''Radio Londres'' (, French for "Radio London") was a
radio station
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio st ...
broadcast from 1940 to 1944 by the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...
to
Nazi-occupied France
The Military Administration in France (german: Militärverwaltung in Frankreich; french: Occupation de la France par l'Allemagne) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied z ...
. It was entirely in
French and was operated by the
Free French who had escaped from occupied France. It served not only to counter the propaganda broadcasts of German-controlled ''
Radio Paris
Radio Paris was a French radio broadcasting company best known for its Axis propaganda broadcasts in Vichy France during World War II.
Radio Paris evolved from the first private radio station in France, called Radiola, founded by pioneering Frenc ...
'' and the
Vichy government
Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its ter ...
's ''
Radiodiffusion Nationale'', but also to appeal to the French to rise up, as well as being used to send coded messages to the
French Resistance
The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...
.
Origin and purpose
In 1940, the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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opened its studio to the first members of the resistance who fled France's occupation by Germany. Radio Londres was born and would become the daily appointment of the French people for four years. It opened its transmission with : "''Ici Londres ! Les Français parlent aux Français...''" ("This is London! The French speaking to the French..."), now a very famous quote in France. It was the voice of
Free French Forces
__NOTOC__
The French Liberation Army (french: Armée française de la Libération or AFL) was the reunified French Army that arose from the merging of the Armée d'Afrique with the prior Free French Forces (french: Forces françaises libres, l ...
under
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government ...
, who, on 18 June 1940, made his famous
Appeal of 18 June
The Appeal of 18 June (french: L'Appel du 18 juin) was the first speech made by Charles de Gaulle after his arrival in London in 1940 following the Battle of France. Broadcast to Vichy France by the radio services of the British Broadcasting Cor ...
, inviting his compatriots to resist and rise against the occupation.
By means of broadcasts from Britain, the
French Resistance
The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...
found a voice that could be heard on the continent, serving to counter the
Nazi propaganda
The propaganda used by the German Nazi Party in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's dictatorship of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 to 1945 was a crucial instrument for acquiring and maintaining power, and for the implementation o ...
broadcasts of
Radio Paris
Radio Paris was a French radio broadcasting company best known for its Axis propaganda broadcasts in Vichy France during World War II.
Radio Paris evolved from the first private radio station in France, called Radiola, founded by pioneering Frenc ...
and
Radio-Vichy
Radio nationale, commonly called Radio-Vichy, was a radio station operated by the Vichy government of France between 6 July 1940 and 26 August 1944.
The armistice of 22 June 1940 signed by officials of Nazi Germany and the French Third Republic o ...
. Realising the negative effect that it had on their occupation, the Germans quickly prohibited listening to Radio Londres. Radio Londres also encouraged rising up against the occupation, including De Gaulle's calls to empty the streets of Paris for one hour, demonstrations, and the preparation of
D-Day, or the
V for Victory campaign, involving drawing a
V sign
The ''V sign'' is a hand gesture in which the index and middle fingers are raised and parted to make a V shape while the other fingers are clenched. It has various meanings, depending on the circumstances and how it is presented.
When display ...
on walls as an act of subversion. It also sent coded messages to the French resistance (see below).
Breaking with the formal style of the French radio stations, some young announcers (
Jacques Duchesne
General Jacques Charles René Achille Duchesne (3 March 1837 – 27 April 1918) was a 19th-century French military officer. He was born at Sens and entered Saint-Cyr in 1855, aged 18, and became a lieutenant in 1861.
Career
Duchesne fought in ...
,
Jean Oberlé,
Pierre Bourdan,
Maurice Schumann
Maurice Schumann (; 10 April 1911 – 9 February 1998) was a French politician, journalist, writer, and hero of the Second World War who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs under Georges Pompidou from 22 June 1969 to 15 March 1973. Schumann w ...
and
Pierre Dac
André Isaac (15 August 1893 Châlons-sur-Marne, France – 9 February 1975 Paris, France), better known as Pierre Dac, was a French humorist. During World War II, Pierre Dac was one of the speakers of the BBC's ''Radio Londres'' service to occ ...
) changed the tone with personal messages, sketches, songs, jokes and comic advertising.
Coded messages
Georges Bégué, an operative with the Special Operations Executive (SOE) had the idea of sending seemingly obscure personal messages to agents in the field, in order to reduce risky radio traffic.
Broadcasts would begin with "Before we begin, please listen to some personal messages." It was clear to nearly everyone that they were coded messages, often amusing, and completely without context. Representative messages include "Jean has a long moustache" and "There is a fire at the insurance agency", each one having some meaning to a certain resistance group. They were used primarily to provide messages to the resistance, but also to thank their agents or simply to give the enemy the impression that something was being prepared. Because these messages were in
code
In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communication ...
, not
cipher
In cryptography, a cipher (or cypher) is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption—a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure. An alternative, less common term is ''encipherment''. To encipher or encode i ...
, the occupiers could not hope to understand them without a codebook, so they had to focus their efforts on
jamming the messages instead.
From the beginning of June 1944, the
Allies inundated the network with messages. On 1 June alone, over 200 messages were sent, making it clear to those listening that something was in the works. Although in some places the
Axis
An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to:
Mathematics
* Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis
*Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinate ...
jamming was more effective than others, the
background noise
Background noise or ambient noise is any sound other than the sound being monitored (primary sound). Background noise is a form of noise pollution or interference. Background noise is an important concept in setting noise levels.
Background no ...
and static were not enough to drown out the sound of
Beethoven's 5th Symphony, the first four notes of which correspond to the dot-dot-dot-dash of the
Morse code
Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one ...
letter V for Victory.
Shortly before the D-Day landings of 6 June 1944, ''Radio Londres'' broadcast the first
stanza
In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian ''stanza'' , "room") is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme and metrical schemes, but they are not required to have eithe ...
of
Paul Verlaine
Paul-Marie Verlaine (; ; 30 March 1844 – 8 January 1896) was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement and the Decadent movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the ''fin de siècle'' in international and F ...
's poem "''
Chanson d'automne
"Chanson d'automne" ("Autumn Song") is a poem by Paul Verlaine (1844–1896), one of the best known in the French language. It is included in Verlaine's first collection, '' Poèmes saturniens'', published in 1866 (see 1866 in poetry). The po ...
''" to let the resistance know that the invasion was imminent. The first part of the stanza, ''Les sanglots longs des violons de l’automne'' ("the long sobs of the violins of autumn") indicated that the invasion would begin within 24 hours; the second, ''Blessent mon cœur d'une langueur monotone'' ("wound my heart with a monotonous languor") was the specific call to action.
By late 1944, Allied victory in France meant the end of Radio Londres.
See also
*
German occupation of France during World War II
The Military Administration in France (german: Militärverwaltung in Frankreich; french: Occupation de la France par l'Allemagne) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied z ...
*
French Resistance
The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...
*
Liberation of France
The liberation of France in the Second World War was accomplished through diplomacy, politics and the combined military efforts of the Allied Powers, Free French forces in London and Africa, as well as the French Resistance.
Nazi Germany inva ...
*''
Radio Belgique
Radio Belgique ( French) and Radio België (Dutch) were radio broadcasts transmitted to German-occupied Belgium from London during World War II. It was produced with the support of the Belgian government in exile and formed part of the BBC's ...
''
*''
Radio Londra
Radio London (in Italian Radio Londra) was the name used in Italy for the radio broadcasts of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), starting from 27 September 1938, aimed at the populations of German-dominated continental Europe.
The ide ...
''
*
Verlaine Message Museum
References
* "Radio Londres : Les voix de la liberté (1940-1944)" by Aurélie Luneau, Librairie Académique Perrin edition,
External links
*
*
Internet Archive: Brassey's D-Day Encyclopedia: The Normandy Invasion A-Z. By Barrett Tillman p.52."> Internet Archive: Brassey's D-Day Encyclopedia: The Normandy Invasion A-Z. By Barrett Tillman p.52.*
*
"''Les Français parlent aux Français''" sur ''Chemins de mémoire''*
Ici Londres - Les messages personnels de la BBC*
Radio France - Inauguration de l'Espace Radio Londres(Announcement of conversion of the spaces into a museum)
*
* Aurélie Luneau, ''Radio Londres - 1940-1944 - Les voix de la liberté'', éd. Librairie Académique Perrin, 2005, 349p.. and
Audio clips
ArchivesRadioSobbing violins of autumn''The Longest Day''
{{Authority control
Defunct radio stations in the United Kingdom
BBC World Service foreign language
French Resistance
History of telecommunications in France
Operation Overlord
Radio during World War II
Radio stations established in 1940
1940 establishments in England
1944 disestablishments in England
Special Operations Executive
France–United Kingdom relations
Radio stations disestablished in 1944
Defunct mass media in France