Exploding Rats and Other Devious Devices of SOE

The Camouflage Section shaped covert operation safety by transforming ordinary items into concealment tools for agents in perilous missions.

James Bond has Q Branch to supply him with ingenious equipment to use on his missions; during the Second World War, SOE field agents had the Camouflage Section.

The men and women of the Section, hailing from a variety of trades and professions, turned everyday items into concealment devices to carry weapons, ammunition, film, radios, false documents, microfilm and codes. These vessels ranged from oil cans, firewood and ornamental clocks, to record players, water bottles and tubes of toothpaste. Explosives and incendiary devices for industrial and military sabotage were concealed in dead rats, hollowed-out pieces of coal, books, torches, statues and suitcases. Convincing disguises were created to ensure that field agents would pass as locals in whatever region they were parachuted into. Essentially the Camouflage Section was responsible for keeping SOE agents behind enemy lines safe in the most nerve-wracking of circumstances—when under the suspicious gaze of the Gestapo.

After the war, SOE’s Camouflage Section was dissolved, but not before its work was collated and published in a secret document. That document remained classified for thirty years. This is the first time it has been presented in book form to the general public.

Craig Moore is a writer and editor for www.tanks-encyclopedia.com and www.tank-hunter.com, a guide to where you can find surviving WW1 and WW2 tanks. He has had an interest in military history since childhood. Eight of his close relatives fought in both World Wars: only six survived. One of his uncles lost a leg when his Sherman tank was hit during Operation Totalize in Normandy 1944. In 2017 he was part of the team that recovered a buried British WW2 Covenanter tank from a Vineyard in Surry. He lives in London but regularly visits tank museums and archives around the world.