The Dirty Tricks Department

The Untold Story of the Real-life Q Branch, the Masterminds of Second World War Secret Warfare

By John Lisle

RSGB MEMBERS SPECIAL OFFER PRICE - SAVING £5.00 ON THE USUAL RRP

Most of us are familiar with the toys developed by Q Branch that are used in the iconic Bond movies. Fun, and often deadly as these ideas are, fewer of us will be aware that these specialist departments creating such equipment actually exist. This hardback book The Dirty Tricks Department takes a look at the enthralling history of one such department and is full of sabotage and skulduggery, deviousness and invention and a cast of remarkable characters.

In the summer of 1942 Stanley Lovell received a mysterious order to report to William 'Wild Bill' Donovan, the head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). After a disconcerting amount of time Donovan said as an introduction: "You know your Sherlock Holmes, of course, Professor Moriarty is the man I want for my staff... I think you are it." Following this meeting, Lovell became the head of a secret group of scientists who developed dirty tricks for the OSS, the precursor to the CIA. Their inventions included bat bombs, suicide pills, fighting knives, silent pistols, and camouflaged explosives. They forged documents for undercover agents, plotted assassinations, performed truth and drug experiments and much more.

Based on extensive archival research and personal interviews, The Dirty Tricks Department tells the entertaining story of these scheming scientists and their activities from WWII to the Cold War - a recommended read for everyone.

Size 166x240mm, 352 pages, Hardback, ISBN: 9781803992648