The war of the airwaves

From the start of the Phoney War, a war of the airwaves set the radio stations against one another. Germany broadcast propaganda programmes in French towards France, including those of a certain Paul Ferdonnet, nicknamed "the traitor of Stuttgart", who dispensed defeatism, division and demoralising news to sap French morale. In response, French radio tried to counter this influence.

For you, the listener, the temptation to listen to "Radio Stuttgart" arose. To listen out of curiosity or to "know what the enemy is saying", at the risk of absorbing its propaganda. To turn away from it out of patriotism, sticking to French radio. Or to listen with a critical mind, to decode and denounce the manipulation.

Radio had become a weapon: it shaped opinions, sowed doubt and exploited divisions. To listen to the enemy was to risk relaying its rumours and its defeatism; but to ban it altogether was impossible. The "war of the airwaves" foreshadowed the decisive role that radio would play under the occupation — Radio Stuttgart on the enemy side, the BBC on the Allied side.