Historiker
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Joined: 7/4/2007
From: Deutschland
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish
Thanks for the interesting posts, Historiker. Like tocaff I have sometimes wondered in what ways the Axis governments tried to spin obvious defeat into assertions of victory.
"Defeatist" talk was grounds for imprisonment in Japan, though not for execution. This policy was laxly and inconsistently enforced near the start of the war but much more stringently so as things started to go badly. Beatings were used freely to elicit confessions and that there was little or no due process for accused citizens.
As the jails got to be too crowded, thanks to the zeal of informers, the Tokko, and the Kempeitai, citizens were often able to win their freedom by renouncing their statements and promising to toe the line in the future. The recidivism rate for those released in this manner was reportedly very low
It was quite a bit different for military personnel, I think. Those who dared to speak the truth were sometimes shunted off to desk jobs in distant corners of the Empire, sometimes ignored, and sometimes even admired in a sneaky sort of way. Those who have read Hara's "Japanese Destroyer Captain" might recall the incident where he angrily harangues a bunch of superiors about the conduct of the war and gets completely away with it, somewhat to his surprise.
My comment is still incomplete...
While all I've written is true, I#ve not mentioned some points.
Until autum 1944, the German army was still that strong, that there wasn't an urgent need for worry - if you aren't informed. Of course, the bombardement of citys was obvious, but it was unimportant.
The government never lied about the fact that the enemy is much stronger. In 41-42, this strength was the argument for the war because the people could see, how important the attack was, as the "bolshewik" had attacked two to three weeks later (official language). After that, they slowly changed their language. From then on, the retreat wasn't hidden - but it was always planned. You see videos about german engineers blowing up bridges and towers, that "nothing falls in enemy hands". While the loss of the Crimea was a disaster, the newsreel tells that the evacuation was successfull.
Slowly but steady, it wasn't able to hide the change in war - but Germany still had an advantege:
1. the "wonder-weapons" (Wunderwaffen): Showing the people the V1 and V2 as well as rocket and turbine planes made good impression. Of course, if the Führer's Wehrmacht will have these arms in great numbers, soon - why should we worry?
2. The strength of arms: Even for military greenhors it was obvious, that the german tanks where stronger than everything in the west. As these tanks were new, it's ok that they didn't show their impact, yet.
3. The Bolshewik threat: The russian demon was created over the years. From the beginning on, the newsreels show nearly only mongolian soldiers. I can't remeber a single newsreel, where one can see the "russian arians" - which of course exist - just look at Alexandre Vinokourov... So the closer they came, the more this picture was shown. More and more fear was spread under the population (not without reason as history shows). So even if it was obvious the war is lost, the soldiers fought on not only of fear for the Feldgendarmerie (MPs) but to protect their familys, too. So the newsreels then showed about the Abwehrschlacht (defensive battles) and said things like "This is where the bolshewik hordes have to be stopped or europe is lost...
Moreover, it was important what you see.
It wasn't seen that the enemy has breaken through - it was only shown where a breakthrough was defeated and local counterattacks. It wasn't said "Half of the German army in the east is cut off in Kurland" - it was said "since month, the troops under Generalobert von Vietinghoff hold out for xy month now while the enemy suffers heavy losses"
So it always depends on what you tell. If you loose Noumea, a german newsreel will be:
1. Enemy forces of enourmus strength landed under the cover of a dozend carriers in noumea.
2. the glorious navy engaged the enemy fleet near new caledonia. after several days of bitter fighting, the enemy was driven back under heavy losses. After achieving their goals and fighting bravely against the enemy superiority, the crews of the ... stayed saluting on their ships while it was going down. (I'm uncertain about that, because germany could afford to loose ships as nobody had illusions about the strength of the enemy. Japan instead wanted to rule the waves. Germany would rather tell "30 ships with 267.000 BRT sunk" - without telling how many subs were lost)
3. After 25 days of harsh fighting and spending their last ammunition, the garrison of noumea did their final banzaii attack tonight. In this 25 days, the enemy suffered heavy losses. 62 tanks and 125 artillery pieces are confirmed destroyed. The enemy lost men in the strength of 3 brigades while desperatly trying to break through.
something like that 
The enemy always suffers most and the focus lies on the good news - as every incidient may have its good point, you just have to search it.
There was i.e. a leaflet about italy. On it was shown, how far the allies have come and this route was compared with a slug/snail. In all this months, the allies didn't come as far as this slowls animal would have come.
Half of Italy was lost, but who cares? The Allies were slow in their advance - aren't they weak? You might tell that even a tree would have drifted farer and faster than they are now...
Morevoer, the focus is on the enemy losses.
Interesting, too:
The german media had headlines like this in summer to autum 1941:
- 500.000 enemy soldiers captured
- kiev conquered, 250.000 captured
- 500.000 captured and dead, enemy is about to crumble
- enemy defeat is imminent
- enemy will break in 8 weaks
- enemy can't hold out longer than 4 weeks
- 35 ships sunk with 250.000 BRT 
So when the enemy wasn't breaking nor capitulationg, why write that? Simply take another good news as headline
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