POLITICAL WARFARE EXECUTIVE
In December, 1944, the Admiralty began overtures to secure the service of Dallas Brooks and with Lockhart's reluctant agreement, he duly left, becoming Commandant General of the Royal Marine Corps within 15 months. Major General Alec Bishop eventually filled the P.W.E. vacancy, before moving on to reorganise the information service of the army.
With the contemporary beginnings of a collapse in German morale, in November 1944, Miss Raine, of the P.W.E. Production Unit, wrote to George Bernard Shaw asking permission to quote a paragraph from his 'Everybodys Political Whats What.' Saying she was not allowed to pay more than one guinea per thousand words, Shaw duly raised no objections to the Foreign Office quoting unconditionally from any of his writings.
Propaganda gets results
The work the propagandists now became ever more effective and no doubt partly in consequence, the intended massive German resistance movement - the Werwolf Organisation - never materialised. Even Goebbels had to admit 'Enemy propaganda is beginning to have an uncomfortably noticeable effect on the German people. Anglo American leaflets are now no longer carelessly thrown aside but are read attentively. British broadcasts have a grateful audience.' Disturbing dis-information then caused him additional worry, for the story had been sown that having copied the V2 rocket, the Americans were about to launch such weapons against Germany from April 1st.
The war criminals
Of his own prospects, Goebbels harboured little doubt; 'I am quite prepared to put up with this description,' he replied to Eden's statement in the Commons in March, 1945, describing Ribbentrop and Goebbels as the leading war criminals. As for one solution, Vansittart, whose warning voice had been unheeded in the pre war years, considered this simply a question of the location of the gallows and the length of the rope! Of little surprise he was hated by the Nazis, for his strong anti German views, expressed in his pamphlet, the Black Record.
With the European war at last at an end, in May, 1945, discussions began for the treatment of people leaving or shortly to leave P.W.E., such as Bowes Lyon. The most the personnel could be given was 2 months pay in the form of a months leave and a months notice and liquidation duly began in June, of as much of the organisation as possible. Nevertheless, some favoured the revival of a black propaganda organisation in Europe and the Far East, perhaps combined with S.O.E. and amongst those holding these views was Major General Colin Gubbins, the last Commandant General of S.O.E. On August 3rd, 1945, in a farewell letter to Lockhart he urged his plan and although Lockhart held a general sympathy, he pointed out the difficulty of having Delmer recalled, since he now had the task of setting up a German news desk in the British Zone and advised that the proposal be set down in a paper.
Bruce Lockhart resigns
Many of the P.W.E. regional sections, for occupied countries, were now closing down and on the grounds of ill health, Lockhart himself resigned as Director General on 1st August 1945, asking to be released by August 31st. The details were settled at the Foreign Office on August 16th, and thus confirmed he was to officially finish on September 30th, taking a months leave on full pay from August 31st. As Major General Bishop's replacement, General Strong, once Eisenhower's director, would now take over with P.W.E. directed, in a basic form, to continue in Europe and Asia as long as a military government existed.
As for Lockhart, in the restaurant of Bush House, on August 31st, he took his leave of the staff, some 600 people and shaking hands and saying goodbye to all the members thus occupied him from 4.30-6.00p.m. A dinner in 2 private rooms then followed, on the 1st floor of the Dorchester Hotel. Many of Lockharts colleagues were present, including Delmer and McLachlan. As for the other personalities of P.W.E., at the end of the European War Bracken went to the Admiralty and so left the organisation under the sole minister, Eden. Many of the other personnel were also now leaving P.W.E. with several senior members directed to special assignments, interrogating high ranking Germans.
