Lord Haw-Haw | The Nazi broadcaster who threatened Britain
CHANNEL | Other RECORDED | 08 April 1940 DURATION | 1 minutes 52
seconds Lord Haw-Haw reports on the Allies' plans to lay mines
in Norwegian waters to hamper the progress of German shipping.
Norway wanted to retain neutrality and Haw-Haw uses this as an
opportunity to shame the Allies. This propaganda was broadcast
by Haw-Haw on Nazi radio. It was received, recorded and
transcribed by BBC Monitoring. The Nazis probably first heard
rumours about the Allies' intention to lay mines in Norwegian
waters in January 1940. Britain contemplated this action
primarily to prevent Swedish iron ore supplies from reaching
Germany. Arrangements were then made by Britain and France to
lay the mines on 5 April, but this was subsequently postponed
until 8 April. In January 1940, unknown to the Allies, Hitler
had devised a plan to invade Norway. The German invasion of both
Norway and Denmark began on 9 April that year. Nazi propaganda
about the sinking of the Graf Spee.