In July 1941, Winston Churchill became personally involved in the launch of “V for Victory”, a new British initiative which was intended to boost morale, both at home and abroad. Thereafter, Churchill would customarily make the “V” sign with the index and middle fingers of one hand to signify his support for the campaign. As a result, the V for Victory sign became synonymous with Britain’s wartime Prime Minister and, even now, is regarded as one of the enduring symbols of World War II. Yet, the idea did not originate with Churchill, nor was he the first person to use this iconic gesture of wartime defiance.
Six months before the launch of the British campaign, an exiled 47-year-old Belgian politician named Victor de Laveleye took to the airwaves in London with a rallying cry to his fellow countrymen, urging them to launch a deceptively simple, but highly effective, new resistance campaign against the occupying Nazi army. He called upon them to chalk or paint the letter V on buildings and pavements throughout the country to serve as a constant reminder to German soldiers that they were neither safe nor welcome there. De Laveleye considered V the perfect symbol for bilingual Belgium because it formed both the initial letter of the word “Victory” in French (Victoire) and also “Freedom” in Flemish (Vryheid).
A World War I veteran, De Laveleye competed in tennis for Belgium at two Olympic Games and also worked as a lawyer before switching his focus to politics. Throughout the 1930s, he campaigned tirelessly against the rising threat of fascism in Belgium before eventually being compelled to flee his native land for England soon after the Nazi occupation began in late May 1940. In London, he joined Radio Belgique, a newly established radio station under the auspices of the BBC, whose main purpose was to make regular propaganda broadcasts in French to Nazi-occupied countries in Western Europe.
According to another exiled Belgian politician, his compatriot first came up with the idea of the V sign whilst sheltering with two of his radio colleagues from an air raid in London. “Anti-aircraft guns were firing for all they were worth, the whole city was lit up by the blazing houses, and De Laveleye and his friends were sitting there quietly trying to think of a rallying sign for Britain and her Allies”, wrote Marcel Henri Jaspar for the Winnipeg Tribune in August 1941. De Laveleye was suddenly struck by the significance of the letter V and, just days later, was making his fateful broadcast on Radio Belgique.
His listeners immediately took on board the idea of adopting the V sign as a gesture of defiance and the symbol quickly became a common sight, not only in Belgium but also in northern France and the Netherlands. One key element to the success of the campaign was its simplicity. The V sign was quick and easy to draw, making it less likely that the perpetrator would be caught be in the act by the Nazi authorities who were notoriously brutal in clamping down on even the most basic opposition to their regime.
This, in turn, encouraged the British Government to launch the V for Victory campaign later the same year. Douglas Ritchie, an assistant news editor, was the man tasked with fronting the broadcasts for the BBC European service under the assumed name of “Colonel Britton”. At midnight on July 19, 1941, he broadcast a rallying call to action urging the whole of Western Europe to join the “V Army”. He exhorted them “to take every opportunity…to demonstrate to the Germans the mobilization of the V Army by putting Vs…everywhere you can put them”, ending “Let the V be splashed from one end of Europe to the other”.
The following evening, Colonel Britton read out a typically robust message from Winston Churchill in support of the campaign. “The ‘V’ sign is the symbol of the occupied territories and a portent of the fate awaiting the Nazi tyranny”, wrote the British Prime Minister. “So long as the peoples of Europe continue to refuse all collaboration with the invader, it is sure that his cause will perish and that Europe will be liberated”.
That night’s broadcast also featured the first airing of the V song. Accompanied by the opening notes of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, this urged Britain’s neighbors in occupied Europe: “Do not give way: never despair. We’ll get them yet. Hitler beware! Chalk up a V on every wall till you are free. At work or play hum it all day – VVV…”
![camera-icon]()
Winston Churchill gives his famous V sign on Downing Street, 5 June 1943.
Photo Credit: Wikipedia
The decision to use one of German classical music’s most recognizable pieces for this purpose showed great ingenuity. The distinctive opening four notes to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 have long been taken to represent fate knocking at the door. They also sound strikingly similar to the Morse code for the letter V (three dots and a dash). From then onwards, Colonel Britton’s broadcasts always began with this particular piece of music, reinforcing Churchill’s message that the letter V marked a powerful representation of the inevitability of the Nazi regime’s eventual downfall.
Likewise, Churchill’s habitual use of the V sign became a potent symbol of the V for Victory campaign. Just a month after the first call to mobilize the V Army, the Prime Minister was greeted by a huge and enthusiastic crowd after returning to London following an important meeting with President Roosevelt in Newfoundland. Under the heading, “Churchill gives the ‘V’ sign”, the London Evening Standard reported:
“He walked on slowly until he stood looking at the great sea of faces…For the moment it seemed that Mr Churchill was going to say something. Then came his message. He held up his arms so that everyone could see and joined his thumbs in the ‘V’ sign. No one could have given the ‘V’ sign with more vigour and determination.”
On a surprise visit to Liverpool the following month, Churchill is described as giving the V sign “with great deliberation”, again suggesting a marked intention to emphasize the gesture and ensure that it was not missed. The policy clearly worked, as the Liverpool Echo describes how, in response, Churchill’s gesture proved “a signal for hundreds of ‘V’ signs from the crowd”.
Churchill’s use of the V sign did sometimes cause more than a little consternation amongst his close advisors, who had to remind him constantly to make the gesture with his palm facing outwards. Although uncommon on the continent, the two-fingered salute with the palm facing inwards has long been used in Britain as an offensive gesture. Legend has it that the custom dates all the way back to Battle of Agincourt in 1415. During the Hundred Years’ War, any English longbowman who was unlucky enough to be captured by the French opposition was likely to have his index and middle fingers severed so that he could no longer operate his weapon. By flashing the V sign as an act of defiance at Agincourt, the English archers were flaunting the fact that they had evaded capture. The jury remains out as to whether Churchill knew precisely what he was doing when he sometimes opted to give the V for Victory sign with his palm facing inwards.
Although the United States did not officially join the war until the end of 1941, the campaign also soon made it across the Atlantic Ocean. Sightings of V for Victory signs cropped up in newspaper reports all over the US that summer such as the following from the Daily Sentinel in mid-August:
“A three-foot high V for Victory sign adorns the front of No. 1 Engine House in N. Washington State. The V painted red, white and blue, was made by Fireman Joseph Pazdur, assisted by Capt. James VanDresar and his brother, Fireman Martin VanDresar…The three paid firemen said it stands for victory over the Axis powers”.
American use of the slogan intensified following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December. As the USA prepared to enter the war, Churchill spent Christmas at the White House with the Roosevelt family and, on December 26, made a famous speech to Congress. At its conclusion, he elected to give his now-customary V for Victory sign. Its use at such a historic moment only served to cement the gesture’s iconic status throughout the Western world.
When the war in Europe finally came to an end in early May 1945, Churchill appeared on the balcony of the Ministry of Health building on Whitehall and addressed the many thousands who had gathered in central London to celebrate VE Day. In one final symbolic act of Allied wartime defiance, he raised his hand in the familiar V sign as he finished his speech, amid tumultuous cheering.
By this juncture Churchill’s status as Britain’s heroic wartime leader was already assured. As for the Belgian politician who first came up with the idea of the V symbol, Victor de Laveleye served for five months as Minister of Public Education in the first two post-liberation Belgian Governments. However, he was already far from well and passed away soon afterwards, in December 1945, at the age of just 51.
