​Almanac: "V for Victory"

Almanac: "V for Victory" sign

And now a page from our Sunday Morning Almanac: July 19th, 1941, 74 years ago today ... a red letter day in the war against Nazi Germany.

For it was late that evening that a BBC announcer read a message from Prime Minister Winston Churchill, urging the people of Britain to use two extended fingers to form a "V for Victory" sign.

According to a follow-up BBC broadcast one week later, the hand signal, as well as the letter V itself, were already being used by the underground resistance in occupied Europe:

"All over Europe, the V sign is being seen by the Germans, and it's beginning to play on their nerves," said the broadcaster identified as "Colonel Britton." "They see it chalked on the pavement, penciled on posters, scratched on the mudguards of German cars."

Nor was that all. Colonel Britton went on to demonstrate the sound of the letter V in Morse code -- three short knocks and one long -- and he urged listeners to use it whenever they could, such as to alert a waiter.

Newsreels picked up on the "V for Victory" theme, playing up the resemblance between the Morse code V and the first four notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony ("the musical three dots and a dash").

From hand signal to costume jewelry, the V sign was a huge morale booster for all those on the Allied side ... straight through to 1945 and VE Day (Victory in Europe), and then VJ Day (Victory over Japan).

Today, the V sign is still often used to celebrate triumph, though, we suspect, only rarely in its audio form to summon a waiter.

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