Did you know a World War II April’s prank caused a panic?

The spring of 1940 was a tense time. German troop buildup was at its height, and the Third Reich was ready to overrun Denmark and Norway (The German invasion of Norway), and invade France and the Low Countries soon after. It was at this time that a German-language radio broadcast was repeated by the BBC, in which Hitler announced that he extended the German Protectorate over the United States and will rename the White House the Brown House.
 
As you might have guessed, the speech was an April Fools prank, broadcast on April 1. It was originally written by Martin Miller, a London-based Czech-Austrian émigré who was a regular player in Das Laterndl, a German-language theater club staffed by other exiles. He was well-known for his convincing parodies of Hitler, perfectly mimicking the Führer’s style, sentence structure and dubious leaps of logic. It was one of his skits that was recorded and broadcast by the BBC to ridicule the Nazi dictator in front of the Germans and Austrian secretly listening to the British radio channel at home.

After apparently addressing the Reichstag, the speech began with “When in the year 1492 the Spaniard Christopher Columbus, underpinned by the discoveries of German scholars and using German-made equipment and instruments, undertook his now well-known journey over the distant ocean, there could have been no doubt that with the success of this daring undertaking, Germany would have some share in the achievements brought about by this voyage of discovery.” It went on to declare that the Czechs and Poles of America wish to be reunited with the homelands by “joining” the Reich as the latter did: “I am immensely grateful to Mr. Roosevelt for the frequent interest he has shown in the internal affairs of Europe, and I want to express my thanks by extending the Protectorate to the United States of America!”
Discussing the coming reconstruction “the trivial port of New York of today,” “Hitler” than promised that “the Statue of Liberty, which is disruptive to traffic, will then be thrown onto the scrap heap”. He concluded by stating that the White House will become the “Brown House” once he occupied the chair destined to him there.

The fake broadcast was meant to ridicule Hitler, but ended up causing some unintentional consternation. The CBS network in America, thinking the threat of an invasion might be true, contacted the BBC in a panic to ask for the source of the transmission.
 
As for Martin Miller, he went on to produce after spoofs of Hitler. On December 27, 1941, he announced an early end of the year: “Members of the armed forces and National Socialist German men and women! My message today coincides with the end of the year; of the year 1941, for which I have guaranteed you the final victory. But this year has only ended in calendar terms – in that Gregorian calendar, which was imposed on the German world by a Roman Pope by the name of Gregor, bribed by international Jewry and Freemasons!!! Should we National Socialists, who have given the world a new order, allow ourselves to be dictated to by shady foreign characters about when a year begins and ends? No, my fellow Germans, when a German year starts and ends, that will be decided by me alone!”