2017-05-11 Thu

In the opening years of World War II, Hitler’s war machine won a series of stunning victories, conquering the great part of continental Europe. The foreign powers in a desperate attempt to suppress Germany launched a series of secret missions. One of them was Operation Cornflakes.

On 5th January, 1945 a mail train made its way to Linz, Austria. Suddenly, a U.S. plane swooped dropping a bomb on the train. The explosion left the train derailed and its mail cargo scattered all over the area. Then came a second plane, dropping a bag of fresh mail around the train containing enormous amount of propaganda letters. While clearing up the mess, the German postal workers recovered the bags and delivered their contents unaware of the seditious material hidden within. Operation Cornflakes had begun.

The overarching goal of this operation was to disrupt the morale of the German people. It was thought that the distribution of propaganda letter through the German postal system would undermine the support of Adolf Hitler. Hence every aspect of the German postal system was replicated, down to the smallest detail. The forgers manipulated the stamps on some letters bearing Adolf Hitler's face to show the German Fuhrer's exposed skull. Beneath, the country tag which read 'Deutsches Reich' was changed to 'Futsches Reich' meaning Ruined Empire. This mission was not so successful due to certain oversights but the stamps are highly valued.