Bing Crosby WW2 secret weapon

“Stars and Stripes” , London, Wednesday, September 6, 1944, page 4

WAR-KRAFT MUSIC HALL

BING CROONS, NAZIS SWOON – AT LEAST PWB HOPES SO

By Robert Musel 
United Press Staff Writer

While Hitler fooled around with buzz-bombs and pickaback planes the U. S. unleashed a real secret weapon at Germany – Der Bingle. Der Bingle is what the Germans call it. Back home it’s Bing Crosby.

Der Bingle was launched at the Wehrmacht from the studio of the American Broadcasting System in Europe. It was beautiful to see and hear, and experts of the Psychological Warfare Bureau said its effect would be beautiful too.

Der Bingle astounded front-line observers by using reasonably good German. Since he doesn’t speak German, Der Bingle was asked how come. “I don’t do it with mirrors”, he said, “I do it with phonetics”. 

Bing, consulting his phonetic chart, began “Hello German soldiers. Here speaks Bing Crosby. I’ve just arrived from America – the country where nobody is afraid of the Gestapo, where everybody has the right to say and write what he thinks”. Der Bingle, rippling through Teutonic gutterals with complete ease, told the Germans about the constitutional right of pursuit of happiness, adding “I hope sincerely that our rights and freedoms soon will be observed again in your country. That’s what we Americans are fighting for”.

Letting this sink in, Der Bingle signaled Cpl. Jack Russin, pianist of Major Glenn Miller’s band, and said “But I didn’t come here to preach. I came here to sing a few songs”. Bing then sang “Going My Way” from the film of the same name in which he starred, except that the lyrics were cleverly twisted so that the sense of the song was “come with me” – meaning out of Hitlerland and back to the free world.

After that, because many Europeans, such as forced laborers in Germany, understand some French, Bing did “The Last Time I Saw Paris”. His phonetic French was not bad either, but possibly because of the overwhelming effect of using the language for the first time, Crosby seemed to sound a little bit like Charles Boyer. 

A typist passing by asked what was going on.

“Bing Crosby is singing to the Nazis” she was told. 

“What kind of punishment is that?” she asked.

The Very Thought of You-1934