When captured Nazi generals found themselves in Britain in the Second World War, they were probably surprised to be brought to a beautiful country house where they were wined and dined by a senior British aristocrat. But it was all a charade. For the skirting boards, the swings seats and the flower pots of this house were riddled with recording equipment. Unbeknown to the generals, every single conversation they had was bugged and an army of translators and transcribers worked away in the basement below. The 'senior British aristocrat' who they suspected had Nazi sympathies, was a fictitious character named after a whisky distillery, and the entire show was a genius plot by British Intelligence to squeeze out snippets of valuable information. Helen Fry joined me on the podcast to reveal the extent of this remarkable operation, and the military strategy which was altered as a result of careless comments.
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