User:Baba umar/sandbox

Introduction

Covert operations played a central role in the tactics of winners and losers in World War II. Espionage and sabotage operations dominate the narratives of the war on every front in every theater of operations. From code-breaking in Ultra and Magic to counter-intelligence in Operation Double-Cross, from deception at Normandy and Kursk to guerrilla warfare in the enemy's rear areas in Europe, Africa, and Asia, covert operations became a vital part of that war within the war. Drawing from film and fiction, supplemented by a wide variety of published and unpublished primary and secondary readings, we will investigate several case studies of covert operations in World War II. Emphasis is on interdisciplinary projects and presentations conducted on your own or in teams. There are no prerequisites. During the Second World War, German saboteurs operating against Britain designed a range of unconventional bombs disguised as, amongst others: tins of plums, throat lozenges, shaving brushes, batteries, wood, coal and stuffed dogs. Arguably the most unconventional bomb was the chocolate bar bomb that was intended to be smuggled into the homes of the Royals with the purpose of assassination. None of the chocolate bars reached Britain, but British authorities did capture some in places as far away as Turkey, according to the MI5 file "Camouflages for sabotage equipment used by the German sabotage services". A secondary use for the proposed disguised chocolate bar was as an emergency hand grenade. According to MI5, the German weapons were similarly ingenious as those invented by Britain's Special Operations Executive, detailed in a series of files which had already been declassified in 1999.It was a dastardly plan which, if successful, could have meant sweet victory for the enemy.Secret wartime papers exchanged between MI5 officials reveal that the Nazis’ plans to conquer Britain included a deadly assault on Sir Winston Churchill with exploding chocolate.

Operation

The bomb was made of steel with a thin covering of real chocolate. When the piece of chocolate at the end was broken off, the canvas detonator was pulled, and, after a delay of seven seconds, the bomb would explode.

Planned delivery

To kill a member of the British royal family, the bar would have had to be smuggled into the residence by the saboteurs themselves or smuggled into a box that would have been taken into the palace from an ordinary source. None of the saboteurs got close enough to London to carry out the Nazi plan. These ingenious objects got no further than four explosive cans of peas, which were found on German agents who landed in Ireland by small boat; the agents claimed that they hoped to get them into Buckingham Palace. Why a member of the royal family would be opening a tin of peas themselves, however, doesn't seem to have been taken into account.

How the operation was foil

British agents foiled the plot and tipped off one of MI5's most senior intelligence chiefs, Lord Victor Rothschild. He typed a letter to a talented illustrator seconded to his unit asking him to draw poster-size images of the chocolate to warn the public to be on the look-out for the cholate bar.

See also

• Exploding cigar

References

Category:United Kingdom home front during World War II Category:Bombs