by Nomad
During the dark early days of World War II, as Nazi Germany's forces swept across Europe, a peculiar and sinister voice crackled across the radio airwaves into British homes.
It was a voice dripping with mockery, condescension, and false camaraderie, delivering Nazi propaganda in an affected, upper-class British accent. The British public dubbed its owner "Lord Haw-Haw." This figure became one of the most infamous traitors in modern history, but his story is more complex than the simple caricature of a turncoat.
Who Was "Lord Haw-Haw"?
The nickname "Lord Haw-Haw" was first applied by British journalist Jonah Barrington of the Daily Express to describe the bizarre, drawling voice on German propaganda broadcasts. The public soon used it as a blanket term for several English-speaking announcers. However, the man who would become irrevocably linked with the persona was William Joyce.
Joyce (1906-1946) was an American-born fascist of Irish Catholic descent who grew up in Ireland and England. Radicalized early, he joined the British Union of Fascists (BUF) under Oswald Mosley in the 1930s, becoming a virulent and violent speaker. Mosley was a British politician who rose to fame during the 1920s and 1930s when, disillusioned with mainstream politics, he turned to fascism. As a result of his oratory skills, Joyce was promoted in 1934 to be the BUF's Director of Propaganda, and later appointed deputy leader.
In public, Joyce described Mosley as 'the greatest Englishman I have ever known,' yet privately, he criticized 'The Bleeder' for being insufficiently antisemitic and radical. He lamented, 'Mosley was hopeless. He was the worst leader of what should have been the best cause in the world.'
Matters came to a head in the spring of 1937 when Mosley dismissed Joyce, who promptly established the National Socialist League. With its blatantly antisemitic and pro-Nazi programme, it attracted only a tiny membership.
On 24 August 1939, with the crisis over German claims on Danzig and the Polish Corridor threatening war, Joyce renewed his passport and he and his second wife, Margaret, set out for Berlin. He had good reason to flee. His ramble-rousing had put a target on his back and he feared internment as a security risk at the war's outbreak. Arriving in Germany just days before the invasion of Poland, he decided that he wanted to play 'a clear and definite part' in the war.
That opportunity came on 18 September 1939 when Joyce received a contract as a newsreader at the Reichsrundfunk (German Radio Corporation), a week after making his first broadcast.
The Broadcasts: Content and Impact
Joyce's program, Germany Calling, was broadcast on the Reichsrundfunk (state radio) network. His signature opening, "Germany calling, Germany calling," became instantly recognizable. The broadcasts mixed:
Military News: Often accurate, detailed reports of Allied losses (like sunken ships or downed planes), gleaned from German military intelligence, designed to demoralize listeners.
Mockery and Ridicule: Sneering critiques of the British government, military leadership, and the royal family.
Appeals to Class Resentment: Efforts to pit the "common man" against the "plutocratic" British ruling class.
Psychological Warfare: Suggestions of German invincibility and the futility of resistance.
While the British government initially feared the broadcasts' impact, studies (including the BBC's own Listener Research) showed their primary effect was not mass demoralization but morbid fascination.
People tuned in more for curiosity and entertainment than for belief. The Ministry of Information even subtly encouraged listening, as the broadcasts' obvious lies and pomposity often bolstered British resolve.
His style was to entertain while undermining his British audience's morale by spreading doubt through semi-plausible rumours, exaggeration and ridicule. In one broadcast, he talked of "panic and confusion… hourly gaining ground" in Britain. "The only wonder is that the people of this doomed island took so long to realise the nature of the positions into which their politicians had led them," he said.
Several reasons were put forward to explain this large audience. Fifty-eight per cent of those questioned listened 'because his version of the news is so fantastic that it is funny.'
A Canadian listener writing to London Calling on 25 November 1939 said 'Whenever we are short of entertainment, we tune in to that comedian. We often wonder whether he knows what a lot of laughter he causes'. A large percentage tuned in 'because so many other people listen to him and talk about it'. A bricklayer's labourer told one of Mass Observation’s reporters: 'There's a feeling you can't turn off. You've got to listen to him' (Mass Observation’s US).
Nevertheless, they sowed a seed of anxiety, making some wonder, "How do they know that?"
The public fascination quickly disappeared when the war began in earnest. As the UK War Museum notes:
For the first eight months of the Second World War, with relative inaction on the battlefronts, Lord Haw Haw had enjoyed an audience sometimes reaching over 50% of the British listening public. Despite rival claimants such as 'Tokyo Rose' and 'Axis Sally,' many would agree with journalist William L. Shirer, who wrote in his End of Berlin Diary that Lord Haw Haw 'had been the war's outstanding radio traitor'.
After the Battle of Britain and the invasion of Russia, Joyce’s broadcasts lost more and more listeners in Britain – but he still remained the number one broadcaster in Berlin and his anti-semitism never faded in its virulence – continuing to blame the war on “Jewish International Finance.”
For his efforts, Joyce continued to live a comfortable life in Berlin and in September 1944 was awarded the Cross of War Merit 1st Class with a certificate signed by Adolf Hitler. As the war worsened, he began to drink heavily and his marriage became a joke with both his wife and he having numerous affairs.
Capture, Trial, and Execution
American radio correspondent Harry W Flannery, encountering Joyce in Berlin during the winter of 1940, noted in his Assignment to Berlin::
'His first broadcasts had been witty, but as he remained in Germany, he had begun to sour. He had lost his sense of humour and with it, I believe, what influence he might have had'.
Lord Haw-Haw's final broadcast was on 30 April 1945, the day of Hitler's suicide. With the Nazi regime crumbling, this broadcast was little more than a drunken, incoherent rant. As Allied forces continued to advance into Germany, Joyce and his wife planned to flee to Sweden before travelling on to neutral Ireland. They only made it as far as the Baltic port of Flensburg, near Germany's border with Denmark.
Not long after Germany surrendered, he was captured by British forces near the Danish border. Notably, he was shot while reaching for his identification papers, and the arresting officer was a Jewish German émigré serving in the British army.
His trial in London was a legal landmark. Joyce was charged with high treason. His defense argued that as an American citizen (and thus a British alien), he owed no allegiance to the Crown.
The prosecution successfully contended that his possession of a British passport (obtained fraudulently in 1933) at the time he fled to Germany granted him state protection and, therefore, a duty of allegiance. This technicality sealed his fate.
Joyce was convicted of high treason for having "adhered to the King's enemies" by broadcasting on their behalf between 18 September 1939 and 2 July 1940, the date when his British passport expired and he became a German citizen.
A Lasting Legacy
The story of Lord Haw-Haw is a cautionary tale about the power of media in wartime, the nature of treason, and the dark allure of ideological extremism. Where is the fine line between false news reporting and premeditated propaganda? Does the freedom of the press cover news reports calculated to demoralize the public?
William Joyce was a man who, consumed by hatred for democracy and seduced by fascism, betrayed the country he lived in to serve a monstrous regime. His legacy endures not for the strength of his propaganda, but as a stark symbol of betrayal, and a fascinating, grim footnote in the history of psychological warfare.
His final, reported words on the gallows—"In death, as in life, I defy the Jews who caused this last war. I thank God for allowing me five and a half years to pursue His work. I have done my duty."—stand as a chilling reminder of the unrepentant fanaticism that defined his life and doomed him.
Lord Haw-Haw's story is less a direct map to any single modern figure and more a primer on the timeless techniques of destabilization propaganda. It shows how the tools of mocking the elite, posing as a truth-teller, exploiting grievance, and using intimate media can be weaponized to undermine public faith in democracy itself.
The ultimate parallel is in the objective: to convince an audience that their own nation's system is so irredeemably corrupt that its collapse—or its overthrow by a radical, strongman alternative—is not only justified but necessary. In that goal, the ghost of William Joyce still very much haunts the airwaves.