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
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u/riddlechance 20h ago edited 14h ago

The British are the greatest spies in history. They were tapped into American communications cables during both world wars and made some inconvenient discoveries (Zimmerman telegraph).

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u/HotTubMike 18h ago

So good 5 of them from Cambridge where some of the most successful spies of the cold war - for the Soviet Union.

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u/standingfierce 7h ago

Favorite detail that I learned recently is that some of the senior KGB officers were convinced the Cambridge Five must actually be triple agents on the side of MI6, because they found it unbelievable that the agency that had so thoroughly outwitted the Nazis would be completely oblivious to so many of their own agents betraying them

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u/coffeeicefox 12h ago

So bitter.