Tricks of the Trade by Avi Heiligman

The Jewish Home | JULY 21, 2022

Forgotten Her es Tricks of the Trade

By Avi Heiligman

General William Donovan At an OSS weapons training area

Before the CIA was founded in 1947, it was the Office of Strategic Services, the OSS, which coordinated espionage activities behind enemy lines, propaganda, and subversion of enemy assets. The operators and the people who were behind the operations came from all walks of life. Led by WWI hero General William Donovan, the OSS put together a large organization in a few short years that gave the Axis powers much consternation.

Over the course of the war, the research and development department was headed by Dr. Stanley Lovell. Along with other departments within the OSS, they came up with many tricks, gadgets, tools, equipment, and ideas to fight the enemy. Some of these included grenades that would shriek and make a loud boom but would not explode, underwater oxygen rebreathers, and producing manuals on how to be annoying at work. The one idea from Lovell that caught the attention of OSS officers was the idea of the silencer. In reality, it was more of a suppressor, but the enemy would not know where a bullet had come from if it had these device attached.

Camouflaging items to contain other items useful to a spy was a big focus for Lovell and his team. Buttons could be separated by twisting them and hollowing them out to contain secret items. However, the Germans soon caught on to this trick and started twisting the buttons of a suspected OSS agent’s clothes counter-clockwise. The OSS countered this measure by reversing the thread, and the button would only become loose by twisting it clockwise. Interestingly

enough, the Germans never caught onto this countermeasure.

Coal from hotspots around the world were brought into the OSS labs, tested and duplicated. Explosives were then placed in the coal lumps intended for boilers used by the enemy. Logs were also filled with explosives and sent to areas where unsuspecting Axis fighters could use them as firewood.

Maps could be hidden in all sorts of places. Playing cards were constructed to conceal maps inside and the decks were snuck into those trapped behind enemy lines. Silk maps also proved useful, and they didn’t make any noise when opened and were resilient against bad weather. Counterfeit experts reproduced enemy currency and documents. One of

these experts, who was “on loan” from a federal prison, was able to reproduce a person’s handwriting so well that the person himself thought he wrote the document.

The OSS spent considerable time creating manuals for their agents and friendly forces and citizens living behind enemy lines. The Simple Sabotage Field Manual provides a fascinating look into what a regular citizen could do to weaken an invading and occupying army. For example, if one was at a workplace meeting at an enemy-controlled facility, the manual states that the person should make long irrelevant speeches, refer all matters to committees that should be made as large as possible, and tell everyone to be cautious. The purpose of this was to slow down production by being a bad employee but showing that one “cared” about the job. Working slowly using bad tools and blaming it on the machinery was a good way to slow down manufacturing of critical war material.

These weapons, methods, and tricks helped many agents perform their duties. One of the most important field offices for the OSS was in a neutral European country. The OSS office in Bern, Switzerland, was active throughout most of the war and recruited the most important spy for the Allies during the conflict.

Fritz Kolbe, aka George Wood, was a German diplomat trusted with secret documents that were photographed and handed to the OSS. He was an ardent anti-Nazi, and the information that he passed on included information on the German defenses for the Allied landings in France, experimental aircraft, and missile details and plans for Japa-

One of these experts, who was “on loan” from a federal prison, was able to reproduce a person’s handwriting so well that the person himself thought he wrote the document.

Preparing to jump into occupied France A member of the Maritime Unit

nese conquest in the Pacific. Kolbe also exposed a spy in the British embassy in Turkey whose codename was Cicero. (As a side point, Cicero was a butler and Kolbe was low ranking diplomat, which proves the point that anyone with enough mettle can be a successful spy). An OSS maritime unit was set up to enable resupply, infiltration and sabotage all from the sea. They learned to breathe underwater with new inventions such as SCUBA and the Lambertsen rebreather. Many were trained as parachutists to land in the water and swim to shore. “Swimmandos” (swim commandos), as they were called, operated around the globe and even worked alongside Italian swimmers (who were known to be the best sea commandos during the war) after their country surrendered. The Maritime Unit (MU) should not be confused with UDTs, the forerunner to the SEALs, although they performed similar missions. Many MU operators worked as regular OSS agents once they reached land. Several landed in Burma and trained Kachin Rangers in their operations. MU recruited from the navy as well as Coast Guardsmen and sent them well behind enemy lines.

After the war, the OSS was disbanded with a few of the departments dispersed to other agencies. In 1947, the CIA was founded, thus fulfilling Donavan’s dream of a peacetime intelligence service. The legacy that Donavan, Lovell, and the OSS left behind is one that the entire world can be thankful as they helped in a big way to end the world’s bloodiest conflict and dispose of evil dictators.

Avi Heiligman is a weekly contributor to The Jewish Home. He welcomes your comments and suggestions for future columns and can be reached at aviheiligman@gmail.com.

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