PROPAGANDA LEAFLETS
"Means of spreading the leaflets were:
1)Mostly spread by bomber airplanes on there way to Germany and other enemy territory.
2)Shelling with artillery grenades. Also sometimes by rockets and mortars. Short range combat.
3)Hanging the leaflets under balloons (with a release mechanism) and let them float over enemy country.
4)Spreading by hand (e.g. resistance groups working for the allies or patrols behind enemy lines)."
There were several ways to drop the leaflets from a plane. The earlier methods where to take the leaflets tied by a rubberband and to drop them through small holes on the plane. This was not so effective because of the small quantity but sometimes the rubberband will snap early and all the leaflets would be sucked in the engine.
Later on they used a box that had a line attached to the lid and to the plane. There were large ammounts of leaflets and once the box fell down a certain distance, the lid of the box would be lifted by the line.
USAAF thought up with the idea of Monroe Bombs. These where similer to bombs but contained 80,000 leaflets. They could be fitted into any bomber and each bomb had a detonator to open the bomb at any hieght.
Balloons were also quite effective, and could be sent by the army. The Luftwaffe tried to shoot down as many ballons as they could but most got through. There were a bunch of leaflets tied to the bottem of the balloon. A special fuse would drop the leaflets at a specific time, and an explosive charge would destroy the balloon.
You could also send leaflets using artillery. These where filled with around 400 leaflets and where used in North Africa and after D-Day. The shell would shoot out and be detonated in mid air so the leaflets could spread over enemy positions.
