Propaganda Leaflet - V1 P.O.W. Post

Leaflet from a V1 flying bomb launched over Hull with the intended target of Manchester, 1944.

On 24 December 1944, Heinkel HE 111 bombers of the Luftwaffe KG53 air-launched a number of V1 flying bombs from over the Hull area with Manchester as the intended target. Most of the bombs fell in the Greater Manchester area (Oldham, Didsbury, Worsley) but some fell short. The Germans had devised a means of discovering where the bombs fell. Each V1 carried a bundle of copies of the V1 POW Post. These were leaflets containing messages written by British prisoners in Germany. The leaflets asked the finders to deliver them to the next-of-kin of the prisoners (whose addresses were on the leaflets) in the hope that they would write to the prisoners and reveal where the leaflets had been found. Though most of the leaflets were collected by the military, some were delivered. There were a number of different leaflets and this seems to be an example of a hitherto unknown type.