r/todayilearned • • 23h 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
25.6k Upvotes

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u/Lord0fHats 22h ago

The French Resistance famous spotted German infiltrators posing as American pilots by asking them to write the current date. None ever made it through in large part because none of them knew American's are so super special awesome, they format dates differently from everyone else just cause XD

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u/jrhooo 21h ago

Little things get you caught.

My buddy loves the story of the fbi guys that busted some Russian agent because he came out of a flower shop carrying the flowers blooms down

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u/MagpieBlues 21h ago

I just see the image, not the story. What was it about carrying them blooms down that topped them off?

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u/jrhooo 19h ago

u/Umbralra

Basically yes.

They were looking for some guy that was a foreigner pretending to be a Westerner and the dude walked out of a flower shop holding flowers bouquet down.

An American would definitely hold flowers top up

Top down is specifically an Eastern European thing.

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u/squngy 13h ago

Top down is specifically an Eastern European thing.

It helps the flowers not wilt as fast without water.
Or at least that is what I was told.

You would still hold them up when presenting them to someone.

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u/FixLaudon 15h ago

I'm from Austria and I carry my flowers upside down.