Radio Londres ([ʁa.djolɔ̃dʁ], French for "Radio London") was aradio station broadcast from 1940 to 1944 by theBBC inLondon toNazi-occupied France. It was entirely inFrench and was operated by theFree French who had escaped from occupied France. It served not only to counter the propaganda broadcasts of German-controlledRadio Paris and theVichy government'sRadiodiffusion Nationale, but also to appeal to the French to rise up, as well as being used to send coded messages to theFrench Resistance.

In 1940, theBBC opened its studio to the first members of the resistance who fled France's occupation by Germany. Radio Londres was born and would become the daily appointment of the French people for four years. It opened its transmission with : "Ici Londres ! Les Français parlent aux Français..." ("This is London! The French speak to the French..."), now a very famous quote in France. It was the voice ofFree French Forces underCharles de Gaulle, who, on 18 June 1940, made his famousAppeal of 18 June, inviting his compatriots to resist and rise against the occupation.

By means of broadcasts from Britain, theFrench Resistance found a voice that could be heard on the continent, serving to counter theNazi propaganda broadcasts ofRadio Paris andRadio-Vichy. Realising the negative effect that it had on their occupation, the Germans quickly prohibited listening to Radio Londres. Radio Londres also encouraged rising up against the occupation, including De Gaulle's calls to empty the streets of Paris for one hour, demonstrations, and the preparation ofD-Day, or theV for Victory campaign, involving drawing aV sign on walls as an act of subversion. It also sent coded messages to the French resistance (see below).

Breaking with the formal style of the French radio stations, some young announcers (Jacques Duchesne,Jean Oberlé,Pierre Bourdan,Maurice Schumann andPierre Dac) changed the tone with personal messages, sketches, songs, jokes and comic advertising.

Georges Bégué, an operative with the Special Operations Executive (SOE) had the idea of sending seemingly obscure personal messages to agents in the field, in order to reduce risky radio traffic.

Broadcasts would begin with "Before we begin, please listen to some personal messages." It was clear to nearly everyone that they were coded messages, often amusing, and completely without context. Representative messages include "Jean has a long moustache" and "There is a fire at the insurance agency", each one having some meaning to a certain resistance group.^[2] They were used primarily to provide messages to the resistance, but also to thank their agents or simply to give the enemy the impression that something was being prepared. Because these messages were incode, notcipher, the occupiers could not hope to understand them without a codebook, so they had to focus their efforts onjamming the messages instead.

From the beginning of June 1944, theAllies inundated the network with messages. On 1 June alone, over 200 messages were sent, making it clear to those listening that something was in the works. Although in some places theAxis jamming was more effective than others, thebackground noise and static were not enough to drown out the sound ofBeethoven's 5th Symphony, the first four notes of which correspond to the ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄▄▄  of theMorse code letter V for Victory.

Shortly before the D-Day landings of 6 June 1944,Radio Londres broadcast the firststanza ofPaul Verlaine's poem "Chanson d'automne" to let the resistance know that the invasion was imminent. The first part of the stanza,Les sanglots longs des violons de l’automne ("the long sobs of the violins of autumn") indicated that the invasion would begin within 24 hours; the second,Blessent mon cœur d'une langueur monotone ("wound my heart with a monotonous languor") was the specific call to action.^[3]

By late 1944, Allied victory in France meant the end of Radio Londres.

• German occupation of France during World War II
• French Resistance
• Liberation of France
• Radio Belgique
• Radio Londra
• Verlaine Message Museum

• (in French) "Radio Londres : Les voix de la liberté (1940–1944)" by Aurélie Luneau, Librairie Académique Perrin edition,ISBN 978-2262033026

• Michael Stenton (2000).Radio London and Resistance in Occupied Europe: British Political Warfare 1939-1943. Oxford University Press. p. 167.ISBN 978-0-19-820843-3.
• Nicholas Hewitt (2003).The Cambridge Companion to Modern French Culture. Cambridge University Press. p. 37.ISBN 978-0-521-79465-7.
• Internet Archive: Brassey's D-Day Encyclopedia: The Normandy Invasion A-Z. By Barrett Tillman p.52.
• Bradley Lightbody (2004).The Second World War: Ambitions to Nemesis. Psychology Press. p. 214.ISBN 978-0-415-22404-8.
• (in French)"Les Français parlent aux Français" surChemins de mémoire
• (in French)Ici Londres - Les messages personnels de la BBC
• (in French)Radio France - Inauguration de l'Espace Radio Londres (Announcement of conversion of the spaces into a museum)
• (in French)Les actions de résistance.
• (in French) Aurélie Luneau,Radio Londres - 1940-1944 - Les voix de la liberté, éd. Librairie Académique Perrin, 2005, 349p..ISBN 2-262-02387-5 andISBN 978-2-262-02387-4

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