In a book entitled “Tricks” of US spies in World War II – Corriere.it

From our correspondent
berlin – for Adolf Hitlerwhich according to a Harvard psychological study had a “strong female component”, They wanted to put estrogen in his meals, so that his mustache would fall out, his voice would become squeaky and on top of all that his breasts would grow.. The Führer with boobs didn’t woo the Germans any more. In Japan, they planned to introduce hundreds of foxes painted with radioactive phosphorescent paint, which would terrorize soldiers and civilians.in favor of the American victory. Another plan predicted that the country of Tenno would be invaded by thousands of kamikaze bats, launched from airplanes, which had stationary devices under their wings that would set fire to wooden houses and buildings.

They were not ideas for a movie script, nor were they the muddled thoughts of a troubled mind. But some Projects that were designed and tested in many cases by a special division of the OSS, the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the CIAwhich was created in 1942 to coordinate intelligence and intensify hybrid warfare against the Axis powers.

In the summer of that year, Stanley Lowell, a brilliant chemist known for his volcanic mind and passion for the strangest inventions, was summoned to Washington by William “Wild Bill” Donovan, General Roosevelt wanted to lead the new intelligence service. After making him wait hours in a cell, Donovan walked in without introducing himself and told him: “You know Sherlock Holmes, of course. I need Professor Moriarty for my staff. I think she might be.”

For Will it was the encounter of life. From that moment on he became chief A secret group, the Research and Development Branch, is tasked with developing covert technologies and devices to deceive, terrorize, destabilize, and destroy the enemy.. Donovan will not be disappointed. In the nearly three years I worked under Lowell, The unit has produced everything: silenced rifles, invisible inks, shooting pens, explosives disguised as candy or lumps of coal, and truth serums. Devices for derailing trains, poisoned pills without smell or taste, compasses hidden in uniform buttons, suitcases that explode when opened. Sound familiar? Yes. Lowell looks like a real-life version of Q, the tech-savvy wizard from the James Bond novels and movies. Indeed, in those years, the future creator of 007, Ian Fleming, worked for British intelligence, which was also engaged in unconventional work.

Not all projects were successful. Operation Fantasia, that of luminous foxes, was abandoned after a group of appropriately dyed dogs were dumped in the Chesapeake Bay off Washington, but by the time they were able to get ashore, nearly all of the dye had washed away. Hitler’s female hormone plan didn’t make any progress either. And it was abandoned Project Capricious, who wanted to spread anthrax among German forces in Spanish Morocco using flies. On the other hand, a few dozen kamikaze bats were released in Japan and managed to set fire to some buildings and the control tower of an air base. But the majority died of the cold.

The story of Lowell’s loneliness is told by American historian John Lisle in a book recently published by St. Martin’s Press. “Circle of Dirty Tricks”The Dirty Tricks Division is a brilliantly documented reconstruction of a world of shadows, populated by double agents, heroes, eccentrics and mad scientists, in that no-holds-barred fight against Nazism that was World War II. But it’s also a reflection of the companies’ darker ethical dilemmas and legacies. For example, it was the Lowell Department’s research on truth serum that inspired the 1950s Secret test program Mk-Ultraone of the most famous projects of the CIA, where Hundreds of mentally ill prisoners and even unwitting citizens were subjected to serums, drugs like LSD, sound and electromagnetic waves, and torture techniques, to force confessions. Through mind control.

The book is full of almost unbelievable stories. Like when Donovan tested the effectiveness of a silencer pistol He entered the Oval Office where Roosevelt was dictating a message and fired 10 rounds behind him at a sandbag he was carrying.. The chief did not notice anything, but only turned to face him when he smelled the gunpowder. Or that of Lowell, who, while demonstrating his new device to U.S. Army leaders, casually throws Hedy in the trash, a firecracker to incite panic as described by Hedy Lamarr, the explosive actress and first woman to act nude in a movie. The device exploded with a deafening bang, and all the generals fled.