"V" For Victory

Years ago, a classmate Charlotte McClain Russell, shared with me an account about a magazine contest her mother Lydia had entered and a picture of the natural tree growth on their property depicting the “V” for Victory during WWII. We had no idea what magazine, at that time. Over the years I have read a couple of social media posts that had vague recall of the event and then found a picture in the Fan Harrington collection of “kids playing in the Trout Creek school yard 1915 shown in the background is the timber patch west of the Greenheck ranch showing the “V” for Victory sign, emblem used for victory in World War II.”

                                                  Photo taken by Lydia McClain in 1941

                               Photo from Fan Harrrington Collection at Trout Creek School in 1915

 At that time I tried Googling information and came up with nothing. Recently cleaning out my files I came across the two pictures again and began further research. The following is what I have discovered:  The following is what I have discovered: 

Victor de Laveleye was a radio host on the British broadcasting Corporation which produced the Voice of Radio Belgium. In January 1941 he came up with the idea that V was the perfect symbol. V was victory in the French word victoire and Flemish Vryheid meaning freedom. On January 12, 1941, he announce to Radio Free Europe to chalk the letter V on buildings, in the streets and to paint it where ever they could as a symbol of defiance, of freedom, and of final victory. The idea took off like wildfire. Winston Churchill, in July endorsed the V symbol and the campaign was broadcast in sixty languages with each broadcast beginning with Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. The reason this symphony was used was because the fourth note came out as "dot dot dot dash" which is the letter V in the Morris Code and the other name for the tune is "Symphony of Fate".

Churchill began flashing the V sign with his hands and the crowds went wild. During his visit to the United States in December, 1941 following the bombing of Pearl Harbor and America’s entrance into the War, Churchill addressed the United States Senate and as he left the podium he held up his left hand and made the V sign. By that time America was aware of the V symbol and soon the ‘Victory’ sign became an amazing piece of propaganda for the whole world. The symbol was used in the industries manufacturing military equipment; recruiting posters for the military; labor posters, and War bonds. The Victory Gardens soon came into being. where most households grew their own produce to supplement the severe rationing, so our troops could have food.

Recognizing this massive trend, Life Magazine, the premier photographic magazine at that time, held a reader submission contest. The “Pictures to the Editors” section in the November 24, 1941 Life issue gave the directions to submit photographs and how the V for Victory symbol was used for advertisements in the 1941 Life magazine. They also gave examples of the type of natural occurring V shapes that could be submitted by readers. Life readers went to creative lengths to capture the letter V in their everyday life. These submissions included pictures of mother hens sitting in perfect V formation, patterns of clouds in the sky, office equipment arranged creatively, custom mowed lawns and crops shaded into the V emblem. The photographs were posted in the Life magazine over the next few months and the winners of the various categories were rewarded with a $10 check. This is where the natural occurring V in timber growth on the Antelope range gained notoriety! I can only imagine how much that $10 meant during this period of rationing and tight budgeting by the women running a household, often absent of the primary wage earner due to the mandatory draft. 

I will continue to search for any local newspaper articles identifying winners and am waiting for archived pages of published photographs of winners in the Life magazines.