Sit down to a familiar face.

March 24, 2010 6:24 AM

Operation Cornflakes was an action by the United States OSS in World War Two to distribute propaganda in Germany, using the Germany's own mail system with forged stamps and bombed mail trains.
posted by 1f2frfbf (10 comments total)

Ed is married to Sheila, a decorative artist. They both enjoy shopping for antiques at flea markets and yard sales. Sheila is also an avid teddy bear collector. They live together in an 100 year old historic 3 story home.
posted by tellurian at 6:39 AM on March 24, 2010

Man! I let my subscription to German Postal Specialist lapse sometime in '86.
posted by Mayor Curley at 6:47 AM on March 24, 2010

Never mind stamps, what about leaflets "15.24 centimeters by 7.72 centimeters (6 by 3 inches) on 7.25- or 9.06- kilogram paper (16- or 20-pound). Leaflets of this size and weight have very favorable aerial dissemination characteristics."
These Gulf War leaflets deserve their own post.
posted by tellurian at 7:15 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Metafilter: very favorable aerial dissemination characteristics.
posted by jimmythefish at 7:40 AM on March 24, 2010

There, the OSS (headed by Allen Dulles, who arrived in November 1942 and operated as code number 110, with cover name “Mr. Burns”)

Eeexcellent.
posted by djgh at 8:12 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Ahh....the wartime OSS, a wonderfully zany bunch. John Paton Davies once referred fondly of the organization as, "...a collection of thugs, post-debutantes, millionaires, professors, corporation lawyers, professional military, and misfits..." They were always being squeezed out of theaters of operation due to the intelligence agencies of either the army or the navy.
posted by Atreides at 8:50 AM on March 24, 2010

using Germany's own mail system with forged stamps and bombed mail trains.

The mind boggles -- I'm imagining a combination explosives+parcels bomb. First the explosive destroys the mail train and deposits the package in the wreckage (with forged stamps). Then the Germans obligingly gather up the mail from the wreckage and deliver it because war or not, the mail must get through.

Why not just drop the parcels/letters in a busy street and allow passersby to put them in the mailbox?
posted by phliar at 9:39 AM on March 24, 2010

Interesting. I wasn't aware of the forged stamps campaign.
posted by zarq at 10:43 AM on March 24, 2010

Ach, last time I stumbled across psywarrior.com I didn't come out again for several hours...
posted by Ogre Lawless at 12:34 PM on March 24, 2010

Report all obscene mail to your Potsmaster.
posted by gimonca at 4:17 PM on March 24, 2010