Great War Relics
Military Stuff Shop 

  ADDITIONAL INTERESTING INFORMATION
Much was made of the dictatorial nature of Hitler's government. Germany was treated as a particular font of evil within the Axis, and a greater threat than Japan and Italy. Churchill presented Hitler as the central issue of the war. The Germans were also presented as evil, with some stating that the concentration camps would not have been possible on French or British soil. The sinking of the SS Athenia, killing civilians including Americans, on the first day of the war was widely exploited as demonstrating that the U-boat was the same instrument of terror as in World War I; the Germans attempted to counter it by claiming the British had sunk the ship themselves to blacken Germany. The film Men of the Lightship was created to foment anti-German feeling; not only do the Germans attack a lightship, not traditionally regarded as a proper target, but machine-gun the survivors in the water, so that only one lives. Posters depicted Germans in a sinister light. Propaganda shifted from downplaying raids to playing them up, to inspire hatred of the enemy, and sympathy with neutrals, despite the encouragement that this might give the enemy and its potential impact on the calm of the populace. Atrocity reports were presented both as summaries of known facts and news reports as they occurred. Alternative history novels depicted Nazi invasions of Great Britain as a form of "cautionary tales". Up until 1943, these were grim tales, presenting British victims; after that, a more heroic note increased. The instant—and unauthorised—rejection of the peace terms of Hitler's 19 July 1940, speech by Sefton Delmer on the BBC produced a great impact on Germany; Goebbels believed it had to show governmental inspiration, and while propaganda efforts were made to talk the British around, the German press were instructed to attack the rejection. The speed of the rejection unquestionably led the great impact, which authorisation would have prevented; this produced consternation in the government, as the effect was desirable, but they did not know whether such a spokesman would again happen to say what the government wanted.