Radio Was the Ultimate Weapon

Radio reached people at home, and propagandists exploited that ruthlessly. "Tokyo Rose" mixed jazz with demoralizing messages aimed at American troops in the Pacific. "Lord Haw-Haw" (William Joyce) mocked Britain nightly from Berlin.

The Allies had a powerful answer: the BBC. Its broadcasts carried real news into countries the Nazis had occupied, and that honesty became a weapon of its own.

The BBC's reputation for honest reporting, even when the news was bad, made it the most trusted source across occupied Europe. People risked prison to listen. And the network did more than report: it broadcast coded messages to the French Resistance ahead of D-Day in June 1944.