War & Spies

Deception, double agents and secret operations.

7 rabbit holes

• New
  Cold WarThe mountain built to survive a nuclear warIn the 1960s the US Air Force hollowed out a granite mountain in Colorado and built a small town inside it: fifteen buildings standing on giant steel springs, behind blast doors weighing about 25 tons. From here, NORAD would watch the skies for a Soviet attack.2 stages · 10 min
• New
  Strange soldiersWojtek, the bear who went to war1942, Iran. Polish soldiers buy an orphaned bear cub and raise him on condensed milk. He drinks beer, wrestles with the men and travels with them through the Middle East to Italy. To get him onto a troop ship, the army enlists him as a private.3 stages · 25 min
• New
  Spy casesThe hollow nickelBrooklyn, 1953. A newspaper boy drops a nickel and it splits in two. Inside is a tiny piece of microfilm covered in numbers. The FBI can’t crack the code for four years, until a Soviet spy decides to defect.3 stages · 1 h 15 min
• New
  Strange operationsAcoustic Kitty, the CIA’s spy catIn the 1960s the CIA tried to turn a cat into a walking microphone: a transmitter in its body, a microphone in its ear, an antenna woven into its fur. The idea was to send it to sit near people having secret conversations. Cats, it turned out, don’t take orders.3 stages · 21 min
• New
  Double agentsGarbo, the spy who invented an armyJuan Pujol García, a Spanish chicken farmer, wants to spy against Hitler. The British turn him down. So he becomes a German spy, invents an entire network of fake agents and feeds Berlin made-up reports. Then the British take him on, and he helps fool Germany about D-Day.3 stages · 20 min
• New
  DeceptionThe Ghost ArmyA secret US unit of about 1,100 men, many of them artists and designers, follows the front through France in 1944 and 1945. Their weapons: inflatable tanks, loudspeakers playing recorded troop movements and fake radio traffic. Their job: make the Germans see an army that isn’t there.3 stages · 35 min
• New
  DeceptionThe man who never was1943. British intelligence dresses a dead man as a Royal Marines officer, chains a briefcase of fake secret letters to him and lets the sea carry him onto a Spanish beach. The letters say the Allies will not invade Sicily. Hitler believes them.3 stages · 25 min