V for VictoryA slogan devised in 1941 by the British propaganda offices as a rallying cry for the citizens of European countries which had been occupied by German troops during World War II.
It was represented by three distinctive symbols: the capital letter V of the Roman alphabet; three dots and a dash (. . . -), the signal for the letter V in Morse telegraphic code, known and used internationally; and the opening bar of the first movement of Beethoven Fifth Symphony, which resembles the Morse signal rhythmically. It was hoped that the slogan and its symbols would serve as a signal to arouse the populations of the conquered nations to revolt against the Germans, but the latter vitiated this movement by adopting the idea and using it as their own, asserting that a "V for Victory" meant victory in the war for Germany.
In isolated uprisings against the German armies of occupation, however, V's would be found scrawled on walls, or on risk of death a peasant might tap out three dots and a dash on a table-top. In the U.S. the letter V and the Morse signal supplied a popular design for costume jewelry and printed fabrics and was once used in a whiskey advertisement.
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