V for Victory: Europe against the Germans

Wendy Webster’s journal article “Europe against the Germans: The British Resistance Narrative, 1940-1950” examines the British attitude toward continental Europe during and post-WWII. In her research “the fall of France and the retreat from Dunkirk figure strongly in the view that the Second World War reinforced the story of Britain as an island nation.”1 This David Low cartoon is referenced in the article as an obvious depiction of this island mentality and the feeling that British forces were alone in their fight.2

Caption: "Very Well, Alone."

British soldier alone, shaking his fist at German 

war planes.

To have such an image shows the how deeply the British identified with a sense of “otherness”. That is to say, Britain was an entity of its own, disconnected from western continental Europe at large. Britain here is showing their detachment and discontent with Europe, and such detachment could negatively effect the war effort. If the British could not find a thread of commonality with Europe, their efforts in the war would not be as effective. In this way, Britain needed the V for Victory campaign.

Alongside discontented images like Low’s, ran the V for Victory campaign3. Webster notes that this campaign focused heavily on various depictions of “gallant nations united against Nazi Germany” where “repeated tributes were paid to the courage and heroism of resisters…showing unity between British and continental Europeans in common resistance to Germany.”4 This campaign was exactly what Britain needed to foster a unified identity with Europe, where the British were practically European themselves.

V for Victory was an easily propagandized phrase, easy to tack onto radio broadcasts and re-dubbed abroad. Creator Victor de Laveleye wanted it to be used as both a recruitment message to entice the people of Britain and her allies into the war effort, both as soldiers and in home front industry. At the same time the “messages of resistance and unity could be targeted at occupied European nations.”5 This worked exceedingly well, and became so ingrained in the narrative of resistance and war that it was featured in movies (the article indicates The Day Will Dawn, 1942 as one such title but many are listed throughout) and cartoons. In fact, this campaign worked so well the question became ‘how do we keep this message fresh for our audience?’


One filmmaker, Jiri Weiss a jewish filmmaker who fled from Prague in 1938 said the scope needed to be widened. To make the message really stick with the people of Europe and Britain they needed more than just a story of British resistance. “Britain stands for so much more than the British Empire…[tell] true stories of the multitude of nations who have forgotten the enmities of yesterday, and now stand side by side.”6 He wanted the a narrative of the average and the ordinary of various European nations not just those recognizable. Filmmakers listened and resistance films until late 1944 began featuring regular people, creating an image of a “people’s resistance” to their enemy. “The good European in resistance imagery was above all else a good patriot, and resistance was usually shown in specific national contexts, but there was a constant pull toward the idea of an entire Continent united in resistance…”7 Webster adds the interesting side note that “Jews were rarely featured as resisters or victims of atrocities, while divisions within the resistance movements and the prominence of Communists was obscured.”8 I find it odd that a movement started by a Jewish filmmaker did not feature those who were experiencing the most violence and persecution during the war but Webster does not go into why this might've been, leaving the lack of Jewish featured films as a side note to her overall work. 

It is possible this was because, as one Intelligence Report in 1941 stated, “our aim is to produce resistance without revolution.”9 To have a Jewish resistance narrative might’ve been seen as too inflammatory, even for a resistance based campaign, and was decided they would focus on narratives just shy of that threshold. 

In the end, the impact of resistance narratives and the V for Victory: Europe against the Germans campaign is enduring. Thanks to filmmakers, the world war became more than just nations fighting against an enemy, but a “people’s war” of individual contribution and awareness. While Britain’s early days of the war seemed to indicate an isolationist preference, depicting the average British person on the same level as the average European citizen created strong ties to continental Europe. Post war and into the 1950s, this imagery changed once more to a Britain vs. Germany narrative but stability and ingrain imagery of a British-European connection remains, to this day, a notable part of the Second World War. 

End Notes:
1 Wendy Webster, "Europe Against the Germans: The British Resistance Narrative, 1940-1950," 958.
2 Low, Very Well Alone. 
3 Wendy Webster, "Europe Against the Germans: The British Resistance Narrative, 1940-1950," 959.
4 ibid.
5 ibid
6 Wendy Webster, "Europe Against the Germans: The British Resistance Narrative, 1940-1950," 966.
7 Wendy Webster, "Europe Against the Germans: The British Resistance Narrative, 1940-1950," 967.
8 ibid.
9 Wendy Webster, "Europe Against the Germans: The British Resistance Narrative, 1940-1950," 969.

Sources:

Low, David. Very Well Alone.
http://www.theguardian.com/pictures/image/0,8543,-10904410005,00.html

Webster, Wendy. “Europe against the Germans: The British Resistance Narritive, 1940-1950.” The Journal of British Studies 48, no. 2 (2009), 958-982.
  http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/603602