Article Daily Telegraph, September, 1939

The articles text must be considered propaganda ('we have to show our people that we are able to fly missions over Germany') as these early leaflets texts were not that succesful at all. It took some time before it was realized that the texts on these white propaganda leaflets should follow certain rules in how to address the German people. The propagandists did not yet understand that propaganda, to an enemy that was on the winning hand, was not that easy.

One example leaflet as meant in the article.
Leaflet EH.276 front. Over 5 million airdropped 5/9 september 1939.
Dropped and found (for example) in:
Geestrup Danmark, 6/9/39 Trier, Neustadt-W, Braunschweig, Dessau, Erfurt,
Halle, Hannover, 11/9/39 Darmstadt, Frankfurt/M, Karlsruhe.
Translation underneath.

AIR RAID FOR PROPAGANDA

13 TONS OF PAPER DROPPED

By Our Diplomatic Correspondent.

The fact that the Royal Air Force planes, which carried out raids over north and western Germany during Sunday-Monday night, were not engaged either by German fighters or anti-aircraft guns would seem to throw an important light on the efficiency of German air raid precautions.

During their visit they scattered 6,000,000 leaflets telling the German people something of the circumstances in which they had been plunged into a world war by Hitler.

It can readily be judged that a large number of British bombers must have taken part in this operation since the bulk of paper carried and dropped over German territory would approximate in weight to about 13 tons. It should not be assumed however, that the statement that the British raiders were "not engaged" means that no effort was made to intercept them.

On the contrary. It is probable that German fighters were up with a view to intercepting the machines, but failed to find them.

Berlin's Admission

The Berlin wireless admits that British planes succeeded in dropping leaflets over Germany. It alleges that the machines flew over the Netherlands, and that they were driven back by German anti-aircraft guns after having dropped leaflets.

The German wireless adds that according to a statement from The Hague the planes flew so high that it was impossible to recognise to which Air Force they belonged.

Daily Telegraph
September 9, 1939

Translation of leaflet EH.276

Warning!

England to the German people

This war is a crime. The German people must quite clearly distinguish between the pretexts employed by its government so as to unleash war and the principles which have forced England and France to defend Poland.

From the very beginning the English government has made it clear that the Polish question is not one which can justify a European war with all its tragic consequences.

Five months after the Munich Agreement the independence of Czecho-Slovakia was brutally trodden underfoot. So that Poland shall not also suffer the same fate, we must insist that peaceful methods of negotiation shall not be rendered impossible through threats of force, and that in the negotiations which are requisite the Poles right to live must be guaranteed and honourably kept. We cannot accept or admit a Diktat.

If Herr Hitler believes that the English government, out of fear of war, will allow the Poles to be left in the lurch, then he has been deceiving himself. In the first place England will not break her pledged word. Furthermore, it is high time that the brutal force whit which the Nazi regime strives to dominate the World should be halted.

Through this war the German Chancellor places himself against the unbending resolution of the English government, a resolution which has behind it not only the resources and means of the whole English Commonwealth, but also a union of other great Powers. It is a question of the salvation of human freedom and the right of peoples to live free.

Up to the very last moment the Pope, the President of the United States and the King of the Belgians, in the name of Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland, made fruitless appeals to your Nazi government, urgently requesting that negotiations should be chosen in the place of war.

Now a catastrophe has broken out upon you in that the Reich finds itself isolated from the community of civilised peoples, without any support save that of Communist Russia.

You cannot win this war. Against you are arrayed resources and materials far greater than your own.

For years you have been subjected to the most stringent censorship, and by means of an incredible system of secret police and informers the truth has been withheld from you.

Against you stands the united strength of the free peoples, who with open eyes will fight for freedom to the last.

This war is as repulsive to us as it is to you, but do not forget that England, once forced into war, will wage it unwaveringly to the end. England's nerves are strong, her resources inexhaustible. We will not relent.

Pass on (this leaflet)