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Before and during World War 2, the countries involved all had covert operations in play led by some very creative folks. Germany had the Abwehr, a military intelligence organization whose purpose was defense against foreign espionage by gathering domestic and foreign information, most of it in the form of human intelligence. The Brits used the Special Operations Executive, formed by Minister of Economic Warfare to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe (and later, also in occupied Southeast Asia) against the Axis powers, and to aid local resistance movements. Japan fielded The Kempeitai (Military Police Corps) a military police arm of the Imperial Japanese Army. It was not a conventional military police, but more of a secret police.<\/p>\n
The US, of course, had \u201cWild Bill\u201d Donovan\u2019s\u00a0Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a wartime intelligence agency and the predecessor to today\u2019s Central Intelligence Agency. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branches of the United States Armed Forces. Few could top the OSS in the dirty tricks arena.<\/p>\n
In 1942, the OSS recruited George Kistikowsky, a Ukrainian chemistry professor at Harvard University. There he developed an explosive powder for clandestine use. He created \u201cnitroamine high-explosive\u201d or HMX, that could be mixed with regular flour and cooked into innocuous baked goods.<\/p>\n
The HMX would be blended with a popular pancake mix, packaged into ordinary flour bags, smuggled through Japanese lines, and delivered to Chinese resistance fighters. It was identical to your usual non-explosive pancake mix, and if necessary was safe to consume if forced by a suspicious Japanese border guard, with no ill effect other than slight stomach discomfort.<\/p>\n
Once delivered, the weaponized mix was baked into muffins, and a blasting cap was added to give it the necessary kick.<\/p>\n
Reportedly, some 15 tons were successfully delivered without detection.<\/p>\n
No, really.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"