"Operation Cornflakes"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, in 1944, the OSS organized an elaborate plan based on the British outline, calling for a massive infiltration of Allied propaganda into the German postal system as a means of undermining German home front morale by degrading confidence in Adolph Hitler and creating a sense of defeatism inside Germany. The author points out that almost every single letter ever produced by the OSS was destroyed within days of their arrival in Germany. The paper relates that the real values of the operation were (1), after the fall of the Nazis to the Allied powers, a select few Nazi party members who had received the OSS letters used them to claim that they had really been anti-Nazi the whole time and (2), to this day, the forged OSS stamp is a rare collectible, which is widely sought after.

From the Paper:

""Operation Cornflakes" was originally a propaganda operation against Nazi Germany that the British hoped would help them win World War II. The original plan involved the British using international mail to Germany from countries that remained neutral during the war. MI6 hired expert forgers to generate a series of cleverly faked stamps that were then applied to envelopes addressed to Germans from cover companies in those neutral countries. Everything appeared to be in working order at a quick glance. However, the stamps were actually parodies of real issues going on within Germany during the war. An example of this propaganda includes a portrait of Heinrich Himmler in place of Adolph Hitler on the stamp. This was supposed to show dissention among the ranks inside Nazi Germany."

More papers on "Operation Cornflakes":

• Essay # 87323 : "Regional Co-operation"
• Book Review # 137093 : "Joseph Nevins' "Operation Gatekeeper"
• Term Paper # 124812 : "Operation Desert Storm"

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