Background:Signal was one of the major propaganda publications
of the Third Reich, aimed primarily at an international audience. It was
a lavishly illustrated fortnightly magazine focusing on the war, but with
other human interest stories as well. Most issues had some color photographs.
It was published in 25 languages, the final issues appearing at the very
end of the war. At its height, about 2,500,000 copies of each issue were
printed. Although distributed in foreign countries, it was also intended
for the various foreign units allied with Germany. I have only a few issues
in my collection. There is an excellent web page on Signal
that provides more background.
Signal
This is the cover of an October 1940 issue. A German
plane flies along the English coast.
An interior photo from the October 1940 issue. The caption:
"Over England's rocky coast. British convoy routes pass alongside
the White Cliffs of Dover. Day and night, German fighters and bombers
flew above until England's eastern harbors were closed to all shipping
traffic. In hard battles in recent weeks, the Luftwaffe has won air
superiority both here and over the island beyond the White Cliffs."
This cover from July 1941 shows German airmen painting
the British ships they have sunk on the tail of their aircraft.
This is the cover of the December 1941 double issue.
The cover shows a German soldier writing to his mother from the Eastern
Front. The lead article, titled "Decision in the East,"
suggests that the Soviet Union is finished. There is considerable
coverage of the Russian campaign. Another article claims that Hitler
is much greater than Napoleon. There are further articles on glass
blowing, dancing, and a new film.
This page from the December 1941 issue shows the top
German military decorations.
This map from the December 1941 issue shows German military
successes in the Russian campaign. The circles show Soviet troops,
guns, and tanks destroyed in battles in those areas. The caption:
"Here the Soviet army was defeated. In seven battles of annihilation
(Bialystock-Minsk, Smolensk, Uman, Gomel, Kiev, on the Asov Sea, and
Brjansk-Wjasma), the Soviet Union lost its best armies and the greater
part of its tanks and artillery.... Their plan was for thousands of
tanks to flood over the Weichsel River toward Central Germany, then
further to the West. There they would join troops from the Lemberg
area, where there were also substantial attack forces prepared to
give Germany the death blow. That would have plunged Europe into unimaginable
chaos, from which there could have been no escape.
This cover from January 1942 shows captured Russians.
An interior article explains what would have happened if the Bolshevists
had carried out their plans to attack Germany. "As soon as Germany
was eliminated as a military force, there would be no further resistance
[in Europe]. German soldiers are fighting not for Germany alone. They
defend with their bodies the European fatherland, those cathedrals
that have not yet been converted to animal stalls."
This is the cover of the first issue for February 1943.
The picture is of the scuttled French battleship Strasbourg
in the harbor at Toulon (the French had scuttled their ships in Toulon
to keep them from falling into German hands). An article covers a
submarine base on the French coast. The defeat at Stalingrad is not
yet announced, and there is no mention of Stalingrad in the issue.
This picture of Admiral Raeder is from the first issue
in February 1943.
This is the cover of the first issue for December 1943.
The cover photo, titled "Countless," shows torpedoed British
seaman being helped ashore by the Portugese. By December 1943, Allied
bombing was having devastating effects on Germany. This issue has
two articles that attempt to persuade readers that the situation is
in hand. The first presents a "new
weapon against bombers," the second suggests that
the Allies are suffering unsustainable
losses.
This is the cover to a special
edition that accompanied
the #11/1944 issue. Released at the end of June, it was occasioned
by the first V-1 rocket attacks on England. It provides scant detail,
but suggests that Germany was simply taking just retalation on England
for its bombing of European cities.
