Odd Tactics

I'm sure it's no surprise to anyone who reads Eccentric Spheres, but I read a lot of WWII history. I don't read much about the battles as such, but more about the strange goings on that occurred in that grand conflict.

Today you get to share in some of these unusual occurrences and people.

First up is Nancy Wake, a.k.a. White Mouse.

Though by no means the only female SOE agent, she's in my opinion the most fascinating.

Born in New Zealand, she moved on her own to New York at the age of 16, to become a reporter for the Hearst papers. Then as Hearst's European correspondent, she saw first hand the atrocities the Nazis were capable of, and decided to do something about it.

To make a long story a lot shorter, she joined the British SOE, and between 1940 and 1945 raised merry hell for the Germans. The Gestapo gave her the nickname White Mouse for her ability to escape them time and time again, even thought they put up a 5 million franc bounty on her head.

She performed multiple jumps into France, successfully leading resistance fighters in raid after raid. In the last year of the war, thanks to her efforts (and a few others, I'm sure) her 7000+ fighters fought 22000 SS troops, killing 1400 while losing only 100 themselves.

In one raid, she killed an SS guard with one blow to the neck. In her own words:

"They'd taught this judo-chop stuff with the flat of the hand at SOE, and I practiced away at it. But this was the only time I used it -- whack -- and it killed him all right. I was really surprised."

There's more of course, but I won't put it all here. Follow the link if you want to know more about her. Believe me, it's worth it.

But the French Resistance is not the only group who knew how to stick it to the Nazis. The Norwegian freedom fighters, though not as famous, were just as good, and probably a lot meaner. Not just probably...

In 1943, the Special Operations Executive (SOE) decided to wage a mass demoralization campaign using itching powder. This powder was distributed to resistance groups all over Europe to be put in German uniforms. And it was pretty effective. It's hard to fight when your skin feels like it's on fire.

But the Norwegians decided to go that extra mile, and pretty soon the hospitals in Trondheim filled up with very upset German troops, because the resistance put the itching powder in the soldiers condoms...

Later on, the Nazi collaborating government in Norway (see Quisling) confiscated the entire years

sardine catch to supply the German military. This naturally upset the resistance a great deal. But thanks to some intelligence they got from a mole, they soon put in a request to SOE for a laxative that would dissolve without a trace in vegetable oil. No doubt impressed by the itching powder initiative, the British happily complied, and the Norwegians went to work.

You see, what the mole had discovered was that the best sardines were to be delivered to the U-boat crews.

Imagine that, boys and girls. You're trapped in a steel tube roughly 67 meters long, 6 meters wide at best and 9 meters high. You are in there with, give or take, 50 guys, and the whole place reeks of diesel fuel and unwashed bodies at the best of times. Now, add uncontrollable diarrhea for the whole crew, and you can truly say that war is hell.

That's all folks, have a very merry Christmas or your own equivalent thereof.