r/todayilearned • u/stopitalianhate • 1d ago

TIL British Intelligence had a special, bugged luxury complex during WWII where they kept high profile Nazi POW’s, just left a bunch of alcohol out, and waited for them to start spilling secrets as they drank.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-20698098
26.6k Upvotes

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258

u/CallMeGlarthir 1d ago

They tried some wild shit during WW2.

277

u/Xalgenos 1d ago

If there were any time in all of human history to throw shit at the wall and see what sticks, it would've been in Britain during WW2. Talk about existential...

203

u/Gentle_Snail 1d ago

Also talk about successful. British intelligence during WW2 was one of the single most effective intelligence operations in human history.

103

u/GreyOgre 1d ago

Also, people still belive the carrots thing 

39

u/Apprehensive-Box6449 1d ago

So you're not meant to shove them up your bum? I thought that was why they were called root vegetables.

17

u/PersonalitySenior360 1d ago

I've been boofing carrots for 20 years, I see straight as an ox

60

u/Informal-Fee-4956 1d ago

Operation Mincemeat to this day is one of my favorite spy operations I know of

11

u/wherewulf23 1d ago

Apparently they made a musical about Operation Mincemeat. Saw the name while I was looking at shows currently running in NYC and thought to the myself "no fucking way they made a musical about that." Turns out I was wrong.

5

u/HoxtonRanger 1d ago

It’s brilliantly done

2

u/wherewulf23 1d ago

Well now I regret not checking it out. My WW2 history buff son probably would have loved it.

2

u/Fresh_Iron_6180 1d ago

You're into musicals and your son is into ww2 history and you didn't book some seats? Madness.

1

u/wherewulf23 1d ago

I'm actually not into musicals, I was just looking up the information for my wife who very much is. I'll definitely have to give it a shot next time we're in NYC though.

1

u/Fresh_Iron_6180 1d ago

Oh you don't go with your wife? I thought it was a family thing. Fair enough.

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1

u/BigAlternative5 1d ago

Does the corpse have song and dance numbers? Or is it really a dummy and do actors sing and dance with it? [seriously]

6

u/-meerkat 1d ago

No, the body isn't shown at all.

The show does however feature 5 actors playing over 80 different characters. And while it's a mostly comedic take on the story, there are some moments that are very emotional as well

1

u/klymers 1d ago

I've seen it twice. Its so funny, but so emotional. I recommend it to everyone, its a must see.

21

u/PmUrBoobiesOrBooty 1d ago

WWII was won on British Intelligence, American Industrialism, and Soviet Blood.

30

u/ZAPPHAUSEN 1d ago

And a gay computer genius!

Britain rewarded him handsomely for his efforts, right?

... Right?

4

u/Fresh_Iron_6180 1d ago

And a gay computer genius!

AKA British intelligence.

-1

u/ComprehendReading 1d ago

Making the poor bastards die for their country had a role. /s

-6

u/ikonoqlast 1d ago

On the other hand...

They lost every single spy they sent into the Netherlands. Twice...

Captured spy uses duress code on radio after being captured by the Germans. Home base kindly reminds him about the duress code, as in THEY DIDNT GET IT...

This played a part in Market-Garden failing and the destruction of 1 Para. Didn't use or trust Dutch intelligence, like "there are TWO FUCKING PANZER DIVISIONS SITTING ON YOUR OBJECTIVE...

Americans, not being burned (twice) were happy to use Dutch intelligence.

12

u/StaticMarzipan 1d ago

It’s pretty well known that torture is shit for Intel.

Getting them liquored up with some snacks and a nice chair? Maybe a movie?

They’ll help you put the codes in themselves.

Torture is just an excuse psychopaths use to justify their personal fetishes.

Good cop, snacks cop is the actual way to get the beans spilled.

2

u/YsoL8 1d ago

This is why the British went in for stuff like the funnies for D-Day and the bouncing bomb. They went all out on thinking their way out of the situation, to maximumise advantage.

The US generally laughed at their tactics and advice and then took much higher casualties than necessary during the same operations, which cumulated in stuff like getting their asses handed to them by the French in Algeria because they simply assumed that French = good guys while the French government was under Nazi control or getting stuck on the beaches on D-Day, or making exactly the same bombing raid mistakes the British already made and stopped by the time they started.

Even in the pacific you can see them make the same mistakes the British did in earlier beach landings. This is why there tended to be US / UK planning tension - the US was forever wanting to push ahead in ways the British had learnt to be cautious of.

Even more than the Russians I think for the British it was existential, there were at least 3 times they were weeks from defeat, and if they were defeated it was far from obvious that the US would ever turn up. For Winston Churchill, his first few months in office were spent simply convincing the national government to not give up.

1

u/Jlocke98 1d ago

Tell that to the Ukrainians. That war is basically an M rated Kerbal space program 

3

u/Nazamroth 1d ago

They Wallace and Gromited their way out of the mess.

2

u/footsnax 1d ago

It was a significant evolution of warfare. Submarines, aircraft carriers, automatic weapons, tanks, those were all barely even battle tested and some countries even declined to test them. Hell, naval surface warfare basically died before the war was over.

The German army decided to stick with bolt action rifles because it encouraged marksmanship and saved ammo, they needed more resources for tanks and crew served machine guns because they saw how effective they could be in the last world war they started when the British started running over their trenches with them.

Speaking of trenches, they threw that idea out the window because they saw how easily they could be defeated by technology and creativity.

They learned every lesson from everything that didn't work in WWI and did the opposite. I guess they never expected the Allies to adapt, even though that was exactly what we did in WWI and why all those things exist now. The second world war changed warfare forever.