Axis Sally's "This is Germany Calling" shortwave radio signature heralded one of the most notorious anti-Allied propaganda broadcasts of World War II. Her sexy voice and clever mix of musical entertainment with morale-shaking commentaries and dramatic sketches were familiar to Gls in every zone of the European theater of operations.

     Mildred Gillars began her radio work in 1940, after efforts to secure a job as an actress in the United States failed and she moved to Berlin. With the outbreak of World War II, radio propaganda became an important instrument in Germany's psychological warfare campaign. When the Propaganda Ministry began expansion of the Europiiische Fremdsprachendienste (European Foreign Language Service), Gillars was offered a position as an announcer and commentator for the British zone. In the summer of 1940, during the Battle of Britain, Gillars blanketed the island with anti-British propaganda from the Reich's Bremen shortwave station. In her Bremen Sender program, she commented on the course of the air battle (magnifying German victories) and entertained listeners with the light jazz of "Charlie and His Orchestra." On one occasion, Gillars interviewed captured British fliers at the Dulag Nord transit camp.

     When British and German forces clashed in North Africa in early 1941, Gillars transferred to the Europdische Fremd­ sprachendienste's southern broadcasting· zone and began transmitting her Anzac Tattoo: From the Enemy to the Enemy program from the 100-kilowatt medium wave unit at Graz­ Doble, Austria. The Commonwealth troops of General Wavell's Eighth Army tuned in every Saturday night to this 30-minute offering, ignoring the anti-Allied remarks in preference to the musical numbers and Gillars's seductive "bedroom voice."

     When the tide of battle began to shift adversely for Germany following the November 1942 Allied invasion of North Africa, the propagandistic element in Gillars's broadcasts became more prominent and more malignant. For the 65,000

     U.S. First Army troops who listened to her Thursday night Home Sweet Home program, "Axis Sally," as the Gl's now dubbed her, presented a warm picture of recently abandoned family life and added, "You'll get back to all that when the war is over, if you're still alive." Sally also made soldiers uneasy by emphasizing their pawnlike status. "How did I let myself get roped into Churchill's and Roosevelt's war business?" she had one character remark. "After all, God can save the King. Americans don't need to bother about him." Axis Sally's broadcasts constantly exploited GI lack of training and fear of imminent death. Prior to one engagement she warned, "You poor, silly, dumb lambs, on your way to be slaughtered." Personal resentments against officers, war profiteers, scheming politicians, and military discipline were also exploited. Her most effective device for undermining morale, though, was her shrewd manipulation of the GI's romantic anxieties. In a 1943 broadcast, Sally queried, "And what are your girls doing tonight, fellows? You really can't blame them for going out to have some fun, could you? It's all so empty back there now. Better to go out for some drinks with that 4-F boyfriend than sit and wait forever, doing nothing ... especially if you boys get all mutilated and do not return in one piece." This was followed by renditions of "Can I Forget You" and "Somebody Stole My Gal."

     Another disturbing feature of Axis Sally's broadcasts was her apparent ubiquity. GIs of the U.S. Sixth Corps waiting in transports off the coast of Salerno in 1943 heard her warn, "Thousands and thousands and thousands of you men going from ... Sicily to Europe are on your last round-up," followed by the song of the same name. Listeners aboard one U.S. merchantman were astonished when, within 90 minutes of their sailing past Gibraltar, Axis Sally was on the air describing the convoy in detail-number and type of ships, cargo, and so on. Sally's messages were frequently beamed across the Atlantic. "You women in America waiting for the one you love. Waiting and weeping in the safety of your own rooms ... Thinking of the son, husband, brother who is being sacrificed ... Perishing on the fringes of Europe ... Losing their lives, at best coming back crippled."

     In mid-1943, Sally expanded her on-air operations when she and Otto Koischwitz (another influential North America service propagandist, with whom she had a long-running affair and who may have gotten her into the radio business in the first place) began originating broadcasts from Allied prisoner­ of-war camps in Germany. After presenting herself as an International Red Cross representative, she allowed Gls to transmit 25-word messages to their folks back home. Although she would later claim a humanitarian motive, these Medical Reports were pure propaganda. Every broadcast dwelt on the idyllic character of camp life-with obliging guards and tanned and cake-eating inmates.

     In the fall of 1943, Sally followed Allied forces on their invasion of the Italian mainland. Her Midge at the Mike program was immensely popular with Gls, despite its constant drumming of themes like homefront betrayal and violent death. Sally's sexy tones and the lively vibes featuring Amer­ica's big band artists brought warmth to many remote hillside foxholes. She ended each broadcast with "That's all boys and a kiss from Sally." In February 1944, German aircraft dropped program schedules along the entire Allied line of advance.

     By spring 1944, Axis Sally was the highest-paid foreign language broadcaster in the Third Reich, and her notoriety encouraged several imitators in the European theater. With the increasing artistic freedom that accompanied her rising status, she helped produce one of the best-known German propaganda dramas of World War II, Vision of Invasion. Broadcast on 12 May 1944 to the American home front and to U.S. troops gathering in southeastern England for D day (three weeks before the actual operation), Vision of Invasion was a warning of the catastrophe awaiting Allied forces when they disembarked onto Hitler's fortified continent. The program opened with an announcer declaring "D day. D stands for Doom, Disaster, Defeat, and Death!" The action alternated between an apprehensive transport-bound GI and his grieving mother at home (played by Sally). "The invasion will be sui­cide," she laments, "and between 70 and 90 percent of the boys will be killed or maimed for life."

     To counter Sally's growing influence, the American Armed Forces Radio Service multiplied the number of shortwave transmitters in its zones of occupation and expanded its schedule of anti-Axis programming. Morale-boosting offerings for Allied consumption were also increased, and an anti-Sally character was created in the form of "GI Jill," who presented the same mix of vibrant music and alluring commentary. In addition, U.S. broadcasters began a vigorous on-air effort to discredit Sally. At home, a federal grand jury indicted her, in absentia, for wartime treason.

     In the summer of 1944, Sally was dispatched to France where, using special mobile transmitters, she tried to foment confusion and undermine morale among advancing Allied troops. After the Allied sweep out of Brittany, Sally retired to Paris, where she endeavored to stir up French resentment against the American bombing campaign, told of increased Allied disunity, and informed soldiers of the ingratitude of "liberated" Frenchmen. After a brief stint at Hilversum studios in Holland, Sally returned to Berlin and continued her broadcasts at KWS until the end of the war. In the spring of 1945, with Allied troops closing in on Germany from all directions, Sally tried to counter the impression of German defeat by broadcasting from officer's parties and official galas. In the last weeks of the conflict, she advised Gis to shirk their duties lest they become unnecessary casualties.

     After the war Sally lived in a Berlin basement until arrested by U.S. intelligence agents in March 1946. She spent 6 months at the Oberursel detention facility and 19 months in another U.S. Army prison in Germany. On 24 January 1949 she was tried in the United States for high treason and was ultimately given a 1o- to 30-year sentence and a $10,000 fine. Although no firm evidence could be produced indicating her ideological commitment to Nazism (hence the relatively light sentence), enough pro-Hitler and anti-Semitic utterances could be gleaned from shortwave transcripts to condemn her. After 12 years in a West Virginia women's reformatory, she was paroled in July 1961. She returned to Ohio Wesleyan University to complete her bachelor's degree in speech communication. She died on 25 June 1988 in Columbus, Ohio.