The Nazis Wanted to Beat the British With Exploding Chocolate Bars

[A Turtle Named Mack]

During World War II, the United Kingdom had to cope with widespread food shortages and rationing that left sugar in short supply and chocolate almost unheard of. Which made Nazi boobytrap chocholate bombs all the more insulting, as Nick Higham reports for BBC News. Drawings of exploding candy bars, bombs disguised as cans of motor oil and other “unpleasant weapons” were recently rediscovered after 70 years, writes Higham. Intended to be used as a warning to British forces looking to take the bite out of booby traps, the drawings give an intriguing glimpse into the world of WWII espionage.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-...ars-180956798/

[Spud Sabre]

Well that's neat (and perhaps paranoia inducing).

[A Turtle Named Mack]

During war, a measure of paranoia can be entirely sane and healthy.

[crocoduck_hunter]

I heard that they did things like booby-trapping pictures that were crooked, with the idea that when British officers (who were sticklers for details) found them they'd automatically straighten them. I also heard that they booby-trapped toilets- Allied soldier goes in to use the john, pulls the lever, grenade that was hidden in the tank goes off.

[Andrew of Ware]

I've missed this thread. The link in the OP will not open for me because of an advert. However, the sectioned quoted mentions the BBC. I remember watching the original BBC report and here it is (I don't know if the Smithsonian page has a link to it).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34399018

Strangely this month's - well November's issue which came out this week (!) - BBC History Magazine has an article by Sir Max Hastings called The Spies Who Surprised Me. Most of the article looks at surprising aspects of well-known spy stories, such as the work at Bletchley Park, but he does carry a few strange stories, such as one about chocolate.

Meanwhile, one of the Soviets' wartime spy chiefs, Pavel Sudoplatov, earned his spurs by presenting a Ukranian nationalist in Rotterdam with a handsome box of chocolates ... which blew the man to pieces minutes later.

[Richard W]

Originally Posted by crocoduck_hunter

I also heard that they booby-trapped toilets- Allied soldier goes in to use the john, pulls the lever, grenade that was hidden in the tank goes off.

Not sure about Europe, but flush toilets in the UK would have had an overhead cistern and a chain in those days, not a lever.

Not that you couldn't booby-trap it either way. I'm just being pedantic. The chain was attached to a lever, but when you flushed you "pulled the chain" rather than the handle or whatever. It wasn't until the 1970s or 1980s that the low-level cisterns became ubiquitous.

[Camx]

Not much different than the Japanese and their exploding weather balloons or our bomb bats. Sometimes crazy stuff might actually work.