Alger Hiss, GRU Operative
View these structures, and then click to see them at night.
Erm, you might cover the kids' ears for this one, luv.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/7214086/Operation-Mincemeat-the-True-Spy-Story-that-Changed-the-Course-of-World-War-Two-by-Ben-Macintyre-review.html
It is 1943, on the eve of the Allied invasion of southern Europe. Off the coast of neutral Spain the body of a British major is found floating in the sea, apparently killed in an air crash. Attached to the major’s wrist is a briefcase containing top-secret plans for the coming invasion.
What the Germans do not know, however, is that the whole scenario is an elaborate trick cooked up by MI5 to deceive them. The dead body is not that of a British major at all, but belongs instead to a Welsh vagrant named Glyndwr Michael. His identity card is false, as are the love-letters and receipts he carries in his pocket.
The documents in his briefcase are also fake, designed to trick the Nazis into thinking the forthcoming invasion will occur hundreds of miles from its real location. Far from trying to recover these documents, the British are desperate for them to fall into German hands. The whole course of the war in the Mediterranean depends on it.
The idea started life in the pages of a novel by Basil Thomson, philanderer, spy-catcher and former tutor to the king of Siam. It took root in the mind of Ian Fleming, the wartime intelligence officer and author of the James Bond novels.
To everyone’s delight, German spies in Spain fell for the ruse hook, line and sinker. Their head of intelligence in Madrid, Karl-Erich Kulenthal, took the captured documents to Berlin personally and even embellished the story of their discovery to make them seem more plausible. In Berlin, everyone from General Alfred Jodl to Hitler himself believed that the source of the information was “absolutely reliable”. The documents suggested that the invasion would occur simultaneously in Sardinia and the Balkans, and the Nazis redeployed their troops accordingly. When the real invasion arrived on the beaches of Sicily it was too late for them to do anything about it.
More info here:
It is 1943, on the eve of the Allied invasion of southern Europe. Off the coast of neutral Spain the body of a British major is found floating in the sea, apparently killed in an air crash. Attached to the major’s wrist is a briefcase containing top-secret plans for the coming invasion.
What the Germans do not know, however, is that the whole scenario is an elaborate trick cooked up by MI5 to deceive them. The dead body is not that of a British major at all, but belongs instead to a Welsh vagrant named Glyndwr Michael. His identity card is false, as are the love-letters and receipts he carries in his pocket.
The documents in his briefcase are also fake, designed to trick the Nazis into thinking the forthcoming invasion will occur hundreds of miles from its real location. Far from trying to recover these documents, the British are desperate for them to fall into German hands. The whole course of the war in the Mediterranean depends on it.
The idea started life in the pages of a novel by Basil Thomson, philanderer, spy-catcher and former tutor to the king of Siam. It took root in the mind of Ian Fleming, the wartime intelligence officer and author of the James Bond novels.
To everyone’s delight, German spies in Spain fell for the ruse hook, line and sinker. Their head of intelligence in Madrid, Karl-Erich Kulenthal, took the captured documents to Berlin personally and even embellished the story of their discovery to make them seem more plausible. In Berlin, everyone from General Alfred Jodl to Hitler himself believed that the source of the information was “absolutely reliable”. The documents suggested that the invasion would occur simultaneously in Sardinia and the Balkans, and the Nazis redeployed their troops accordingly. When the real invasion arrived on the beaches of Sicily it was too late for them to do anything about it.
More info here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mincemeat
A Japanese pufferfish makes crop circles using his fins to attract attention and win a mate. The final mesmerizing sandy creation makes David Attenborough call this pufferfish nature's greatest artist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1hnegnfD9g
ULTRA-RARE footage of the most famous fighter pilot ever