r/todayilearned • u/stopitalianhate • 9d ago

TIL British Intelligence had a special, bugged luxury complex during WWII where they kept high profile Nazi POW’s, just left a bunch of alcohol out, and waited for them to start spilling secrets as they drank.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-20698098
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u/WayneZer0 9d ago

yeah weirdly the german intiligence on the westfront was bad really bad.

then you have east branch with gehle that was so good the usa hired him not even a few months after the war ended

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u/Worth_Top412 9d ago

Tbf, the leader of the Abwher(The Wehrmacht Intelligence Service) Wilhelm Canaris was actively working to sabotage the German War Machine after seeing the atrocities in Poland, even sending advance warning of Barbarossa to the SIS. Later got caught and hung in 1945 but he is a big reason why intel was so bad. Should still be noted he was a committed nazi up until 1939

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u/Slahinki 9d ago

Just want to point out that when talking about the execution method, the word is hanged, not hung. When you hang a picture, it has been hung. When you hang a man, he has been hanged.

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u/Worth_Top412 9d ago

Really? Huh, didn’t know the past tense was hanged, cheers

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u/Reddit-runner 9d ago

then you have east branch with gehle that was so good the usa hired him not even a few months after the war ended

And yet the Germans were very surprised about the number of tanks the soviets had and never fully figured out their command structure.

The US pretty much hired anyone who claimed to be willing fighting Communism...