— Loudspeaker and Leaflet Company Mission
Table of Organization and Equipment 20 -77, 1 September 1950
In October 1951, the 5th Loudspeaker and Leaflet (L&L) Company, Seventh U.S. Army’s tactical psychological warfare (Psywar) asset in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), was in the throes of a major training exercise called COMBINE. The company’s primary mission was printing leaflets for Aggressor, U.S. units role-playing as opposition forces. One style of leaflet warned ‘U.S. forces’ of the Kreuzotter, “Germany’s only poisonous snake.” Stars and Stripes reported, “‘Enemy’ aircraft showered propaganda leaflets by the thousands on Allied troops, one leaflet warning that the Allies were fighting in areas infested by poisonous snakes.”
1 Howard Kennedy, “7th Army Drives Back ‘Aggressors,’” The Stars and Stripes, 7 October 1951, 1, 12.
In fact, the Kreuzotter was fake. Radio repairman Private First Class (PFC) James M. Niefer later described the impact of the leaflet. “Rumor had it that the guys were really scared about it and they wouldn’t sleep on the ground. They slept in their vehicles because they were afraid the snakes would crawl into their sleeping bags.” The snake hampered the exercise so much that German newspapers had to assure American units that it did not exist. The Kreuzotter leaflet was one original product developed by the 5th L&L after it deployed to Böblingen, FRG, in 1951 to provide Seventh Army with a tactical Psywar capability.
2 James M. Niefer, 5th L&L, interview by Jared M. Tracy, 24 February 2011, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC.
This article chronicles the first two years of the 5th L&L, one of only a handful of tactical Psywar units that the U.S. Army established, trained, and deployed during the first few years of the Cold War. The 5th was part of the Army’s larger effort to create a viable Psywar capability following North Korea’s 25 June 1950 invasion of its southern neighbor. Secretary of the Army Frank Pace, Jr., U.S. Army Chief of Staff General J. Lawton Collins, and Department of the Army (DA) G-3 Major General Charles L. Bolte directed Brigadier General (BG) Robert A. McClure to lead that initiative.
Having served as Chief of the Psychological Warfare Division, Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force during WWII, BG McClure was the ideal officer for this task. In August 1950, he reported to the Pentagon (initially for temporary duty [TDY]) “in connection with planning for Psychological Warfare.” As a result of the general’s efforts, within six months the Army established three organizations to facilitate the activation, training, resourcing, and deployment of Psywar units. These organizations were the Psywar Division in the G-3, DA (September 1950), the Psywar Division in the Army General School at Fort Riley, Kansas (1950-1951), and the Office of the Chief of Psychological Warfare (OCPW) in the Pentagon (January 1951).
3 Memorandum from John H. Stokes, Jr. to Robert A. McClure, 21 August 1950, copy in USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC.
4 For more on this effort, see, e.g., letter from Robert A. McClure to Charles A. Willoughby, 26 September 1950, copy in USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC; Veritas: Journal of Army Special Operations History 7/1 (2011), 7/2 (2011), and 8/1 (2012); Alfred H. Paddock, Jr., U.S. Army Special Warfare: Its Origins (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 2002); Robert A. McClure, “Trends in Army Psychological Warfare,” Army Information Digest (February 1952); “Interview with Brig. Gen. Robert A. McClure: Psychological Strategy as a Preventative of Large War,” U.S. News and World Report (January 1953): 60-69.
As the head of the OCPW, McClure’s priority was providing trained and equipped Psywar units to theater and field army commanders faced with the Communist threat in Europe and the Far East. For that purpose, by spring 1951 the Army had activated the tactical 1st, 2nd, and 5th L&L Companies and the strategic 1st Radio Broadcasting and Leaflet (RB&L) Group. It also federalized the reserve strategic 301st RB&L Group. Contemporary doctrine allotted each field army one L&L Company and each theater command one RB&L Group. Accordingly, the 1st L&L supported the Eighth U.S. Army in Korea, the 1st RB&L supported the Far East Command (FEC) and the United Nations Command in Korea, and the 301st RB&L supported the European Command (EUCOM) in the FRG. (The 2nd L&L stayed in the U.S. to serve as Army Field Forces’ training element.) In September 1951, the 5th L&L deployed as a tactical asset for Seventh Army, the largest Army combat formation in Europe. The history of the 5th L&L began six months before its movement overseas.
5 Quote from Psychological Warfare School, “Psychological Warfare Operations,” no date (ca. 1952), 13, U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC), Carlisle, PA; Oliver J. Frederickson, The American Military Occupation of Germany, 1945-1953 (Historical Division, Headquarters, United States Army, Europe, 1953), 198.
The 5th L&L was activated on 19 March 1951 at Fort Riley, Kansas, as part of the Army General School. Essentially a unit on paper only, the 5th L&L started with just a handful of people who had transferred from the 1st RB&L and 2nd L&L (also assigned to the School). The commander, First Lieutenant (1LT) William J. Brennan, and his assistant, 1LT John E. Eckenrode, Jr. (formerly of the 1st RB&L), began building a training program for the fledgling company. On 26 April, when New York native Captain (CPT) Robert K. Wensley replaced Brennan as 5th L&L commander, the company had less than one-third strength with 30 men.
6 Historical Data Card, 5th Loudspeaker and Leaflet (L&L) Company, U.S. Army Center of Military History (CMH), Fort McNair, Washington, DC, hereafter Historical Data Card, 5th L&L; Headquarters, Fifth Army, “General Orders #35: Activation and Organization of Certain Reserve Units,” 19 March 1951, National Personnel Records Center (NPRC), St. Louis, MO.
7 A full-strength L&L Company consisted of 8 officers and 99 enlisted personnel. By late May 1951, the company was still less than half strength with 47 personnel.Morning Report, 30 April 1951, 5th L&L, NPRC; 5th L&L, “7,000 Hours: A Pictorial Review of the Fifth Loudspeaker and Leaflet Company from March 1952 through December 1952,” no date, copy in USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC, hereafter “7,000 Hours.” See also 5th L&L, “Walters Named to Korea Psywar,” The Leaflet, 30 November 1951, 4.
Initially, the company’s personnel shortage forced it to stray from Table of Organization and Equipment (T/O&E) 20-77. That T/O&E called for a company headquarters and three operational platoons: Publication, Propaganda, and Loudspeaker. However, the 5th L&L organized with a company headquarters and two platoons, Publication and Loudspeaker. The company headquarters managed administration, mess, supply, training and transportation. Publication Platoon’s functional sections handled research (Intelligence); writing and illustrating (Propaganda); preparing photographic plates (Camera and Plate); printing (Press); and preparing leaflets for dissemination by artillery shells or bombs (Processing). The Loudspeaker Platoon had three loudspeaker sections with linguists, radio repairmen, and mechanics. In the summer of 1951, the company welcomed many highly educated, professionally skilled, and multi-lingual personnel into the ranks.
8 Headquarters, Fort Riley, “Special Orders #89,” 30 March 1951, NPRC; Department of the Army, “Table of Organization and Equipment (T/O&E) 20-77,” 1 September 1950, CMH; 5th L&L, “5th Loudspeaker and Leaflet Company, 1951-1952,” no date, Box 365, Record Group (RG) 338, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), College Park, MD, hereafter 5th L&L yearbook.
9 “7,000 Hours.”
Soldiers were assigned to the 5th L&L because they had college degrees, worked in journalism, advertising, or related fields, or spoke multiple languages. Army induction and training centers (such as Fort Devens, Massachusetts, and Fort Myer, Virginia) screened draftees and prior service personnel for these kinds of backgrounds. One exceptional soldier selected for service in the 5th L&L was PFC David E. Lilienthal, Jr. The son of a high-level governmental agency head, Lilienthal had written for the Harvard Crimson and reported for the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch. After being drafted in 1950 and completing basic training, he helped Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) John O. Weaver, CPT Robert Asti, and the rest of the Army General School’s small Psywar Division with the development of the Psychological Warfare Officers’ Course. Reassigned to the 5th L&L in early 1951, he became Noncommissioned Officer in Charge (NCOIC) of the Propaganda Section. In that position, he supervised “writers working alongside the unit’s artists to produce the materials we turned out, mostly mock leaflets for use in Army maneuvers.”
10 Emails from David E. Lilienthal, Jr. to Jared M. Tracy, 16 and 17 March 2011, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC. Lilienthal’s father had previously been Chairman of both the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Atomic Energy Commission.
One of Lilienthal’s soldiers was Private (PVT) James J. Klobuchar of Ely, Minnesota. The University of Minnesota journalism graduate and writer for the Minneapolis Star Tribune was drafted in November 1950. After completing basic training at Fort Riley, Klobuchar awaited orders to a permanent duty assignment. “A major in personnel at Fort Riley had looked at my résumé” and took note of his education and writing ability. The young journalist reported to the 5th L&L as a writer in the Propaganda Section.
11 James J. Klobuchar, 5th L&L, interview by Jared M. Tracy, 28 January 2011, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC; email from James J. Klobuchar to Jared M. Tracy, 24 September 2011, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC.
Another soldier selected for the 5th L&L was PFC Brook ‘Mike’ Paschkes. In 1950, the Lawrence Fertig and Company advertiser joined the reserve 301st RB&L in New York. Drafted into the active Army in February 1951, Paschkes completed basic training with the 540th Field Artillery Battalion at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, before reporting to the 5th L&L. Lilienthal, Klobuchar, and Paschkes made up but a few of the almost 90 personnel in the 5th L&L by June 1951. Having focused primarily on getting organized and placing personnel, the company discovered that it only had a couple of months left before deployment.
12 Brook ‘Mike’ Paschkes, 301st RB&L and 5th L&L, interview by Jared M. Tracy, 20 December 2010, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC.
13 Morning Reports, 31 May 1951, 1 June 1951, 5 June 1951, 6 June 1951, and 14 June 1951, 5th L&L, NPRC.
When in June 1951 CPT Wensley learned that his company was going to the FRG, he became concerned about the shortage of European linguists. These assets would be needed to turn out products in case of war. He raised the issue with the Psychological Warfare Division and the Army General School. As a result, the Army transferred 34 enlisted soldiers (many of them multi-lingual) from the 2nd to the 5th L&L. One of the new transfers was PVT Silvio J. ‘Joe’ Perilli. Perilli’s father emigrated from Italy to West Virginia in 1913, served in the U.S. military during WWI, and went back to West Virginia in 1920 after getting married in Italy. Born in 1928 in Masontown, West Virginia, Joe Perilli and his family moved to Italy in 1932 and lived there until 1948 before returning to West Virginia. The fluent Italian speaker was drafted in July 1950, took basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and reported as a linguist to the 2nd L&L. He recalled, “All of the linguists from Europe were transferred from the 2nd L&L to the 5th L&L,” including himself.
14 The 5th in turn transferred 32 others to the 2nd . Headquarters, Fort Riley, “Special Orders #165,” 14 June 1951, NPRC.
15 Silvio J. ‘Joe’ Perilli, “From Rome, Italy to Wheeling, West Virginia” (published by author, 2007), 30; Silvio J. ‘Joe’ Perilli, 2nd L&L and 5th L&L, interview with Jared M. Tracy, 25 February 2011.
“One extraordinary aspect of our service... was the presence of a number of Eastern European linguists in our ranks—young men native to those countries who emigrated to the U.S. after WWII and were drafted at the time of Korea.”
— PFC David E. Lilienthal, Jr.
Another linguist reporting to the 5th L&L around the time of the personnel shuffle was PVT Boris A. Niepritzky. Drafted in St. Paul, Minnesota, in September 1950, the native Ukrainian proceeded to his first duty station, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, after completing basic training. There, he translated Russian manuals about Communist weapons that were acquired by the U.S. Army and were displayed in the post museum. “All of the sudden, I got orders to report to Fort Riley, Kansas.” His fluency in Russian earned him a slot in the 5th L&L’s Loudspeaker Platoon. Lilienthal later remarked, “One extraordinary aspect of our service . . . was the presence of a number of Eastern European linguists in our ranks—young men native to those countries who emigrated to the U.S. after WWII and were drafted at the time of Korea.” With its personnel in place, the company’s pre-deployment training and readiness activities increased.
16 Boris A. Niepritzky, 5th L&L, interview by Jared M. Tracy, 11 March 2011, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC.
17 Email from David E. Lilienthal, Jr. to Jared M. Tracy, 2 September 2011, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC.
Scheduled to arrive in Germany in September 1951, CPT Wensley ordered the 5th L&L to complete all necessary requirements before 1 August. According to a company yearbook, “The eight-hour day was abandoned. The company forgot about free Saturday afternoons and off-duty evenings.” By 8 July (three weeks before Wensley’s deadline), the 5th completed all weapons qualifications, combat indoctrination courses, training requirements, and inspections. Most enlisted personnel took leave, only to have a major flood delay their return to Fort Riley until late July. Once the unit reassembled, a final round of inspections ensued. “After about a week of almost daily inspections, the IG gave the 5th a [Preparation for Overseas Movement] inspection rating of superior, and said that of all units which had left Riley for overseas the 5th was the sharpest and best prepared.”
18 5th L&L yearbook; CPT Paul C. Doster speech, 19 March 1952, Box 365, RG 338, NARA, hereafter Doster speech, 19 March 1952.
19 Headquarters, Fort Riley, “Special Orders #186,” 5 July 1951, NPRC; Headquarters, Fort Riley, “Special Orders #187,” 6 July 1951, NPRC.
20 5th L&L yearbook; Doster speech, 19 March 1952. On 13 February 1952 the IG did another inspection on the 5th L&L in Germany. CPT Doster announced, “We got a rating of superior.”