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A questionnaire was circulated
in 1997 and 1998, using responses from newspaper appeals
and personal contacts. There are some quotes that
were particularly interesting, and some of them are
highlighted here.
Male Respondent: 'The one that seems
very funny to me now but not at the time was VD Kills. In those
days such a thing was never mentioned such was the ignorance,
but it must have been a very big problem as this was the largest
poster of the lot. When you asked about it, a look of horror would
come over the person's face and you would get no explanation.
Then one of the schoolboys got the full facts from a soldier at
the nearby camp. "You went deaf, and blind and your nose
fell off" and you caught this affliction by talking to girls.
Needless to say after that you only spoke to boys. I remember
averting my eyes every time I passed that poster.'
? Respondent: "At the risk of being
labelled conceited I would say that thanks to a decent education
and being employed in a Government establishment (and with at
least a modicum of common-sense) I did not need the messages of
the posters. Perhaps this is why I don't remember them very well."
Male Respondent: 'I remember it chiefly
as the Ministry of Mis-Information.'
Male ex-soldier: Rremembered referring
throughout the war to 'the 'Ministry of Misinformation' as the
'Ministry of Lies'!', although 'some years after the conflict
ended
I came to feel that the latter description was, maybe,
'over the top'!
? Respondent: Appeals to 'save water',
'5' only in the bath' and 'don't waste water' were regarded as
particularly unnecessary to one of the respondees to the questionnaire,
who lived near a Scottish loch with an inexhaustible water supply.
? Respondent: 'I have clear memories
of my first encounter with W.W.II propaganda when, as a 13 year
old schoolboy in September 1939, my home town ... blossomed with
crimson posters proclaiming that:-
'Your Courage,
Your Cheerfulness,
Your Resolution,
Will bring us Victory!'
For some reason, these posters were much maligned, possibly because
of the association with cheerfulness with courage and resolution!
With hindsight, one could argue that the originator had, in fact,
identified the three typically British qualities which were to
see us through the Battle of Britain and the Blitz.'
? Respondent: 'Being a child I was obviously
impressionable but I remember feeling motivated sufficiently to
talk to my parents about these posters and found that they were
positively motivated by many of the posters.'
Irish Male: 'there were not any propaganda
ones [posters] by the British. All of the posters issued by the
allied forces were true advice posters warning everybody of the
Dangers [sic] that lay ahead. All propaganda came from Nazi Germany
but thank God it was never believed by all true British subjects.
and propaganda was not advisable as it costs lives.'
Male Historian: 'Despite modern attempts
at "de-bunking", wartime spirits were mostly high. Certainly,
we did not walk about with permanent smiles, in addition to the
usual horrors of war
times were hard, and there were invasion
fears, bombs, V-1s and V-2s. However, there was never any thought
of surrendering
: we always thought we'd win the war; and
posters - like other official forms of propaganda - played an
important part in keeping-up morale'.
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