Drôle de guerre (2008)

 

I'd like to start in 1940 before we rewind to 1866.  Radio Londres was a radio station broadcast from 1940 to 1944 by the BBC in London to Nazi-occupied France.  It broadcast entirely in French, and was for the most part, operated by escaped French nationals living in England. It's main purpose was to counter the propaganda broadcasts of the Vichy government's Radiodiffusion Nationale, and also the German-controlled Radio Paris. It's secondary, covert purpose was to send coded messages to the French Resistance.

As you'd expect, the Germans banned Radio Londres and did their best to jam it. Radio Paris had been broadcasting since 1922 and the Germans took it over in 1940. Radiodiffusion had only began broadcasting in July of 1939. It was nick-named Radio Vichy for it's studio location: Vichy Casino.

But the French collaborators were broadcasting essentially the same right-wing propaganda as Radio Paris: Philippe Henriot, Alain Laubreaux, Jean Hérold-Paquis, Paul Creysse, Lucien Rebatet, Marcel Déat to name a few. None of them would fare well after the war.
But back to those secret coded messages. It was routine to proadcast messages intended for French resistance cells. The best known today is probably the two part messages intended to cue operation Overlord. The first was to alert listeners that D-Day was imminent. The second indicated that specific, previously coordinated actions should be taken. These lines were taken from the Paul Verlaine poem Chanson d'automne. The phrase "violins of autumn" indicated that Overlord was to start within two weeks. That was broadcast on on Thursday, June 1st, 1944. This was followed by the action order "Wound my heart with monotonous langor."  This quote meant that Overlord would start within 48 hours. The French resistance should begin sabotage operations. It was broadcast on Monday, June 5th, 1944. Verlaine had been dead for 48 years.

The poem Chanson d'automne ("Autumn Song") is a poem by the French poet Paul Verlaine. It was published in Verlaine's first collection, Poèmes Saturniens, in 1866. The poem forms part of the "Paysages tristes" ("Sad landscapes") section of the collection. Not everything on Radio Londres was so poetic. Other known coded messages include  "Jean has a long moustache" and "There is a fire at the insurance agency."

The text of the broadcast in that recording is as follows:

"This is London Calling the European News Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation.  Here is the news. But first here are some messages for our friends in occupied countries: The Trojan war will not be held. John is growing a very long beard this week. The long sobs of the violins of autumn. Les sanglots longs des violons d'autumne. Wound my heart with a monotonous langour..."