Poison Cornflakes for Breakfast

SGM Herbert A. Friedman (Ret.) 

Modified versions of this article were first published in the Society of Philatelic Americans Journal, Volume 34, No. 6, February 1972, and the German Postal Specialist, Volume 38, No. 2, February 1987.

The Story of Cornflakes, Pig Iron and Sheet Iron

Operation Cornflakes is one of the best known Office of Strategic Services (OSS) secret “black” operations of WWII. The reason it is so well known is that the OSS Rome Detachment prepared publicity booklets to be given to visiting politicians and members of the Congressional Oversight Committee. They realized that these people held the OSS purse-strings, and they wanted to keep them happy and up-to-date on current projects. It is not known exactly how many such booklets, entitled The Story of Cornflakes, Pig Iron and Sheet Iron exist, but I have seen numbers as high as 20 to 30. We must point out here that there are two different kinds of Cornflakes publications. One is a thin paper-back publicity booklet that explains the operations and contains photographs and souvenirs. The other is a large hard-cover scrapbook that contains about 400 OSS specimens. They are very different and obviously the scrapbook is worth far more than the publicity booklet. After the war, a few such booklets were found in the attic of the home where OSS members were housed. Shortly after the war some were sold for $250. Years later, in 1984 one of the scrapbooks was offered at auction estimated at $5000. The description was:

The original complete sample book displaying extensive anti-Hitler and anti-Fascist literature, newspapers, propaganda, leaflets, etc. as printed and compiled by one of the directors of the whole operation, Robert Allen. Well over 300 items, the documents are mostly in German but also some in Italian and Russian. Included is a large production report, photographs of the presses and a complete sheet of 50 of the Hitler Death Mask propaganda label as manufactured by the Rome printing presses.

My entry on First Lieutenant Robert Allen states that he was an Army intelligence officer who entered the service on 29 December 1943 at the age of 25 and arrived in Rome on 3 August 1944. His separation papers state:

He was assigned to the Office of Strategic services and went to Italy where he was the Executive Officer of an OSS branch collecting and evaluating intelligence on foreign policies. He also supervised the operation of a print shop. In June 1945 he became Executive Officer of a Field Photographic branch of OSS supervising taking still and motion pictures and supervising work on aerial photography.

He saved specimens the OSS Rome propaganda in several scrapbooks to preserve documentation for congressional leaders who would determine support for MO activities. Early data implied that at least four of Allen’s scrapbooks survived the war. In addition, Army Corporal Egidio Clementi, the chief printer, collected two specimen copies of all printed MO Rome propaganda. In the 1960s he donated one set to Guilio Polotti, the president of the Anna Kuliscioff Foundation in Milan, Italy.

Another such “Allen scrapbook” was bought privately about the same time for $3700. The seller of the book claimed that Robert Allen had prepared six such large scrapbooks, with heavy covers, about 1 inch thick, and fastened with three brass screw-and-socket connectors. The pages were 15 x 22-inches. Some of the items were marked “attic” so they might have been from the cache found in the Rome attic. This book contained 64 pages, with about 290 major documents and 190 small stickers, with minor duplication, making a total of about 480 pieces. Among the more interesting items were 14 of the OSS postcards; 6 feldpost letter sheets; 1 feldpost wrapper; 1 “Sign of Life” postcard; 1 complete sheet of the Futsches Reich skull stamp parody; 2 sex leaflets; and 1 sex booklet. There were several copies of Das Neue Deutschland (small size), and many other non-philatelic documents.

A third Cornflakes scrapbook was offered in Switzerland about the same time estimated at $6000. The description of this book includes:

…It is stated that only three copies of these records were made, one of which is in the Library of Congress…In this volume there are 24 photographs of various stages of the Austrian operation…205 items for Germany including 4 feldpost letter cards, 4 music sheets, 140 notices to the German civilians and armed forces (leaflets, letters and gummed stickers), 12 copies of Das Neue Deutschland…

In addition, there were 48 items for Austria, 8 items for Czechoslovakia, 1 item for Hungary, and 46 items for Italy.

A fourth scrapbook, marked “Attic,” was auctioned in 1971. Apparently the owner had both the booklet and the scrapbook.  He told me:

There are two books. One printed in which photographs of the various stages of the operation were included and which had the printed history of the event. The bound volume contains certain exhibits which have been mounted on album pages for display. They were found in the attic but the apartment has been used by American officials since the occupation of Rome and it would appear that one of the predecessors left these two volumes together with a third volume in the attic. The third volume is a German order of battle printed in English and kept up to date with pencil notes.

We have no knowledge of what the book or books sold for.

There may have been a fifth scrapbook. We are not sure, but we know that Georges Meyer, former Director of Services for the French War Ministry of Press and Information apparently had a collection that he was given by the French forger Schuhl. Meyer’s collection was deposited in the Service Historique de l'Armée at Castle Vincennes. The last I heard, the collection was unaccounted for, so it may have been sold to a private party.

Each of the soft cover Cornflakes booklets and scrapbooks was a little different. The booklets were prepared as needed and filled with the various propaganda stamps, postcards, letter sheets, leaflets and stickers that were available in the OSS printing shop. In addition, many contained photographs of the operation.

The term “cornflakes” is a special term and we must be careful how we use it. Because almost 400 items are known in the various Cornflakes scrapbooks, all these items have been called and labeled as Cornflakes products. In fact, many of the items were prepared for other campaigns like Operation Sauerkraut or dropped from aircraft along with weapons and ammunition to partisans behind German lines. As you will see in this article, there are numerous items identified as Cornflakes products, but in fact, since the operation was a very limited one involved with dropping mailbags over destroyed German trains, few of the items were really part of Operations Cornflakes. For the purposes of this article, anything found in one of the booklets or scrapbooks will be considered a Cornflakes product.

A Cornflakes printer stands by stacks of his propaganda products. We can identify leaflets of the series of sixteen entitled Wie lange noch? (“How much longer?”) at the far right of the table. Besides the leaflets, posters and gummed labels using a large 'W' as a symbol were placed on German vehicles, on walls, on doors and windows, in books and other appropriate places, by agents operating behind enemy lines

Before we discuss Operation Cornflakes perhaps we should mention the two operations that pre-dated Cornflakes, Operation Pig Iron and Sheet Iron. These two operations were Morale Operations’ (MO) initial attempts at air-dropped propaganda. Pig Iron was the dropping of miniature copies of Das Neue Deutschland (The New Germany) into the German homeland. MO photographically reduced the propaganda newspaper in size to 10 x 6-inches and proceeded to drop 10 million copies over Germany. The newspapers were packed into a special cylindrical device allowing them to slide into propaganda bombs. The leaflets were then transported to Foggia where they were packed into bombs. Once Cornflakes came online these miniature papers were placed into envelopes. They were also packed into food tins, cigarette packages, and even small cylindrical containers which could be floated by river behind German lines.

Das Neue Deutschland was a fictitious, clandestine peace party, allegedly organized in Germany in April 1944 whose goal was an anti-Nazi revolution and the re-creation of a liberal democratic Germany. Membership applications were dropped to enemy soldiers and civilians throughout Europe. Its official organ, the newspaper Das Neue Deutschland, had an initial average run of 75,000 copies and later increased to 1 million per issue.

Members of the Cornflakes group load leaflet bombs.
Notice the leaflet rolls in the background.

Sheet Iron was a similar operation. Instead of the German newspaper, this was the delivery of the Italian-language newspaper La Riscossa Italiana. Originally they were printed in Grenoble, France and infiltrated back into Italy by skiers. This newspaper was very special. The articles were written by partisans in Italy, then smuggled to MO where the newspapers were printed, reduced to one-fourth size by photography in the MO print shop, and then disseminated back behind the Italian lines. Later, 100,000 of the newspapers were printed in Rome and dropped by an A-20 medium bomber over Turin and other Northern Italian cities on Hitler’s birthday,  20 April 1945.

An OSS envelope with genuine stamp and copy of the Frankfurter Zeitung

As mentioned in the Donovan letter below, here is an envelope and copy of the OSS news paper Frankfurter Zeitung ready to be mailed into Germany.

William H. (Wild Bill) Donovan

Shortly after his death, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's stamp collection was sold at auction. One of the documents found in this accumulation was a letter to the President from William H. (Wild Bill) Donovan, Director of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). This letter indicated that the United States government had counterfeited German postage stamps and other documents:

                                                                                              October 24, 1944
Memorandum for the President:

I am herewith enclosing a copy of the FRANKFURTER ZEITUNG, together with copies of a Hitler stamp that I thought you would like to have for your collection.

You may he interested to know that the Hitler stamp was printed in Switzerland by the O.W.I. (Office of War Information) representatives and is one of the many different types of propaganda material that has been secretly printed and introduced into Germany by clandestine means since November of 1942.

Every fortnight approximately 500 to 1200 copies of the Frankfurter Zeitung are likewise sent into Germany where they are mailed to individuals whose addresses appear in the death notices of soldiers who are reported to have died for the fatherland.

(Signed) W.H. Donovan, Director

6-PFENNIG FORGERY SHEET

THE 12 PFENNIG FORGERY SHEET

The forgeries are of the 6 and 12 pfennig Hitler head stamps of 1941-1944. Several printings exist with minor differences. The stamps were printed at various times in both Rome and Bern, on different paper, with different perforations, with slight changes in color and the texture of the gum. The forgeries can be immediately recognized by their perforations, anywhere from 11 up to 13.  The genuine stamps are perforated 14. The exact number of forged stamps printed by the OSS is unknown, but one official document mentions the production of "726,550 facsimile German Postal Stamps."

THE HITLER SKULL FORGERY SHEET

In addition, a 12-pfennig parody was altered to show Hitler's head as a skull. This stamp is normally identified as "the Hitler skull stamp" or "the Hitler deaths-head stamp." The text at the bottom of the stamp was altered from DEUTSCHES REICH to FUTSCHES REICH ("LOST EMPIRE"). The OSS printed 1,138,500 of these parody postal stamps and shipped them to their agents al over Europe. The skull stamps were sometimes placed inside envelopes and mailed into Germany. The official OSS file number of the Hitler skull parodies, sometimes found stamped on an archived sheet is 307.

The forgeries were printed in sheets of 50 (five down, ten across). Because of the perforation difference, there is no need to provide a detailed description of the minor variations used to identify the frauds. The major campaign involving these forged stamps was code-named "Operation Cornflakes." This name was the natural result of the aim of the campaign, to place American propaganda on the German breakfast table each morning.

In neutral Switzerland, OSS maintained a headquarters in Bern beginning in May 1942, using the diplomatic cover provided by the OWI. There, the OSS (headed by Allen Dulles, who arrived in November 1942 and operated as code number 110, with cover name “Mr. Burns”) and the OWI (under Gerald Mayer, whose code number was 678) cooperated extensively on production of propaganda, and official correspondence on this subject seems to make little distinction between the offices. The Bern OSS unit operated from Herrengasse 23. The OSS established five sub-units in Switzerland: in Geneva, Zurich, Lugano, Ascona, and Basel. OSS operations were conducted with great caution to avoid exposure and arrest by the rigorously neutral Swiss.  

Two CIA agents named Gordon H. Torrey and Donald P. Avery who were both propaganda stamp collectors and displayed their collections at CIA headquarters were tasked to write a classified “Secret” report on the subject of espionage and propaganda stamps entitled Postal Forgeries in Two World Wars. This report was classified until 1993 when it was released under the CIA Historical Review program. On the subject of “Cornflakes” they said: 

The quality of the intelligence forgeries varied considerably. The British were by far the best because they were done by regular postage stamp production facilities in England. Those of the Americans and the French resistance were a good deal poorer, reflecting the cruder production facilities available in the field. It was apparently considered unnecessary to create exact reproductions for mass mailing purposes, and imperfections were probably unavoidable because of wartime shortages of material and technicians. A major problem in some British and all American issues was color control, achieving and maintaining precisely the right mixture of the printing ink; in wartime this is a problem even for legitimate postal administrations. Field production required substitute printing methods as well, with photolithography replacing engravure. Paper shortages and the apparent lack of suitable perforating machines led to other major technical discrepancies. But the imitation of watermarks on postal paper proved unnecessary: the watermark is undetectable once the stamp is affixed to an envelope. 

On one occasion the two agents put their collection on display in the small CIA museum just outside the cafeteria in the Langley headquarters. I stopped to view it on the way to lunch. It was entitled Postal Forgeries and Propaganda Stamps of Two World Wars. On four glass shelves were full sheets of the OSS forged German stamps, a Hitler birthday sheet, and other related items such as a copy of the clandestine newspaper Das Neue Deutschland.

   

  

Reproductions and facsimiles

Worthless Envelope with Fake Copy of OSS Hitler Skull Parody and Bogus Cancel

A word to the wise. Because of the historical interest in the OSS Cornflakes stamps, the Hitler skull stamp is sometimes offered for sale or auction. The normal price for a single 12-pfennig skull genuine parody is about $25. Because there are always people looking to make a fast buck, forgers and conmen have produced a whole series of Hitler skull facsimiles and reproductions. These stamps have no value. They are found in singles and blocks of four or nine, in green or red, perforated or imperforated, and sometimes with a fake cancel. We show a selection of such worthless fakes above.

On 5 April 1937, Germany issued a souvenir sheet in honor of the 48th birthday of Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler. In the center were four identical dark green 6-pfennig stamps showing the face of the German leader. An inscription at the bottom of the sheet read "WER EIN VOLK RETTEN WILL KANN NUR HEROISCH DENKEN" ("He who wants to save his people must think heroically").

Genuine Hitler Birthday Souvenir Sheet

The OSS red Hitler Birthday Sheet

The OSS produced a propaganda parody of this sheet meant to attack and ridicule Hitler and the Nazi Party. One of the earliest mentions of the propaganda sheet appears in Forged Stamps of Two World Wars, by L. N. and M. Williams, Verdant Press, London, 1954:

The Allied propagandists represented Hitler on numerous occasions as the personification of death itself, and this idea was expressed in several parodies of stamps put out by the Allies during the later stages of the war. The first intimation philatelists had that a Hitler "death's head" or "skull" stamp existed, came when the Roosevelt collection was dispersed. During the second auction a miniature sheet of four, copied from the miniature sheet issued by Germany in 1937 to mark Hitler's 48th birthday and with the same inscription at the foot but with each stamp showing a skull and a row of crosses as the centerpiece, realized 90 pounds.

Erwin Blumenfeld's photomontage of Hitler

In the Cinderella Philatelist of April 1963, Jan Kindler mentions the image on the stamp:

I can only add that the apparent source of its design was a photomontage created by the photographer Erwin Blumenfeld in 1932. It was exhibited at a show in Paris in 1937 but was removed after a protest by the German Government. Nevertheless, it became well known and the propaganda label was clearly influenced, if not actually suggested, by the trick photograph.

The H. R. Harmer Inc. catalog offering of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt postage stamp collection was held the evening of 4 April 1946. The Hitler birthday parody sheet was lot No. 738:

Propaganda in Germany, faked Hitler sheet, dark red, showing skull and cross bones design, printed in Switzerland and sent to widows and next of kin of German casualties. See next lot.

The following lot, No. 739 read:

Propaganda in Germany, Underground newspaper Frankfurter Zeitung, issue 451, secretly printed and introduced by clandestine means into Germany where they were mailed to individuals whose address appeared in the death notices of soldiers who are reported to have 'died for the Fatherland,' 6 pages.

Hitler is shown in full face over a field of 13 burial crosses. The 6-pfennig denomination has been replaced by a gallows at the top of the columns at the upper right and left of the stamps. There has been a slight addition to the text at the bottom of the stamp. "Deutsches Reich" ("German Empire") has been changed to "Deutsches Reich 1944."

Stamps of 6 July 1946 had a brief article entitled "O.S.S. Propaganda Stamps." A letter from Allen Dulles (OSS Switzerland) to General Donovan was reprinted in part. This letter told of the production of a:

...so-called Hitler stamp showing him as a death's head with skull and crossbones, which Gerry Mayer (OWI Switzerland) and I got out as black propaganda and smuggled into Germany in as many copies as we could get over the frontier.

OSS Patch

The printing operation in Switzerland is mentioned in War Report of the OSS, The Overseas Targets, Volume 2, Kermit Roosevelt, Walker and Company, NY, 1976:

Joint OSS/OWI operations were worked out in the field of propaganda warfare. The OSS mission had early established contact with a Frenchman, known under his cover name of 'Salembier,' who had been one of the French Deuxieme Bureau's chief propaganda artists in World War I. He knew his trade and was set up in business, operating from Geneva, by OSS and OWI jointly. Millions of pamphlets, leaflets, cards, postage stamps and every form of literary propaganda were printed and smuggled into Germany and Fascist Italy.

The man with the pseudonym Robert Salembier was actually Raymond A. Schuhl, nicknamed “Mutt.” He had been a French Army propagandist in WWI and volunteered to do the same for the Americans in WWII. His cover was “Alsatian businessman.” It appears that Gerry Mayer introduced him to Dulles. I have a copy of a 16 September 1943 note from “G.M.M.” to Dulles giving “Mutt’s” phone number and stating that he was staying at the Hotel Regina.

It is interesting to note that the OSS might have been printing propaganda in Bern, Geneva and Lausanne. We are not sure of the last location, but there is a Swiss Ministere Public Federal document from their General Prosecutor dated 29 September 1944 in my Salembier file that states:

The “imprimerie Centrale de Lausanne” has printed propaganda material in violation of Swiss neutrality and that propaganda is an outrage to a foreign Head of State.

Consequently: The manager of the printing house will be punished in the event of a subsequent crime. All the material seized is confiscated. 4 copies has been sent to the Police of Sûreté de Lausanne. 

Lausanne is city about 50 kilometers to the East of Geneva and 100 kilometers to the South of Bern. It is possible that this document was just added to the file to warn everyone that the Swiss were serious about the neutrality of their nation, but I think it is more likely that the OSS got caught preparing propaganda and this warning was placed into the clandestine printer’s file.

Salembier may have also used forged OSS stamps to send mail into Germany. OSS documents show that Salembier requested and was sent 10,000 stamps from Rome. He wanted to send mail into Germany by train. Since it was believed that this could only occur on a small scale, and MO Rome was already working on Cornflakes, they were not interested. Salembier was told to prepare his own fake letters in Switzerland and infiltrate them into Germany any way that he could. Nothing more is known of this operation.

At the end of the war Allen Dulles recommended Schuhl for a military medal but it was rejected. The U.S. Army was not about to give a French national a medal for producing black propaganda in Switzerland in violation of Swiss neutrality. He did, however, receive a letter from President Roosevelt dated 30 October 1944 thanking him for efforts on behalf of the Allied nations.

Close to two dozen full Hitler birthday sheets and one broken sheet are known to exist. The sheets are readily identified by the line perforations, which appear different in each known sheet.

The first of the sheets offered to the public was in a small group of propaganda items given to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt by General William Donovan, chief of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), on 24 October 1944. King Farouk of Egypt eventually acquired the Roosevelt red sheet. The second sheet came from Georges Meyer, former director of services for the French War Ministry of Press and Information. The sheet probably was a gift from Salembier. This sheet had a large OSS reference number "192" stamped to the left of the stamps. A second "192" red sheet belonged to Gordon H. Torrey, a former OSS and CIA employee. This sheet appeared in a 1997 exhibit at CIA Headquarters, in Langley, Virginia. Other sheets are in Germany, Great Britain, Australia, France, and three are in the United States.

Fake Hitler Birthday Sheet

The rarity of the genuine OSS Hitler birthday sheet made it a target for scammers and con men. This fake sheet shows ingenuity. The forger has taken the stamps showing Hitler in profile from the normal sheets of 50 and placed them in the birthday sheet where Hitler is normally depicted looking straight at the viewer. It is a nice fantasy product worth perhaps $5 to $10 as a conversation piece. It has no value as either a philatelic or PSYOP product.

OSS Green Hitler Birthday Sheet

The back of the OSS Green Hitler Birthday Sheet showing the rouletting

There is also a green version of the OSS Hitler birthday sheet. It is one of the great mysteries of espionage philately. They are rarer than the red sheets and only about a half-dozen are known to exist. Unlike the red sheet, the green sheet is not perforated. Instead, the stamps are separated by rouletting. There are a number of official documents and references that mention the red sheet so there has never been a question about its legitimacy. There is not a single official document that mentions the green sheet so it has always been questionable. There are fewer green sheets than red sheets. The rouletting shows only indistinctly in photographs or photocopies, thereby denying easy identification of individual sheets.

The first green sheet appeared in Bern, Switzerland sometime before 1962. We know nothing about the origin of the sheet but there was an OSS station in Bern so that places the sheet at the heart of OSS intrigue. The sheet was described as having two vertical folds since they were folded and distributed in envelopes. The size of the sheets will be mentioned again later. The propaganda sheet eventually was sold to an American collector for just over $2000.

A second sheet appeared sometime prior to 1978. The sheet had two staple holes in the right margin. It was claimed that an official OSS memorandum had been attached to the sheet. The memorandum allegedly mentioned the fact that the original German sheet was green and therefore the OSS parody also should be green. In addition, the memorandum questioned the advisability of producing the parody, since it would not fit on a standard German envelope while still leaving room for an address. The owner of this second sheet claimed to be under a constraint never to release this memo. It has never been seen and therefore many doubt its existence. That sheet was eventually sold in Europe for $4000. A third sheet surfaced in the St. Paul, Minnesota area. Other sheets are in private collections in the United States.

A Page from the Gasquiel Scrapbook

An OSS green Hitler birthday sheet was found in 50 kilograms of scrap paper bought about 1983 by a collector searching for postcards and autographs. Among the junk paper was a scrapbook that contained documents from the OSS forger Raymond Schuhl (Salembier) that apparently had been forwarded to his superior, a Mr. Gasquiel, at the French 2nd Bureau.

Most importantly, the scrapbook contains a page that bears a specimen of the genuine German Hitler birthday sheet, a red OSS Hitler birthday sheet, and a green Hitler birthday sheet. This is not quite a "smoking gun." We have no direct statement from Schuhl saying "I made it," but the fact that it is displayed on the same page as the red sheet tells us that very likely the green sheet is in fact, genuine.

In 2008, researcher Lee Richards discovered a specimen of the OSS green Hitler birthday sheet in the Hoover Institute Archives at Stanford University. The collection consists of about 400 leaflets. Although the origin of this collection is unknown it was originally in an album as many of the leaflets were still attached to a backing paper and missing items from the collection were acknowledged with a paper label saying, “Supplies of this number exhausted.” The collection contains both OWI and OSS propaganda as might be expected from Bern, since both agencies worked closely together and used the same printing shops. As a result of this find and the earlier Gasquiel discovery, we can now say with some certainty that the green sheet is a genuine OSS philatelic parody.

Fake green Hitler Birthday Sheets (with and without perforations)

Since some of these green Hitler sheets have been known to sell for over a thousand dollars, the fakers and forgers were quick to produce imitations to bilk unwary collectors. The fakes are of very poor quality and should not fool anyone who has studied the OSS productions.

In conclusion, the OSS produced four different postage stamps. The first two are the 6 and 12 pfennig Hitler head forgeries, the last two are the Hitler Skull stamp and the Hitler commemorative birthday stamp sheet (in both green and red).

Operations Cornflakes was designed to drop German mail sacks containing subversive material in carefully addressed envelopes inside the Reich alongside shot-up enemy trains. After the fighter-bombers stopped the train with their bombing and strafing fire, they would drop mailbags filled with propaganda letters into the wreckage. The Germans would find the bags and presume that they came from the damaged train. They would then deliver them as normal mail. The growing disruption of the German transportation system caused much mail to be misdirected and scattered about the country. Further, it was thought that any average citizen or soldier upon discovering legitimate German mail sacks in a recently bombed rail terminus or along the railroad tracks would turn them over to the postal authorities for delivery to their proper destination.

The project was initiated in January of 1945. The German mail system was investigated. German POWs who had been postal clerks were questioned on regulations, details of postal cancellations and the correct methods for packing and labeling mail sacks. Their answers were studied and cross-checked in order to obtain every detail of the system. Samples of stamps, postal cancellations, German businesses letters, and mail sacks were obtained.

OSS Agent in the Rome Printing Plant inspects propaganda material

The Stabilimento Ariside Staderini Print Shop in Rome was the OSS Plant where the forged stamps and envelopes were manufactured.  Mail sacks and sack labels were reproduced. The 15th Army Air Force was tasked with the responsibility of delivering the "mail." They were already dropping propaganda leaflets and material to partisans behind the German lines. Special bombs were designed with the capacity to carry several mailbags; each stuffed with about 800 letters. The bombs were programmed to explode about fifty feet above the target, thus allowing the released mail sacks to reach the target undamaged.

There are numerous declassified OSS documents that mention Cornflakes. An OSS progress report dated 28 March 1945 states that Morale Operations Detachment Six was established to carry out Cornflakes and Pig Iron operations where liaison with the 15th Air Force was required. The initial detachment was made up of Second Lieutenant Marcel Robich, Technical Sergeant Alfio D’Urso, and Sergeant Nicos Los. Eight Italians soldiers were assigned security and two Italian civilians were hired for manual work. The report goes on to mention an attack on a 15-car passenger train on 16 March with 13 bags of Cornflakes mail dropped, and a 19 March attack on a “diesel electric locomotive” with 16 mailbags dropped from an altitude of 50 feet. The document states that 16 more mailbags are ready at the 14th Fighter Squadron and await “cancellation and destination tags” from Rome. Two truckloads of Das Neue Deutschland were ready to be placed in bombs and as soon as approval was granted a bombardment group would be requested for the mission.

Note: “Pig Iron” was one of the first operations where the OSS dropped leaflets over Germany. Through Pig Iron, more than 10 million miniature editions of Das Neue Deutschland were dropped on the German homeland.

Another interesting document is a 27 April 1945 request by First Lieutenant Robert Allen of Morale Operations to Rome for one bomb fully packed with Cornflakes material (less explosives). There is no mention of exactly why the bomb is needed.

Patrick K. O’Donnell tells us about Cornflakes in Operatives, Spies and Saboteurs, Simon and Schuster, NY, 2004. He mentions that George Piday was an OSS Moral Operations agent first assigned to Bari where he took part in rumor operations against Hungary. Fake mailbags filled with subversive literature had been prepared and dropped on Hungary. He was then assigned to take part in Operation Cornflakes:

I was called back to Bari to work on the German mailbag. The envelopes were addressed in Siena, stuffed and sealed in Rome; we in Bari did the routing and Canceling. After much work and experimenting with the Air Force we had the whole operation running smoothly.

Artist rendering of P-38 from the 14th Fighter Squadron attacking a train

The 14th Fighter Squadron of the 15th Air Force was given responsibility for the operation. The technique employed by the group was to find an enemy train moving north from southern Austria, preferably with a mail car attached. The group would then attack the train, usually destroying two or more of the cars and halting the train. In the confusion, the bombs containing the mail sacks would be dropped around the train to be found in the debris.

An envelope that originated from a mail bag dropped at Ruhsdorf in Bavaria

The first mission was on 5 February 1945. A train on its way to Linz in Austria was attacked. Eight mail bags, each carrying 800 letters were dropped on the target. The destination for the mail coincided with the towns along the route of the target train. In all, Army Air Force reports of ten operations, carried out between 5 February and 31 March 1945 report that trains were attacked 12 miles west of Amstellen, four miles southeast of Ybbe, 40 miles west of Vienna, and five miles southwest of Gmund. Further attacks took place 40 miles southwest of Pilsen, 10 miles northeast of Regensburg, in the vicinity of Gmund, in the vicinity of St. Poelten, near Munich, and in the vicinity of Ried. The total number of train cars destroyed in the ten raids is unknown, although it was thought that over fifty were severely damaged. The number of mailbags dropped over the targets was 88, while another four were lost in trees and wooded areas. In all, more than 50,000 pieces of mail containing subversive literature were taken into Germany.

Later official U.S. Army Air Force data indicates that there were further missions in April, the last one on 16 April. The final official total for Cornflakes is 20 missions, 320 fake German mail bags, each containing 300 letters for a total of 96,000 pieces of propaganda mail. I should note that looking through several dozen official OSS documents the number of envelopes in a mailbag is listed as 300, 400 and 800. It could be that there is some confusion between the Hungarian mailbags and the German mailbags, there was more than one size of German mailbag, or the envelopes were simply stuffed differently on different missions. As a result, the numbers we give here are all estimates.

In all, the Cornflakes crew consisted of 3 officers, 5 enlisted men and 5 civilians in Rome. Another 2 officers, 4 enlisted men and 2 civilians were in Bari.

 

Another example of an "Operations Cornflakes" envelope

A special staff in Rome prepared the envelopes used for the project. More than two million names and addresses were gleaned from German telephone books provided the OSS Research and Analysis staff. A staff of typists was engaged to address the envelopes, producing more than 15,000 envelopes a week. Other envelopes were hand-addressed by agents of the Morale Operations unit in order to provide a plausible mixture of mail.

The forged OSS cancels on the envelopes that I have personally seen are Wien (Vienna), Hannover and Stuttgart. The dates on the cancels range from 24 January 1945 to 9 April 1945. There is some evidence that indicates that some earlier mailbag drops occurred, and they could have been pre-Cornflakes, test flights, or simply not listed in official documents. In addition there was the very first use of a forged machine cancellation:

BERLIN W8 / 22 4 45 // Preussische / Staatsbank / (Seehandlung) //* 012 /
Deutsche Reichspost.

Note that the date on the meter is 22 April, later than the last reported mission. It would appear that the meter was prepared in advance and for some reason, perhaps weather or the movement of the American lines, the mission was either cancelled or never recorded.

The Torrey and Avery report states: 

During the first four months of 1945, 21 people in the OSS Morale Operations unit attached to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations were occupied in carrying out this scheme, labeled "Operation Cornflakes." Their task was to exploit the disintegration of German administrative functions in the last weeks of the war by infiltrating printed propaganda--principally the "underground" newspaper Das Neue Deutschland--into the Reichspost. Their objectives were to weaken further the will of the German people to fight, to increase confusion in the communication and transport services, and to convince the German people that there was an anti-Nazi underground in Germany especially active in business and banking circles.

Much of the mail bore business return addresses, among the better known "The Prussian State Bank," "The International Corporation for Transport and Traffic Affairs," "The New Deutschebank," "The Credit Reform Company," and the very important "Wiener Giro - und Cassenverein."

The Cassenverein Cover

The "Cassenverein" cover became famous because it was the first of the OSS items to be identified as a forgery by the German postal authorities. At the conclusion of the 16 March 1945 raid on the train near St. Poelten, German security police found the OSS mailbags. The bags were opened and mail addressed to citizens in the Cologne area was discovered. As the mail was about to be forwarded, a sharp-eyed postal clerk noticed that the return address on the envelopes was "Wiener Giro-und Cassenverein." The correct spelling of the final word should have read "Kassenverein." For the want of a "K" the game was lost. The Nazis became suspicious, the envelopes were opened and the propaganda placed inside was discovered.

Corey Ford (Little Brown, Boston, 1970) mentioned this campaign briefly in the book Donovan of the OSS. He mentions the attack on railways and marshaling yards; the dropped mail bags, and concludes with the statement, "There is no evidence that this device was ever detected." He is wrong, since as we have shown, on at least one occasion the bags were detected and identified.

Most of the envelopes and their propaganda were destroyed during the war. A few that have survived are collector's items today. German security officials have stated that 97 percent of all the forgeries sent into the Third Reich were located and destroyed.

Although there were different combinations of propaganda material inside of the airdropped Cornflakes envelopes, we do have some examples of envelopes that still contain their original contents.

First Lieutenant Jack Daniels as sketched
by German prisoner-of-War Willi Haseneier*

* Willi Haseneier was captured 4 June 1944. An artist and graduate of the Düsseldorf Art Academy, we was used by his OSS handlers to forge identity papers, passes, credentials and signatures. At the end of the war he worked for the Allies producing visual aids for the Nurnberg trials. He later went on to Hollywood where he became a successful artist producing posters and advertisements for the Motion Picture industry. In 2005 he wrote to me to and informed me that Hollywood was considering  a motion picture about his life.

Two such envelopes were saved by Jack Daniels of Savannah, Georgia. The present owner of the envelopes was told that Daniels (an old friend of the family who presented him the envelopes as a gift about 1960) was one of the pilots that dropped the mail bags onto the wrecked trains. In fact, we know that 1LT Jack Daniels was an OSS agent assigned to the Morale Operations (MO) Branch, Bari, who worked on both Operation Cornflakes and Operation Sauerkraut in late 1944 and early 1945. In the latter operation he was involved in sending volunteer German prisoners-of-war behind enemy lines on spying and propaganda missions. By March 1945 Daniels was Chief of OSS Morale Operations, Bari. Daniels is mentioned in The Story of Cornflakes, Pig Iron and Sheet Iron:

The operational side of the project, meanwhile, had been placed under the direction of Lt. Jack Daniels, located at that time with Company B, in Bari. Contact was established with the 15th Air Force and a fighter group was designated to carry out the mission.

Two OSS Envelopes with Contents  

Both envelopes have the same return address and logo and are dated 11.4.45:

Otto Perutz
Trockenplattenfabrik
Munchen GMBH

One envelope is stamped with two 6-pfennig OSS forged Hitler-head violet stamps and addressed to Herrn Erwin Uiblagger, Wallrisstrasse 64, (12a) WIEN (Vienna) XVIII/110. The second envelope bears one 12-pfennig OSS forged Hitler-head red stamp and is addressed to Frau LILLI ULANOWSKY, Ameisgasse 19, (12a) WIEN XIII/89.

The envelope with the two 6-pfennig stamps contains a strip of five 12 pfennig Hitler skull stamps and a printed leaflet entitled Zehn Gebote für Osterreicher ("Ten Commandments for Austrians"). The text of the leaflet is:

Ten Commandments for Austrians

1) YOU SHALL never forget that your home is Austria and not "Ostmark" or Pan-Germany. ["Ostmark" was the name of Austria within the Third Reich].

2)YOU SHALL NOT make common cause with the Nazis, the traitors and oppressors of Austria, the blasphemers and war profiteers.

3) YOU SHALL clearly be aware that you have only one enemy, the parasitic Germans of Hitler’s Reich, and that everyone who fights against the Third Reich contributes to the liberation of Austria and is, therefore, your friend.

4) YOU SHALL NOT prolong the suffering of our home by contributing to the continuation of the senseless war which is already lost, be it through your combat service in the Wehrmacht or through your work in an office or a factory.

5) YOU SHALL, contrarily, strive for shortening the murderous war with all your strength: When you are in the army, avoid active service by simulating illness and surrender at the first opportunity. The free Austria needs you as a living Austrian, not as a dead "Ostmärker". When you are working, then escape work by letting your boss know that you are sick and sabotage wherever you can the total murderous mission of the Germans.

6) YOU SHALL NOT deny your wish for freedom and your love to your home in fear and faintheartedness of the shameful hangman’s assistants of the Gestapo. Time has come to proceed to action!

7) YOU SHALL prepare the day of the liberation by starting right now to write down the names of Nazi criminals and exploiters from the Old Reich, to make clear who will be fired and who will be hanged.

8) YOU SHALL NOT obey the orders of party functionaries or Nazi authorities. The majority of these orders just lead to a further enslavement of our homeland and bring death and misery to us Austrians.

9) YOU SHALL do everything you can to strengthen and disseminate the wish and will for the liberation of Austria among your relatives and friends, and you shall join the existing resistance groups or form such ones yourself.

10) YOU SHALL NOT say "Heil Hitler" but revive the good old Austrian greeting "Grüss Gott" ["God be greeted"], and you shall always think of Austria’s liberation and independence!

AUSTRIA SHALL LIVE!

In 2008, I was contacted by the daughter of Erwin Uiblagger who was trying to understand why her father’s name appeared on a forged Cornflakes envelope. I explained that the name might have been found in a phone book, German military or civilian files, or even volunteered by a captured comrade. The daughter said that his father had been captured on the Russian front in 1941 and later was killed or died in captivity. She thought that the name and address might have been found in his military identity papers. We will never know how or why the name was placed on an envelope, but the individual did exist and we now know his fate. 

The envelope with the one stamp contains a strip of five 12 pfennig Hitler skull stamps and two smaller leaflets. The first reads; Freiheit! Frieden! ("Freedom! Peace!") with the "F" being formed by a broken swastika. Text on the back of this leaflet is:

A New Secret Weapon
"The Substitute Soldier"
BdM and NSF in the Wehrmacht!!!!!!

[BdM is the Bund deutscher Mädchen or "Association of German Girls." We are not sure about "NSF" but believe it to be Nationalsozialistischer Frauenbund or "National Socialist Women’s League."].

Comrades!

For years our women have been used by the party; for years our women have been enslaved by the armaments industry; millions of our women, our sisters, mothers and daughters lose their health in the factories, many are working in danger of life. However, this is still not enough for the NSDAP! Our women now join the army as Soldier’s substitutes!

We soldiers at the front have only one answer to that: We do not want women as soldiers! We do not want to be "replaced" We want to go home, immediately!

Finish the war!
The best "substitute" of war is peace"!
Peace today!

The second reads; Ein Volk: Osterreich ein Reich: Osterreich Kein Führer! ("One people: One Austrian Empire: No Austrian leader!").

This would appear to be a parody of the German Nazi Party slogan Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer ("One people, one Empire, one Leader"). The Story of Cornflakes adds:

Since "Das Neue Deutschland" embraced all of MO's propaganda themes and contained them all in the smallest space, the vast majority of the envelopes were stuffed with the newspaper. In some envelopes, which were addressed to Austrian cities, the "Ten Commandments for Austrians" was included, also Austrian "underground" newspapers such as "Der Osterreicher." Stickers and stamps made up the rest of the enclosures.

Der Osterreicher of 3 February 1945

Note the crudeness of this OSS newspaper to the Austrians. It pretends to be a product of an Austrian underground movement and thus was made to appear to be the kind of product that they would produce on cheap paper with a hidden mimeograph machine. Since the paper is supposed to be from an anti-Nazi underground, notice that the first paragraph says:

Soldiers! The Austrian freedom movement needs weapons. Bring us these weapons! Bring us ammunition! We fight for our freedom!

Genuine "SIGN OF LIFE" Card

OSS Forgery of  "SIGN OF LIFE" Card

Some of the propaganda documents placed inside the OSS envelopes are worth mentioning. For instance, we find a reproduction of the official German form used to notify relatives of survivors of allied bombings. In 1943, the German Reichspost released special postcards that allowed victims of bomb attacks to send a short message to their relatives. Three versions differing in color and design were printed. They are inscribed "Lebenszeichen von" (Sign of life from) on one side, and "Eilnachricht an" (special message to) on the back. All have a broad color frame around the margins. Red cards were for private addressees, green cards for soldiers with field post numbers. Violet cards were used by the Reichspost to check the postal addresses of people living in so-called "Luftnotgebieten" (emergency zones). This form, sometimes called Sign of Life, might be sent to a serviceman from Berlin or Cologne to inform him that his parents were alive and well after a severe raid. These forms usually passed through the German post at no cost to the sender. They normally bore no cancellation, although they were sometimes censored. The OSS forged the green version of the sign-of-life card. The forgery is inscribed in German in carefully handwritten Gothic script. On the address side where the genuine card says "Express to" the OSS added the word "you!" At the lower left, they added the text "F.D.R," short for "Fur die Redakation," ("For the editor"). Beneath those words are Text, which translates to, "The New Germany, Action Committee." The message side bears a longer propaganda text, "Sign of life from - The Illegal fighters – in all the Reich." The card is dated "19-1-45." Text beneath is, "The United Front of all revolutionary parties fights for our liberation from the yoke of the SS and the Party. Join us in the struggle! Form your own action groups!"

DAS NEUE DEUTSCHLAND NEWSPAPER

Das Neue Deutschland was a propaganda newspaper produced by the OSS in Rome. It embraced all of the propaganda themes and contained them in the smallest possible space. More than ten million copies of the newspaper were printed. The papers were disguised as captured editions and were given an overprint reading "This German newspaper fell into Allied hands during the occupation of Paris." It was hoped that the German public would believe that an opposition party within the Reich sponsored publication. The newspaper was first printed in a standard size. It was then reduced by photography to 10 inches by 6½ inches. One million copies a month were produced initially. Later on, the number rose to a million a week.

Some of the titles and contents of the August 15, 1944 issue are "The Sinking Ship," an attack on Turkey and Spain for ignoring their old allies. This article accuses General Franco of Spain of treachery and recalls that it was Germany that helped put him in power. Another article, "More Gallows, More Blood," tells of the Germans murdered after the attempt on Hitler’s life. It says that the Nazi Party and Gestapo killed many innocent people and mentions 186 civilians murdered, although no names had been published. "Treason against Germany" is expose of the so-called adventurous plans of the General Staff, which had made possible further landings in France.

After the German surrender in Italy, it was ascertained that troops had received copies of Das Neue Deutschland through the mails. Some of these letters resulted in investigations by German Counter-Intelligence of entire units, with courts-martial following. German prisoners reported having seen the propaganda newspapers as far north as the Baltic ports and reports a widespread knowledge of a "underground movement" named "Das Neue Deutschland" in Austria and other sections of the Third Reich. Ninety percent of those prisoners questioned believed that this underground movement was genuine.

Besides stamps, The OSS forged and parodied newspapers, stickers, postcards, lettersheets, and other documents. For instance, the Final Report of Production and Distribution, reports 94,100 postcards printed by OSS Rome between 15 July 1944, and 15 May 1945.

Genuine Used German Feldpost Card

Forged Postcard

The forged postcards consist of 13 plain postcards on yellowish paper and 3 multicolored picture postcards. Many of the postcards were printed under Operation Cornflakes, but they were often disseminated behind the lines under Operation Sauerkraut, a Rome OSS project that used trustworthy German prisoners of war to carry the cards behind the lines and distribute them.

One card is a parody attacking the elderly Volkssturm called to service to protect the Reich in the last days of the war. There is no inscription on the address side of this card. The reverse features a caricature of two obese women on roller skates. Both wear armbands with a swastika, and little hats with a flower or a flag. The lady at left carries a broom as a weapon; the lady behind her has an umbrella. The inscription on top reads "Volkssturm" (People’s Resistance), and at the bottom "Schwere Panzer" (Heavy tanks). The postcard ridicules the German attempt of autumn 1944 to mobilize military power by conscripting children and elderly people. On September 25, 1944, Hitler called all male individuals between the age of 16 and 60, who did not already serve in the Wehrmacht, to arms.

Steinberg in the Morale Operations Office, OSS, Rome
published in Joel Smith, Steinberg at The New Yorker,
Harry N. Abrams, 2005 © The Saul Steinberg Foundation.

One of the artists who worked in the OSS Morale Office in Rome was Saul Steinberg of The New Yorker fame. I never published his name in earlier articles, although he is mentioned in some OSS documents. Since he died in 1999, I think we can now mention his exploits. I spoke to an aging member of the old MO, Rome crew and he told me that Steinberg drew the Schwere Panzer postcard. I pointed out that in official papers such as the Semi-Monthly Report, M.O. Section, Period 15-31 July 1944 Steinberg was never given a code name or a duty. It simply said “Lt. Saul Steinberg, USNR.” He explained that Steinberg did not go behind the lines or deal in black operations so there was no need for a code name. He was a “floater” who did illustrative work as needed such as flyers, postcards and covers for song sheets allegedly from anti-Nazi organizations. As a result, he had no real duty position. Other individuals who are listed with their code names are; Eddie Zinder, Writer, Helmuth Cruchol, printer, and MSG Richard Lee, Editor.

Although Romanian by birth, Steinberg had escaped from wartime Italy in 1941. He had a diploma from the Reggio Politecnico, but under Italy’s new anti-Semitic laws he was identified as “Saul Steinberg, of the Hebrew race.” By 1942 he was working for the Office of War Information and was soon commissioned an Ensign in the Naval Reserve working for Intelligence in Washington, DC. In 1943 he was sent to Kunming, China, and by December he was in Algeria.  He was next sent to North Africa and finally to the OSS in Allied-occupied Rome. In September, 1944, he was ordered back to Washington.

"Ring der Kriegermütter" (War Mother’s Group).

Another postcard bears an emblem that represents the seal of a fake organization created by the OSS. The circular seal is poorly drawn by hand and consists of two semi-circular forearms with joining hands on both ends. In the center are the words "Ring der Kriegermütter" (War Mother’s Group). The OSS wanted the finders to believe that there was an organized group of miserable, lonely mothers who desired their sons in the field to desert. The text is, "At home, in the sixth winter of the war. Dear sons in the field! Now that Germany has become a battlefield, we mothers have joined together to beg your assistance. After five years of struggle against overwhelming enemy power, you have done more than your duty. Today, the war is lost and the enemy is within our country! We are abandoned and helpless. Do not leave your mothers alone in the hour of danger! Come home!!! The mothers are your nearest and dearest!"

The OSS Bombed Cities Postcard

The three colored picture postcards have almost identical illustrations. They depict scenic views with oval portraits of three intact German cities against the night sky. The black silhouette of a bombed and ruined town and a howling cat are below the oval vignettes. The full moon is shining and stars are sparkling, although they have the form of burial crosses. Below the scene is a parody of a famous German lullaby. The propagandists changed the original wording and wrote about bombs and destruction to weaken the willingness of the Germans to continue the war. All three cards have the same lyrical text:

"Tired am I, I’m going to rest,
the bombs continue to fall
let the eyes of the anti-aircraft
protect our little town.

What the enemy has done to us.
Dear God, just look at it!
Your grace and our courage
will repair all damage.

Many that are known to us
had their houses burnt,
and so large and small
have mostly rubble and no home.

Let the moon stand in the sky
and reveal the desolate city.
Yes, all this we have only you to thank
our dear little Führer!"

Some of the towns depicted on these cards are Essen, Berlin, Bremen, Hamburg, Munich, and Cologne. Readers who wish to learn more about these OSS postcards and see them all illustrated and translated should read "The American Propaganda Postcards of World War II," Herbert A. Friedman, German Postal Specialist, February, 1987.

Besides stamps and postcards, the OSS also produced at least eight fake feldpost lettersheets in the German language. The Morale Operations Unit (MO) printed them in Rome in mid-1944 to early 1945. These large sheets fold into an envelope before mailing. Rome printed 287,000 lettersheets between 15 July 1944 and the end of the war. Almost all of these lettersheets claim to come from associations or groups that are in fact, nonexistent.

VEK Lettersheet

The OSS produced the first letter in an attempt to destroy the morale of German troops by telling them that their wives, girlfriends or sisters were having casual sex while they were fighting at the front. The letter allegedly originates from the "Verein Einsamer Kriegerfrauen," (VEK), ("Association of Lonely War Women"). The text is, "summer 1944. Dear soldier at the front! When will you have leave again? When will you be able to forget your arduous soldier’s duties for a few days of fun, happiness and love? We at home know of your heroic struggle. We understand that even the bravest tires sometimes and needs a soft pillow, tenderness and healthy enjoyment. We are waiting for you. For you who must spend your leave in a foreign town; for you whom the war has deprived of a home; for you who is alone in the world without a wife, fiancée or girl friend. We are waiting for you: Cut our symbol from this letter. In every coffee shop, in every bar near a railway station, place it on your glass so that it can be clearly seen. A member of our VEK will soon contact you. The dreams you had at the front, and the longings of your lonely nights, will be fulfilled... We want you, not your money. Therefore, you should always show our membership card (to anyone who may approach you). There are members everywhere, because we women understand our duties to the homeland and to its defenders. We are, of course, are selfish too – we have been separated from our men for many years. With all those foreigners around us, we would like once more to press a real German youth to our bosom. No inhibitions now: Your wife, sister, or lover is one of us as well. We think of you and Germany’s future. Which rests – rusts. (Use it or lose it) V.E.K. The Association of Lonely War Women". The emblem of the "VEK" is printed in the lower left corner of the letter. It is a shield with two hearts inside, one with a key, the other with a keyhole. The emblem is self-explaining. Above the hearts are the letters "V.E.K". The soldiers placed this symbol on their beer glasses. There was no such association. The OSS simply attempted to create unrest among the German soldiers as to the faithfulness of their wives, fiancées, or girlfriends at home.

The "Christian Union" Lettersheet

Another letter is from the fake resistance group, the "Christian Soldiers Union." The text is typewritten and faded as if it were mimeographed under clandestine conditions. The text is, "Comrades! Don’t let them take advantage of you with that old slogan ‘Hold out to the last man,’ and pointlessly be killed, or crippled for the rest of your life! The officers who give these orders are usually far from the shooting. All the grisly tales of mistreatment of prisoners leave us cold now. WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH! Give up: scouts, sentries, and many others know how easy it is. Our group will help everyone so that they can live for our future. The Allies know about our movement. Give them this pass when you cross the enemy’s lines! It is your pass to life! Christian Soldiers Union." A surrender pass is printed below the text in German and English. The English text is, "To the Allies! I am a member of the Christian Soldier’s Union. I believe in the Allied promise to treat me well and to send me home as soon as the war is over.

The "Worthy Allies" Lettersheet

The final letter is a designed to drive a wedge between the German Army and their many allies, including the various foreign legions that had joined in the war against Bolshevism. This is the only illustrated OSS letter. In the center of the leaflet is a little hairy ape that wears a loincloth and a steel helmet. The cartoon represents one of the "worthy allies" of Germany. The letter is written in a vulgar style pretending that it originates from a highly indignant and outraged German soldier. The text is, "August 1944. These, comrades, are our worthy allies! I am reading an article in the soldier’s newspaper ‘South Front’ about our ‘brothers in arms’ the Slovaks, and praises of their valor are being sung high and low. It says: ‘These Slovaks fought on the East Front shoulder to shoulder with German soldiers. Many of them wear with pride their hard-won decorations. Now they are helping us just as valiantly on the South Front. We admire their heroic courage and their faith.’ As a soldier who knows these foreign scum inside and out from days of battle in Russia and Italy, I have to say that, they are the most disgusting riffraff among the German army. Soldiers are well advised to keep his weapon ready to fire when he meets one of them, despite the entire glorification by the local rag "South Front." I shall never forget seeing our Slovak and Italian allies turn their weapons upon us. One day, in a tough fight, these bastards tried to run away. The order was given immediately to shoot the deserters to avoid their escape. What do you think they did? They turned around like lightning and opened rapid fire upon us. I saw many good comrades fall, hit by the murderous bullet of an ‘allied’ tramp. What have these "brothers in arms" achieved? Every day we watch the betrayal of the damned Italians. Only military occupation keeps Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria on our side. Imagine, an allied country must be held by armed power. However, we have to defend our own frontiers. Damn it, why always us? It is always we who have to eat the dirt of others. Finland, once so true to us, has abandoned us and is making peace with Ivan now at a time when it is going to get hard for us. The devil knows who makes these wonderful alliances for us. I am a good German, but we can do without such allies. The Führer should not have just a few field marshals and generals hanged, but some of our diplomats too! One soldier speaking for many others."

This is just a very brief look at the lettersheets. Readers who wish to learn more about these lettersheets and see them illustrated and translated should read "Propaganda Ricocheted ‘Round Both Sides," Herbert A. Friedman, The American Philatelist," November, 1985.

Did Operation Cornflakes cause any damage to German morale? Probably not. From a strategic standpoint, the strain on the German postal system, including additional censoring might have caused some delays in mail delivery, creating morale problems. There might have been some belief among the more gullible that a functional anti-Nazi movement existed inside Germany. However, it seems clear that no long-range damage to the German war machine was accomplished.

Kermit Roosevelt says in The Overseas targets – War Reports of the OSS that:

By the end of the campaign the MO print shop had turned out some 30,000,000 items. An attempt was made to evaluate the effectiveness of “black” operations through investigations conducted among German prisoners of war…German troops had deserted in twenties and twenties…Italian Fascist troops deserted in blocks numbering up to 400, most of them carrying MO notes. The total of known deserters directly affected by MO subversion was estimated at 10,000.

It was however, impossible to evaluate the net over-all effects of black propaganda. Demoralization was cumulative, resulting not only from propaganda, but also from bombings, hardships, defeats and from countless other conditions and events.  

Will we see espionage and propaganda stamps in the future? Probably not, according to CIA agents Torrey and Avery. In their secret report they conclude:

Forgery of postage stamps for intelligence purposes may be unnecessary in future operations. Postage meter marks have already largely replaced stamps for commercial mailing purposes in most countries of the world. The most widespread use of meters is for bulk mail and newspapers, printed matter, precisely the medium through which written propaganda is most easily disseminated. Meter marks eliminate the need for both stamp and cancellation forgeries, and reproduction of the simple red-inked double-purpose impression should be quite easy and effective. In any one country, meter impressions are to a high degree standardized in design, differing only in the letter and serial number of the machine. Unlike postage stamps, moreover, which are changed every few years, meters remain in use for long periods of time, the widespread distribution of all sizes of machines in post offices and business firms precluding frequent change. The American directors of Operation Cornflakes anticipated this development in including a meter mark--the only meter mark known to have been forged in wartime--in their mailbag mix.

The author would appreciate hearing from anyone who can shed more light on this subject. Readers with comments or questions are encouraged to write to him at sgmbert@hotmail.com.