[Faline]

All through the Second World War, courageous men and women of the Special Operatives Executive used bizarre gadgets to collect enemy secrets and send the info back to base, always in peril of their lives.

In the month when Cold War spycatcher Ferguson Smith died at 98 – his amazing story was told in Tuesday’s Mirror – The Imperial War Museum in London pays tribute to the SOE’s heroes.

Today curator Amanda Mason reveals the secrets of their devices... and we profile some of the bravest agents.

Rodent bombs
British spies planned to fill dead rats with explosives and plant them in factories behind enemy lines.
Workers would throw them on the fire – and they would explode.
Amanda Mason of the Imperial War Museum says: “The Germans discovered a consignment of dead rats, so it didn’t work.”
But word got out and every*one was so scared of dead rats that they left them to rot, spreading disease.


Pipe pistol
This pipe fired .22 calibre bullets through its stem and could be used to smoke tobacco even when loaded.
The idea was to send them to Britain’s “Dads Army” Home Guard to “deal with” any enemy paratroopers.



Spike letter box
Spike letter boxes were used by resistance agents throughout occupied Europe.
Messages would be rolled up inside and the spike put back into a fence, where it would go unnoticed except for those who knew it was there.
Amanda said: “There were so many ways spies used to keep in touch depending on what happened to be available to them in any situation.”



Biscuit tin radio
This radio set was used by the resistance in France in 1944. Sets were parachuted to agents disguised in a Huntley & Palmer 2lb biscuit tin.
Amanda says: “The SOE had a team dedicated to making radios and other gear look like everyday objects.
"The more ways you had to communicate, the more ways you had to get your message out.”



Fly button compass
The brass fly button pictured in the gallery below is actually a compass and belonged to captain David Smiley, who served in the Middle East and North Africa.
In 1943 he told how he was kitted out by magician Jasper Maskelyne, who equipped him with “magnetic items which would point north: compasses in buttons, pencil clips and even magnetic fly buttons”.



Overshoes
These rubber soles would slip over SOE agents’ military boots to disguise their treads and make the enemy think the footprints were those of barefooted locals.
Amanda says: “But like a lot of special inventions that were made, we don’t know how many of them were actually used and tried out in the field. Some never made it.”



Counterfeit documents
False identities would be backed up by fake documents which could stand up to the most rigorous scrutiny.

Amanda says: “The SOE had a whole team of specialist forgers making fake papers.

“They used the most up-to-date information so they always knew what kind of new identification was required. They were really skilled in their work.”
Occasionally forgers liked to show off their skills – as shown in this fake passport for Adolf Hitler.
His occupation is given as “painter” and his distinguishing feature is “a little moustache”.
In a final ironic twist, they stamped a red ‘J’ on the front... the Nazi way of identifying a Jewish person for persecution.





The spies themselves

Forest Yeo-Thomas - born in London, 1902
Code-named White Rabbit and hailed as “the bravest of the brave”, he was the inspiration for Ian Fleming’s James Bond.

Captured and tortured in Buchen*wald concentration camp, he escaped and gave evidence to help convict 22 war criminals.

Juan Pujol Garcia - born in Spain, 1912
A key double agent with the codename Garbo, he passed on fake intelligence to the Nazis – including the crucial lie that the Allied
D-Day landings would be at Calais, not the beaches of Normandy.

He was even awarded an Iron Cross by the Germans and a MBE by Britain.

Eddie Chapman - born in Co Durham, 1914
Safecracker Chapman was freed from jail in Jersey by the invading Nazis and sent to England as a spy.

But he fed them a string of lies, convincing them that an undamaged Mosquito bomber factory had been destroyed.

Nancy Wake - born in New Zealand, 1912
Codenamed the White Mouse, she was the inspiration for the film Charlotte Gray, passing messages between Allied forces and the resistance in southern France.

She once cycled non-stop for three days to alert Britain to a huge build-up of German troops.

[kellyhound]

some great heroes
really like that pipe pistol