Radio Caledonia: Scottish Nationalism and Nazi Radio Propaganda, 1940–1942

Abstract

In June 1940, from somewhere in Scotland, a radio station named Radio Caledonia began to broadcast Scottish nationalist, anti-government and anti-war propaganda to Britain, on behalf of an organisation called the Scottish Peace Front. Its objective was to bring about Scotland's exit from the war, an end to the capitalist system, and the creation of an independent, socialist Scotland. The speaker and scriptwriter behind Radio Caledonia was Donald Grant, a Scot, since dubbed Scotland's Lord Haw-Haw. But Radio Caledonia was only superficially a Scottish nationalist station. In reality, the Scottish Peace Front was an entirely fictitious group, and Radio Caledonia's programmes were made in and broadcast from Berlin under the direction of Joseph Goebbels, as one element of his propaganda campaign against Britain. Radio Caledonia, like other similar ‘secret stations’ commissioned by Goebbels, was conceived of by the Nazi Propaganda Ministry, and its broadcasts written and produced by British renegades. This paper looks at Grant's background and political beliefs, the Nazi propaganda organisation within which he worked in Berlin, and the broadcast output of Radio Caledonia. It concludes that far from being an authentically nationalist or socialist enterprise, Radio Caledonia was devised by German Nazis and British fascists as a tool to achieve their shared aim of bringing about an end to Britain's involvement in the war.