In warfare, there’s never a lack of crazy schemes.
World War II was no different and, during those six years of fighting,
hundreds of ideas were tested out. Between successes like the Dambusters Raid and failures
like the Bob Semple Tank, there’s a grey area. In this video, we shine a light on that middle
ground — the most annoying things the world did to Germany and Japan during the Second World War.
There are few things more annoying than an itch you just can’t scratch.
The professional pranksters at the British Special Operations Executive,
or SOE, knew this well and decided to weaponise it against Germany.
They made itching powder from ground-up glass wool. This was a devious compound, as once it
was implanted into fabrics, it was virtually impossible to remove. Skin exposed to the powder
itched immediately, and once you scratched it, the itch turned into an unbearable burning sensation
The powder was sent out in secret supply drops to resistance groups
fighting the Germans. On the Axis-held island of Crete, for example,
Greek resistance fighters spread the powder on the beds of Germans billeted in their houses.
Village washerwomen were in on it too — spreading it on shirts they cleaned for their occupiers.
German officers assumed their soldiers had been infected with mites or lice
and, presumably itching like crazy in their freshly laundered shirts,
ordered all billets deloused. German medical staff were overworked,
and crucial supplies had to be diverted from the front lines to deal with the itching “infection.”
Probably laughing to themselves, the pranksters of SOE designated the operation a great success.
What is the best way to undermine enemy morale at home?
If you said, “send them an angry postcard,” you’d be 100% correct.
This is exactly what Betty MacDonald did to the Japanese in 1944.
MacDonald was an officer working for the United States Office of Strategic Services, which was
essentially an American version of British SOE. Working out of India, MacDonald’s division was
responsible for conducting intelligence operations designed to undermine the Japanese Army.
In Spring 1944, Allied units captured a mailbag from the retreating Japanese 18th Division.
It was passed on to MacDonald at OSS, who was immediately struck with a great idea. Destined
for families back home, the hastily-scrawled notes had no information of tactical value,
but they *had* passed Japanese censors. Written on easily-made, locally available paper,
the notes were called “postcards” by OSS. After copying the censor markings,
MacDonald slipped reproduction postcards describing terrible conditions into the bag.
The mailbag was then *conveniently* dropped where the 18th Division would find it.
The propaganda campaign was designated Project Blackmail,
and around 400 fake postcards were sent to Japan. They contained messages like,
“Obasan, where are the supplies? We are starving in the jungle. How can we fight without bullets?"
The postcards did far more damage than anyone at OSS dared hope. Soon after they reached Japan,
the Government was forced to answer uncomfortable questions about the supply situation for the 18th
Division fighting in Burma. The resulting scandal forced several ministers to resign.
Almost universally, soldiers like a few things above all else; one of those things is smut.
Surprising to some, many nations were printing smutty leaflets
along with propaganda during the Second World War.
Once airdropped on an enemy position, the idea was that soldiers would keep the leaflets for
“usage” later on and, in the meantime, the propaganda would undermine their morale.
On the Allied side, these leaflets were produced by Britain, the US, New Zealand,
and Australia. Each country focused on different themes. The British emphasized the numbers of
Eastern European and Italian foreign workers pouring into Germany to support the war effort.
In reality, these workers often lived in harsh conditions and were treated poorly,
but in British leaflets, foreign workers enjoyed themselves... and soldiers’ wives and girlfriends.
British leaflets also highlighted the Wehrmacht’s increasing losses.
A two-pronged attack, these leaflets were designed to highlight the futility of fighting
and make the soldier worry about his wife or girlfriend being unfaithful.
The Americans went for a more offensive strategy. Their leaflets showed Nazi
officials using their power to force themselves on women. One tagline read “For us at the front
there is only fear and death. For the important officials at home, our women!”
For men like Joseph Goebbels, this was probably not far from the truth.
Over 70,000 leaflets were dropped on the enemy by US forces alone. Some areas of the front lines
were carpeted with leaflets, and a great many of these found their way into soldiers’ hands.
It’s unlikely that they were successful, however. More often than not,
soldiers ignored the propaganda and focused on the leaflet’s images alone.
In 1943, the US was facing a problem: how to supply the guerillas fighting the Japanese
in the Philippines. The Filipino fighters needed weapons and money to equip themselves and remain
a thorn in their enemy’s side. The big brains of the OSS came up with an idea that would both
hurt the Japanese AND support the Filipinos — dump loads of money into the Filipino economy.
When the Japanese occupied the Philippines in May 1942, they replaced the standard Filipino peso
with a currency of their own, known by the locals as “Mickey Mouse Money.” The authorities had very
limited facilities to manufacture the invasion money, and consequently, its value was high.
Their rationale of the OSS was simple — millions of low denomination notes
would be funnelled to guerillas, with orders to spend as much as they could,
especially on supplies the Japanese depended on. While equipping the fighters with what they
needed, such a large influx of cash would also cause inflation and damage the occupation economy.
This all changed in 1943, when General Douglas MacArthur greenlit the operation.
Production of the counterfeit money began in the US and in Australia,
where five million 10-Peso notes, three million 5-Peso notes,
one and a half million 1-Peso notes, and five hundred thousand 50-centavo notes were produced.
The effect of this libertarian nightmare on Japanese morale was severe.
As their situation in the Philippines worsened, the Allies dropped millions of banknotes from
the sky. It was literally raining money, and the Japanese occupation economy was ruined.
While remaining officially neutral for the duration of the Second World War, Sweden was
a hotbed of anti-Nazi sentiment. The successful German invasions of Denmark and Norway cut Sweden
off from its traditional allies and forced the government into working with its occupiers.
After seeing what happened to Norway and Denmark,
many Swedes were concerned that Germany would erode their sovereignty too.
Two patriots, Ewan Butler and Janet Gow, decided to show the Germans how they felt — with a prank.
In May 1944, they learned of an exclusive gala event celebrating the arrival of famous German
comedian Georg Alexander. Entrance to the gala required an invitation
that could only be acquired from the German consulate, and it was open only to Germans.
Butler and Gow had contacts in SOE and through them, they obtained a list of
1,500 Swedish Nazis and sympathizers. They printed 3,000 counterfeit tickets to the gala
and sent two to each person on their list. To complete the prank, a letter was included
that demanded the invitee don their best clothes, to impress their German dignitaries.
After the war, Butler remembered, “The German colony had turned out in full
force … to applaud the talented visitors from Berlin. They found themselves forced to fight
through a dense crowd of infuriated Swedes, many of the men in top hats,
their wives in sumptuous fur coats. … It took a long time to sort out the muddle …”
The evening was a total embarrassment for the Swedish Nazis and the Germans.
Not to be outdone by the Swedes, the Norwegian resistance played its own
pranks on its German invaders. Their most successful was in the Winter of 1940.
When it started out, the Norwegian resistance was full of part-timers — men who wanted the Germans
out but had jobs they couldn’t leave behind, lest their families starve. They worked in the sardine
industry, and sardine-canning provided the men with payment as well as food for their families.
When the Germans requisitioned the ENTIRE sardine catch, the fishermen were outraged.
This affront was bad enough to turn many in Norway against the Germans,
and it wasn’t long before the resistance knew why the invaders wanted so much fish.
The Battle of the Atlantic was in full swing, and U-boat crews needed cheap, non-perishable,
easily stored food for their long voyages. Tinned sardines from Norway were the perfect choice. But,
unknown to the Kriegsmarine, their tins had a little something extra thrown in.
The Norwegian resistance had made contact with SOE, and together they had formulated a dastardly
plan. Britain sent the Norwegians barrels upon barrels of Croton oil. This was mixed
with sardines in canning factories in place of vegetable oil — which was used as a preservative.
Doesn’t seem so bad, right? Well, Croton oil is an extremely powerful laxative with a fishy taste.
The taste was undetectable when mixed with sardines, however, and U-boat crews were
none the wiser. I can only imagine what it would have been like for every single sailor
to get diarrhoea at the exact same moment while in the confines of a submerged U-boat.
Those were six of the most annoying things the Allies did to the Germans
and Japanese to slow them down. But what do YOU think? Which do YOU think is the worst?
Why do YOU think the British had so much laxative oil on hand?
Do you think YOU could have gotten away with some of these pranks? Let us know in the comments!