Members of East Kilbride Probus club heard from speaker Ian Garden at their latest meeting, with a talk entitled “Telling lies in wartime and 1942 Dieppe raid”.
Ian has spent much of his life working in banking, including a posting to Frankfurt; which allowed him to indulge his interest in World War II film propaganda and later saw him publish his book, Battling with the Truth, about the Third Reich’s film war.
He shared examples of how some major events during the war were respectively reported, beginning with the mistaken bombing of Freiburg by the Luftwaffe in 1940.
A total of 57 people were killed when the town was bombed by military thinking that they were over France – but it was then described as having been a British raid.
Ian also spoke about the famous Dambusters Raid of May 1943, telling how the breaching of the Mohne and Edersee dams boosted morale back home; but that it took the British a few days to release news of the loss of 53 crew and eight plans, while a further three personnel were captured.
He added that it was never reported that some 600 civilians and 1000 prisoners and slaves were lost.
Ian went on to talk about the Artic convoys, particularly PQ17 in June 1942 which saw ships full of American tanks and armaments set out from Iceland for Russia.
Germany reported on July 8 that they had destroyed 23 ships. Those sunk contained 430 tanks and 210 planes and only four ships reached their destination; but little was reported by Britain due to the likely effect on morale.
The expert speaker next showed two films about the 1942 Dieppe raid to illustrate how each side saw the same event – with the considerable Allied losses being “downgraded” in the British version whereas they were “exaggerated” in the German version.
Ian concluded by pointing out that “fake news” continues to be an issue, but which is heightened in wartime as can be seen from the situation in Ukraine.
The vote of thanks was given by Ray Jones, who said that he had had a fascination with WWII since his father had been involved, and quoted Winston Churchill who had said: “In wartime truth is so precious, that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.”
The Probus club’s next event is its spring lunch on March 15, followed by its AGM on April 12, while the 2023-2024 session will begin on October 4. More details about the club are available online.
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