“ PAPER WAR “ WWII COMBAT BULLETIN OSS LEAFLET DROPS PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS 81564b

This segment of the Signal Corps’ Combat Bulletin 56, “Paper War“, deals with psy-ops or psychological operations. In this case, it shows a leaflet campaign undertaken in Italy during WWII. A team of OSS propaganda writers creates a leaflet that is designed to undermine German morale. At 1:15, after the leaftlet text is typewritten in German, it is set in a linotype printing machine by hand. At 1:25, plates are created and copies are printed by the thousands. At 1:36, a leaflet targeting the soldiers of the German 305th Infantry Division is shown (the narrator notes that this unit’s morale was considered low and it was identified as a target for psy-ops as a result). At 1:47, women pack the leaflets into artillery smoke shells or other means of dispersal, such as aircraft drops, may be used. At 2:10, an artillery observation Cub aka Piper L-4 is shown being ready for dropping bundles of leaflets. At 2:32, thousands of copies are shown being loaded onto a special bomb designed for dispersal. At 3:00 a P-47 Thunderbolt makes a drop of leaflets. At 3:22, a German prisoner is shown speaking during interrogation, and it is noted that many of these prisoners indicate that they have seen the leaflet. At 3:35, a safe conduct pass is shown in English. We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example: “01:00:12:00 -- President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference.“ This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit