The theme ofthe German submarines activities covered in the press propaganda on the occupied territories of Ukraine (based on the materials of Sumy Herald in 1941-1943)

The materials of the newspaper “Sumy Herald” published during the period of the German occupation in the city of Sumy and devoted to the German submarines’ activities are analyzed in the article. The objective of the publication is to highlight the usage of this theme by the German propaganda to influence the Ukrainian population through the local press. The author has come to the conclusion that newspapers were the most widespread and effective form of propaganda at that time on the occupied territories of the USSR and Ukraine. In comparison to the radio and cinema they were able to cover the considerable part of the rural and urban population. The reports concerning the conduct of military operations were produced centrally and did not take into consideration the specific nature of perceiving this sort of information by the local population. They reports were overloaded with digital, geographic data and specific terms. Only in the second half of 1942 the articles, maps and charts meant to explain certain issues of the undersea war were produced. The greatest attention to the German submarines’ activities was paid by the propaganda in the period from February to September 1942. This is related to the successful actions of the German troops at the Eastern coast of the North Africa. The information concerning this theme was generally published on the first page. It was printed in the headings or subheadings, the bold font was used in the text of the article. Sometimes some illustrations in the form of photos and cartoons were used. The latter were not very common in the newspapers of that period. The information about the undersea war was provided quite promptly and in general was accurate. Except the loses of Britain and its allies in separate military operations the general data concerning the tonnage of sunk ships was published. The information about the German submarines loses was not given in contrast to the loses of the planes, for example. The reports references to the names of the submarines’ captains without providing any information about their personalities had no “personification” effect. Perhaps, it might be compensated by other sources of propaganda, for example by “Die Deutsche Wochenschau” series in the cinemas. But the latter covered a considerably lesser audience in comparison to the newspapers.

Source: Nesterenko V.A. (2021) The theme ofthe German submarines’activities covered in the press propaganda on the occupied territories of Ukraine (based on the materials of “Sumy Herald” in 1941-1943). Ancient Sumy Land. №LVIII: 48-68

Source web-site: https://starovyna.sumdu.edu.ua/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/5-%D0%9D%D0%B5%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BA%D0%BE.pdf