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The FReeper Foxhole Profiles Axis Sally - August 21st, 2004
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Posted on 08/20/2004 11:42:23 PM PDT by snippy_about_it
Lord,
Keep our Troops forever in Your care
Give them victory over the enemy...
Grant them a safe and swift return...
Bless those who mourn the lost. .
FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time.
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U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues
Where Duty, Honor and Country are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support. The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer. If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions. We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.
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American-Born Axis Sally
WWII Propaganda Broadcasts
American-born Axis Sally made propaganda broadcasts for Radio Berlin in Hitler's Germany, and paid the price for treason after the war.
by Dale P. Harper
She was named Mildred Elizabeth Sisk when she was born in Portland, Maine, on November 29, 1900. Her parents, Vincent Sisk and Mae Hewitson Sisk, were divorced in 1907, and a few years later Mildred's mother married a dentist, Dr. Robert Bruce Gillars. From that time on the child was known as Mildred Gillars.
The family moved around a great deal during her early years, but Mildred Gillars eventually graduated from high school in Conneaut, Ohio, in 1917. Then it was on to Ohio Wesleyan University in the small town of Delaware, where, hoping to pursue a stage career, she majored in dramatic arts. Gillars did well in speech, languages and dramatics but did not graduate because of her failure to meet all university requirements and standards.
According to her half sister, Gillars worked at a variety of jobs after leaving college--clerk, salesgirl, cashier and waitress--all to further her ambition to become an actress. In 1929 she went to Europe with her mother and spent six months studying in France before returning to the United States.
Eventually Gillars went to New York, where she worked in stock companies, musical comedies and vaudeville, but never made enough impact to gain any real recognition. In 1933 she returned to Europe and worked in France as a governess and salesgirl. She moved to Germany in 1935 and became an English instructor at the Berlitz School of Languages in Berlin. English teachers were paid less than Russian instructors--a possible reason for her decision to accept employment by Radio Berlin as an announcer and actress. This was a job much more to her liking, and she stayed with it until the defeat of Nazi Germany in May 1945.
Gillars' propaganda program was known as "Home Sweet Home" and usually aired sometime between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m. daily. Although she referred to herself as "Midge at the mike," GIs dubbed her Axis Sally. Her broadcasts were heard all over Europe, the Mediterranean, North Africa and the United States from December 11, 1941, through May 6, 1945. Although most of her programs were broadcast from Berlin, some were aired from Chartres and Paris in France and from Hilversum in the Netherlands.
Once the war was over, her broadcasts would come back to haunt her. At a listening post operated by the Federal Communications Commission in Silver Hill, Md., all her programs had been monitored and recorded and would provide the prosecution with damaging evidence at her trial. The prosecution charged that her broadcasts were sugarcoated propaganda pills aimed at convincing U.S. soldiers that they were fighting on the wrong side.
Most GIs agreed that Gillars had a sultry, sexy voice that came over the radio loud and clear. Like her counterpart in the Pacific, Tokyo Rose, she liked to tease and taunt the soldiers about their wives and sweethearts back in the States. "Hi fellows," she would say. "I'm afraid you're yearning plenty for someone else. But I just wonder if she isn't running around with the 4-Fs way back home."
She would get the names, serial numbers and hometowns of captured and wounded GIs and voice concern about what would happen to them, in broadcasts that could be heard in the United States. "Well I suppose he'll get along all right," she would say. "The doctors don't seem...I don't know... only time will tell, you see." At sign-off time she would tease her listeners some more, telling them, "I've got a heavy date waiting for me."
Perhaps Sally's most famous broadcast, and the one that would eventually get her convicted of treason, was a play titled Vision of Invasion that went out over the airwaves on May 11, 1944. It was beamed to American troops in England awaiting the D-Day invasion of Normandy, as well as to the home folks in America. Gillars played the role of an American mother who dreamed that her soldier son, a member of the invasion forces, died aboard a burning ship in the attempt to cross the English Channel.
The play had a realistic quality to it, sound effects simulating the moans and cries of the wounded as they were raked with gunfire from the beaches. Over the battle action sound effects, an announcer's voice intoned, "The D of D-Day stands for doom...disaster...death...defeat...Dunkerque or Dieppe." Adelbert Houben, a high official of the German Broadcasting Service, would testify at Axis Sally's trial that her broadcast was intended to prevent the invasion by frightening the Americans with grisly forecasts of staggering casualties.
FReeper Foxhole Armed Services Links
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TOPICS: VetsCoR
KEYWORDS: axissally; freeperfoxhole; germany; history; mildredgillars; mildredsisk; propagana; radioberlin; samsdayoff; traitor; veterans; wwii
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To: Matthew Paul
61
posted on
08/21/2004 2:13:04 PM PDT
by
snippy_about_it
(Fall in --> The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
To: snippy_about_it; bentfeather; Samwise
gOOD AFTERNOON LADIES. fLAG-O-GRAM.
The 3,000-man Hale Makai Barracks, near the main hangars at Hickam Field, endures intense strafing.
To: bentfeather
Hi miss feather. I've been AWOL part of the day. Spiderboy had a karate tournament today, so we spent a good chunk of the morning at South Fork Ranch.
Spiderboy at the Ewing mansion.
Now how did JR dive from the balcony to the pool?
Spiderboy's "trophy"
To: Valin
1560 Tycho Brahe becomes interested in astronomy From our friends at NASA, of course.
Tycho Brahe Measures the Sky
Credit: Tycho Brahes Glada Vnner
Explanation: Tycho Brahe was the most meticulous astronomical observer of his time. Brahe, who lived between 1546 and 1601, set out to solve the day's most pressing astronomical problem: to determine whether the Earth or the Sun was at the center of the Solar System. To do this Brahe and his assistants created the first major astronomical observatory where they devised and used the most accurate pre-telescopic astronomical instruments. Tycho Brahe thus compiled tables of precise measurements of the positions and brightnesses of planets and stars. Brahe never solved the Solar System problem himself - but left data so impressively accurate his assistant Johannes Kepler was able to develop definitive laws. Brahe is also remembered for witnessing a supernova in 1572, showing that the Great Comet of 1577 was not an atmospheric phenomena, and for his metal nose.
To: Valin
To: Valin
You Might Be An Engineer If...
You calculate the best patterns to mow your lawn in the least amount of time. DOH!, my secret is out.
To: The Mayor
Afternoon Mayor.
Oblivious to my surroundings, I began to sing and dance
Everytime I do that I just come across looking really dumb. ;-)
67
posted on
08/21/2004 4:02:45 PM PDT
by
SAMWolf
(Married men live longer than single men, but married men are a lot more willing to go..)
To: Matthew Paul
More likely just a graduate of the US school system who couldn't find the USA on a world map. much less even know there's a country called Poland ;-)
68
posted on
08/21/2004 4:04:08 PM PDT
by
SAMWolf
(Married men live longer than single men, but married men are a lot more willing to go..)
To: Professional Engineer
Afternoon PE. Another nice Flag-O-Gram today. Too bad there wasn't a bigger version available.
69
posted on
08/21/2004 4:05:29 PM PDT
by
SAMWolf
(Married men live longer than single men, but married men are a lot more willing to go..)
To: Professional Engineer
Willing to pass on that secret to a non-engineer type?
70
posted on
08/21/2004 4:06:39 PM PDT
by
SAMWolf
(Married men live longer than single men, but married men are a lot more willing to go..)
To: Professional Engineer
Nice trophy, Congrats to Spiderboy.
71
posted on
08/21/2004 4:07:18 PM PDT
by
SAMWolf
(Married men live longer than single men, but married men are a lot more willing to go..)
To: Professional Engineer
Oh my goodness, how wonderful for Spider boy!!
Wonderful photos of South Fork and SB.
Thank You.
72
posted on
08/21/2004 4:07:55 PM PDT
by
Soaring Feather
(......Ready for reentry to earth's atmosphere....))
To: Professional Engineer
Post 64 thanks PE most interesting.
73
posted on
08/21/2004 4:10:23 PM PDT
by
Soaring Feather
(......Ready for reentry to earth's atmosphere....))
To: SAMWolf
To: Matthew Paul
I wonder what a jackass in Micro$oft wiped Poland out of the map of the World!
Didn't you know they own the world. The Phone Company used to own it but Microsoft took them over in a hostile takeover. So if they say no Poland..well I'm sorry you're just going to have to move.
75
posted on
08/21/2004 4:43:33 PM PDT
by
Valin
(Mind like a steel trap - rusty and illegal in 37 states.)
To: snippy_about_it
On the off chance you're in the area and need to "relieve" yourself. Here's where she's buried
Mildred Gillars
Burial:
Saint Joseph Cemetery
Columbus
Franklin County
Ohio, USA
76
posted on
08/21/2004 4:49:54 PM PDT
by
Valin
(Mind like a steel trap - rusty and illegal in 37 states.)
Comment #77 Removed by Moderator
To: Professional Engineer
Wow! Some nice artwork on that page.
78
posted on
08/21/2004 6:02:34 PM PDT
by
SAMWolf
(Married men live longer than single men, but married men are a lot more willing to go..)
To: Matthew Paul
We may be a large country and Poland a small one, but there's no difference in the love of Freedom that our both our people share. I'm am so hoping that Poland stays independant and Free so that it can prosper the way we did under the Freedom we enjoyed.
79
posted on
08/21/2004 6:16:46 PM PDT
by
SAMWolf
(Married men live longer than single men, but married men are a lot more willing to go..)
To: Valin
I'll be darned. She's buried where my ex-father-in-law is buried.
Can't go now, I moved to Oregon last March and don't ever plan on going back to Ohio. ;-)
80
posted on
08/21/2004 8:09:28 PM PDT
by
snippy_about_it
(Fall in --> The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
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