The truth behind Winston Churchill’s ‘V’ sign
Churchill’s V sign is an iconic symbol of VE Day. Where did this symbol come from? We explore its history.
Image: Winston Churchill waves his iconic 'V' symbol to the large crowd in Whitehall on VE Day | Public Domain
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VE Day, the day when Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allies in World War II, is a well-known turning point in history. And one iconic image that symbolises it to many people is Winston Churchill’s ‘V’ sign.
You may have seen pictures of Churchill giving this famous ‘V for Victory’ sign. But where did this sign come from, and what did it mean to him?
Join us at Sky HISTORY as we explore the history of one little gesture that represents a huge movement in history.
Who created the V sign?
Though Churchill was famous for giving the V sign, he didn’t invent it. The man who did was Victor de Lavaleye, a Belgian politician and athlete.
In his youth, de Lavaleye was an Olympian. But in later years, he became a well-liked liberal politician. That’s why he had to flee Belgium in 1940 when the Nazis invaded.
De Lavaleye escaped to Britain and began to work for the BBC. He was in charge of a French-language radio broadcast for Belgian resisters of the Nazis.
In early 1941, de Lavaleye thought of using the letter V as a simple symbol to encourage resistance to the Nazis in Europe. In his mind, V represented the word ‘victory’ as well as 'victoire' in French and 'vryheid' (freedom) in Flemish.
How the ‘V’ sign spread
On 14th January 1941, de Lavaleye broadcasted his idea on his radio programme. He encouraged all people under Nazi occupation to mark a V everywhere they could as a sign of resistance. Because drawing a V was so easy, it could be done quickly with less risk of being caught. De Lavaleye’s idea was that marking Vs in public places would make the Nazi occupiers feel insecure and afraid.
And it worked. People across Western Europe drew and carved Vs – and began creating V signs with their hands.
In fact, the V symbol was so popular that a BBC broadcaster, Douglas Ritchie, decided to broadcast de Lavaleye’s idea in more languages across Europe. V could stand for inspiring words in other languages, too, such as 'vitestvo' in Serbian, meaning chivalry or heroism.
Moreover, people could use Morse code to share the symbol as well. In Morse, a V was three dots and a dash. Resisters could tap this rhythm out or even play Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, which starts with three short notes and a long note.
The BBC called this the ‘V for Victory’ campaign. And it was successful.
Winston Churchill and the V sign
How did Churchill start using the V sign? Well, the ‘V for Victory’ campaign inspired many in Britain, too.
By July 1941, the V symbol was such a hit that Churchill got on board with it. He added a message to Ritchie’s broadcast to Europe, encouraging listeners to use the V.
From then on, Churchill himself began to make the V sign with his fingers. His aides informed him that performing the sign with the fingers inward was seen as rude by some, but Churchill continued to do it.
What did the V sign mean to Churchill?
To dive deeper into the meaning of the V symbol, let’s go back to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
We’ve mentioned that the notes at the beginning of the piece sound like the Morse code. But there’s another layer of symbolism in the music.
Those initial four notes are often interpreted as 'the sound of fate knocking at the door'. Therefore, Churchill and others felt that the V symbol meant that the Nazis would meet a bad fate.
In July 1941, in a message read by the broadcaster Douglas Ritchie, Churchill told the audience, 'The V sign is the symbol of the occupied territories and a portent of the fate awaiting the Nazi tyranny.'
There’s surely another reason why Churchill liked the V symbol, too. The ‘V for Victory’ campaign was, put simply, extremely effective. The Vs were easy to create and inspiring to everyone fighting the Nazis.
Churchill took advantage of the popularity and made the V sign his trademark.
The V on VE Day
Given the power of the V symbol, it’s no surprise that it was everywhere on VE Day in 1945.
That day, Winston Churchill gave an improvised speech from a balcony in Whitehall, where he – of course – gave a V sign. This time, Churchill’s V sign was the correct way around with his finger pointing outward.
Many photographs of people celebrating on VE Day also show them using the V sign. One RAF station even made a V out of searchlights shining into the sky.
In later decades, people continued to use the V sign for many different purposes. But it will always be best remembered for the hope it gave to the Nazis’ opponents in World War II.
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