Sabotaging a U Boat via diarrhea. The story of how the Norwegian resistance poisoned sardines.
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- Опубликовано: 21 окт 2024
- In 1940, Nazi Germany invaded and occupied Norway, setting up a puppet government under Vidkun Quisling. A resistance force of Norwegians quickly formed to carry out acts of sabotage and gather intelligence. The economy to a large extent was based on subsistence fishing and farming and when the Germans commandeered one factory’s production of canned sardines for use by its military, the resistance considered what they could do. Using their efficient intelligence network, they learned that the sardines were going to Saint Nazaire and logic then told them that this was destined for the U Boat fleet. Rather than attempt to destroy the canning plants, the Norwegian resistance tried to think of a subtler form of action. It British Special Operations Executive (SOE), a group tasked with espionage and sabotage who in Churchill’s words was to set Europe alight. Apparently the Norwegians asked if the SOE had some sort of suitable laxative. The SOE suggested croton oil.
Croton oil is made from the seeds of the croton plant which is grown in south east Asia and parts of east Africa. Today it is used for research into cancer and pain relief and is used in folk medicine to treat such things as gout, malaria and other problems but I am not aware of any research that has shown that it is effective. Before WW2 it was used as a laxative but in extremely small doses. A tiny drop of 0.05 gram in a 250ml of castor oil was one of the strongest laxatives available and even that was considered too dangerous by some pharmacologists. Small amounts of croton oil can kill. Four seeds, from which the oil is made, is said to be enough to kill a human and 15 a horse. It can be bought as an essential oil today.
The croton oil was smuggled into Norway and the Norwegian resistance arranged for it to be put into tins of sardines. The sardines were packed with vegetable oil and the strong taste of the sardines was said to mask the tiny amounts of croton oil. The sardines were then delivered to the U boat fleet in France. The U Boats, already noted for the foul stench of the air, had only one toilet on board for around forty to sixty men. Whereas not everyone would have eaten the sardines at the same time, it could have knocked out a significant amount of the crew and potentially disabled the U boat.
The story is recounted in William B Breuer’s 2002 book Deceptions of World War II. As exciting as this story is, I think it is a myth. I accept that because of the extreme potency of croton oil, it would not have been too difficult to smuggle it into Norway and accept that it could have been brought to canning plants,. Unfortunately I have not been able to find any original materials from from German sources. As some 80% of U boat crews were killed then the secret might have gone with them.
That is not to say of course that there was a lot of food requisitioning in Norway. The amount of food confiscated by the Third Reich is not known but almost 60% of Norway’s industrial production was requisitioned. Here is a photograph of a food queue in Oslo in 1942. Like many countries under Nazi occupation, many in Norway came close to starving.
One story about croton oil and submarines I do believe comes from the US Navy. Sailors during WW2 would drain off some of the neutral grain spirits used to power torpedoes to make their own concoctions. Therefore the Navy added a small amount of croton oil to the mix to prevent the sailors doing this. However this did not work as sailors devised stills which would separate the alcohol from the croton oil, as alcohol evaporates at a lower temperature than croton oil.
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Another act of sabotage were by Jewish concentration camp workers who had been tasked with making anti-aircraft artillery shells for the Germans. They filled the explosive charge of the shell with sand. When fired at aircraft, the shell did not explode saving many Allied lives.
Germans eventually caught on however and traced the faulty ammunition back to the source - and executed a whole bunch of these workers.
The bravery of these workers operating in fear of torture and death has to be admired.
Long ago--this is my excuse for not knowing the details--I saw one of the American movies produced in the 1940's to show the ways that conquered peoples in Europe resisted their German invaders. I am fairly sure that the title is The Edge of Darkness, made in 1943 with Errol Flynn and many other actors famous at the time. It was set in Norway. Two short scenes were part of a larger story about the organized Resistance. In one, a housewife scalds a German soldier by throwing boiling water in his face. I don't know what reprisal might have resulted from her action. The other scene was in a sardine cannery, where workers poured what I thought was kerosene into the tins before they were sealed. My assumption was that the fish were for military use, though not specifically the U-Boot crews. So the idea of sabotaged sardines was circulating as a fact, though not about croton oil. The film is available on RUclips. I may watch it again.
I like these “myth” videos, they certainly give a laugh!
Thanks!
Sometimes however there is something in the myths. Did you see my video on Hitler's private parts? ruclips.net/video/aAqgihtEF8Y/видео.html
@@HistoryonRUclips,
No, I haven’t! I will look it up.
Thanks Alan
Very welcome
Happy New Year
Happy new year Isa, all the best to you and thanks for your support!
Very very very interesting report if true.
I sympathise with the U Boat personnel. I had an accident in November after starting a couse of anti biotics! No-one warned me!
I don't think diarrhea on a sub would be good, especially if the other 40-60 crew have it to, that is serious. I hope the norwegian worker's did sabotage the sardines after the reich stole from everyone. A lot of the people being forced to work after their countries were invaded did sabotage all kinds of stuff that would break down, blow up, or jamb up. After over 80 year's, there are probably a lot of stories that may be true, or just made up, still interesting. Happy new year Allen. G-d bless everyone.
Hard to separate myth from reality sometimes. Especially since a successful deception doesn't get caught. Mark this down as intrigingly plausible.
I think the hardest aspect to the plot is making sure not to overdose since lots of dead nazis would initiate an investigation, which might result in reprisals; while sick nazis would be marked up to poor hygienic conditions.
The other thing that would advise against such a plot is if some of the production was consumed locally.
Larry, I tried to find out how food tests were done at the time but I could not in this case. However, if I learn anything new, there will be an update!
They only implemented the laxatives when germany demanded it all.
I thought you were going to use the old American lexicon 'hooch' 😄
I have an annoying habit of not sticking to the text I have already written and this was one time when I came off it! I could not think of an appropriate word to describe home made alcohol - hooch would have done!
There is also the true story of Jewish survivors of WWII plotting revenge by getting a job at a bakery. The bakery supplied bread to German POWs captured by Americans during the war. The survivors managed to get a chemist to produce arsenic. After hours, the arsenic was brushed onto the freshly baked bread and later served to the German POWs.
Hundreds of German POWs ended up being rushed to hospital after the meal.
But no deaths were reported due to this swift medical intervention.
An investigation was launched and it was found they had been poisoned by arsenic.
The brief documentary is on RUclips somewhere under some title like Jewish resistance / Avengers. Search for it.
I have prepared a video on this and it should be published some time this year. I interviewed one of the people involved in Warsaw in 2004 although at the time I did not know about his involvement.
Your correct. Years ago I found a book at a Goodwill store entitled "The Avengers"(!), Michael Bar-Zohar, Hawthorn Books, 1967. Chapter 4 is 'The poisoned bread'. What am amazing tale. Something researched much later and documented in the book "1948", Benny Morris, Yale Unv Press, 2008 was the plan hatched by rogue Israeli foreign agents to poison the main water plant supplying the ENTIRE city of Munich! Only the last minute intervention by Prime Minister Golda Meir stopped it.. 💀
@@christopherfritz3840 There is a book that came out last year which in Hebrew is called 'Vengeance is mine' - I shall quote from it in my video!
@@HistoryonRUclips
Will keep my eye out for it.
So many interesting little stories of WWII.
Soon all the WWII survivors will be gone, and this will be the only documented evidence of what happened.
The rest will be lost to time.
@@christopherfritz3840
Sounds like an interesting book.
I recall seeing a mini-documentary on the bread incident on RUclips.
I've just looked it up and its name is:
"Nakam Jewish Avengers"
Have a look.
The vegetable oil would be enough for a slow demise. 🐌 fanciful tales from the deep
😂😂😂😂😂 to funny
I do my best Joe!