anyone listening to their radio broadcasts, they could feign ignorance. The broadcasts needed to sound official enough to pass a Nazi inspection.

Delmer pioneered sophisticated black propaganda campaigns that targeted the German populace and military leadership alike. Central to his strategy were counterfeit German radio stations, such as "Gustav Siegfried Eins," meticulously designed to masquerade as genuine broadcasts from dissident elements within Germany. These stations didn't just relay news; they disseminated fabricated reports of German military failures, exaggerated accounts of internal dissent, and provocative rumors intended to sow distrust and discord. Delmer was not afraid to use disgusting stories, sexual exploitations, and profanities to get his points across.

Delmer's approach leveraged the power of misinformation with precision. His broadcasts were crafted with linguistic authenticity and attention to detail, enabling them to penetrate German airwaves effectively. By exploiting Nazi vulnerabilities and amplifying fears and uncertainties, Delmer and his team significantly bolstered the Allied propaganda effort. Their work exemplified how the strategic deployment of words and ideas could profoundly impact wartime morale and strategic outcomes.

"DER CHEF" CAPTURES GERMANY 

Gustav Siegfried Eins (Gustav Siegfried One), or GS1 in research units, first aired on May 23, 1941. The timing was designed to leverage the capture of Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess, in Britain. The station was "run" by a character named "Der Chef," an unrepentant Nazi who criticized both Winston Churchill and Nazi supporters who betrayed the revolution. The ambiguous name "Gustav Siegfried Eins" left listeners wondering if it stood for Geheimsender 1 (Secret Transmitter 1) or Generalstab 1 (General Staff 1). The genius behind this station was that it sounded like a clandestine conversation by this very disenchanted character.

Peter Seckelmann, a former German writer who fled Nazi Germany, played "Der Chef." He was recruited from a bomb-disposal squad in London to join the team at "The Rookery" in Aspley Guise. Journalist Frank Lynder soon joined as "Der Chef's" adjutant, and both men assisted Delmer with scripts. Recordings were made on disc and transported by courier to a Foreign Office transmitter at Signal Hill, Gawcott, for broadcast. Initially, Delmer had doubts about Seckelmann, unsure if the actor could capture the Berlin gutter slang and grit the character required. However, as the broadcasts continued, Seckelmann rose to the occasion, delivering a brilliant performance.

Stafford Cripps, a prominent British politician and member of the War Cabinet, discovered Delmer's activities when Richard Crossman sent him a transcript of one of Delmer's more salacious broadcasts. Disgusted, Cripps wrote to Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, saying, "If this is the sort of thing that is needed to win the war, why, I'd rather lose it." Cripps, known for his religious and conservative views, was outraged. However, Robert Bruce Lockhart, a British diplomat and intelligence officer, defended Delmer, arguing the need to appeal to the sadistic elements in the German psyche.

GS1 ran for 700 broadcasts before Delmer ended it in late 1943 with the sound of gunfire over the radio, suggesting that the authorities had caught "Der Chef." Due to an error by a non-German-speaking transmitter engineer, the dramatic on-air murder was accidentally broadcast twice.

A MAN OF MANY TALENTS

Besides GS1, Delmer also created several other successful stations using carefully gathered intelligence. He used gossip intercepted from German mail to neutral countries to create credible stories. His other notable creations included Deutscher Kurzwellensender Atlantik (Atlantiksender), which used banned US jazz, up-to-date German dance music, and naval procedure details from anti-Nazis in POW camps to demoralize German submarine crews. The presenter, Agnes Bernelle, a part-Jewish refugee from Berlin, played a significant role.

Another of Delmer's creations was Soldatensender Calais ("Calais Armed Forces Radio Station"), based in Milton Bryan and transmitted via the powerful Aspidistra transmitter. This station mixed popular music with demoralizing news to propagate rumors among German soldiers and their wives, and it was also popular on the German home front.

Additionally, Delmer oversaw the production of a daily "grey" German-language newspaper titled Nachrichten für die Truppe ("News for the Troops"), which first appeared in May 1944 and was disseminated over Germany, Belgium, and France by the US Eighth Air Force. This publication brought updated news of the war to German troops, who had little access to other forms of uncensored media. The newspaper included illustrations, sports results, and even pinups to attract attention. It ran until May 7, 1945, the day Germany surrendered. The initial run was 200,000 single-sheet copies.

Another broadcast, Christ the King (G.8), targeted the conscience of religious Germans by detailing the horrors of labor and concentration camps through the voice of a German priest. Delmer's credit within the intelligence agencies was such that the Admiralty sought him out to target German submarine crews with demoralizing news bulletins.

AFTER THE WAR

After the victory of World War II, Sefton Delmer was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). His citation stated that he was a "Controller of a Division, Foreign Office."

He also returned to journalism in his private life, being rehired as the Chief Foreign Affairs reporter for the Daily Express. Delmer was explicit with his staff from the propaganda team that they should keep their wartime activities private. He worked for the Daily Express over the next fifteen years and covered almost every major news story for the publication. However, in 1959, he was fired by Lord Beaverbrook over an expense dispute. He then retired to Lamarsh in Essex. By this point, he had been divorced from his wife, Isabel, since 1947. She was living in the area with her third husband, Alan Rawsthorne.

Sefton wrote two volumes of his autobiography: Trail Sinister, published in 1961, and Black Boomerang, published one year later. He also wrote other books, such as The Counterfeit Spy in 1971 and Weimar Germany in 1972.

CONCLUSION 

Sefton Delmer's passing on September 4, 1979, marked the end of an era in both journalism and psychological warfare. Throughout his life, Delmer had been a trailblazer in the strategic use of media and propaganda, particularly during World War II. His death signified the loss of a visionary who not only shaped wartime narratives but also contributed profoundly to the understanding of psychological tactics in modern warfare.

Delmer's legacy continues to resonate in the fields of media studies and military strategy, where his innovative approaches to communication in conflict remain influential and insightful to this day.

References

• Time Magazine: The Man Who Used Nazi Propaganda to Help the Allies Win
• The Spectator: The dirty war of Sefton Delmer
• The Guardian: The man who tricked Nazi Germany: lessons from the past on how to beat disinformation
• Biographics: Sefton Delmer: The Master of Black Propaganda
• Peter Pomerantsev - How to Win an Information War