These Secret WWII Missions Sound Like Hollywood Scripts, But They’re Real

Fighting a global war can force every side involved to get creative in gaining an advantage over its adversaries. This was particularly true in World War II, as the balance of power constantly shifted between the Allied and Axis powers. In the hope of finishing off the enemy once and for all, both sides undertook some risky secret missions, some straight out of a Hollywood movie.

Operation PX, or Operation Cherry Blossoms, would have been a devastating secret mission targeting Southern California had Japan been able to pull it off. The country looked to utilize biological weapons carried on seaplanes and attack the United States’ West Coast.

Bubonic plague, typhus, dengue fever, and other biological agents were considered for use in the planned attack, which was discussed in 1944 but ultimately never approved or executed, as Japan abandoned the plan before the end of the war.

An American-born French dancer, singer, and actress, Josephine Baker was a friend to the French Resistance during World War II. Her espionage efforts have been public knowledge for decades, though renewed attention and recognition have occurred in recent years.

Convincing the Axis she was on their side, she would spy for the Allies at high-culture parties with Axis leadership and plan performances in various European countries to hand over sheet music covered in invisible ink.

Created in the 1930s, the high-class Berlin brothel known as Salon Kitty was used by Nazi intelligence to spy on German officials and foreign diplomats during World War II. Run by Kitty Schmidt, the goal was to gather intelligence through conversations with guests, including high-ranking Nazis such as Reinhard Heydrich.

Another deception plan enacted during World War II, the goal of this plan was sabotage operations behind Russia’s front line. Germany recruited Soviet POWs, trained them in special indoctrination camps, and then sent them out to gather intelligence. In addition, Germany also looked to explore the opportunity to assassinate Joseph Stalin, but abandoned its plan.

Known as the “Dambusters Raid,” Operation Chastise was a secret mission carried out by the Royal Air Force Bomber Command using specialized bombs. The goal was to cause massive flooding down the Ruhr valley, damaging factories and mines critical to the German war effort. It would take Germany months to rebuild, utilizing precious resources that could have been spent elsewhere.

The Allies created “phantom armies” consisting of inflatable tanks, wooden aircraft, and fake weapons depots to deceive Germany into thinking the main Allied invasion would occur at Pas de Calais rather than Normandy. This resulted in fewer German defenses at the actual invasion site.

Looking to cause chaos behind enemy lines, 13 British special forces soldiers were sent to the French port of Bordeaux. Inserted by a British submarine, the men paddled over two days using six folding kayaks to enter the port in the cover of night and attack German cargo ships with limpet mines.

Unfortunately, not every crew member survived the mission. Only two returned to England, having destroyed two ships and damaged four others.

Looking to break American morale as the war effort turned against Germany, the latter’s leadership ordered German soldiers wearing captured US and British Army uniforms to confuse Allied lines. Led by English-speaking German troops, the group destroyed road signs and telephone lines as well as weapons depots before being captured and executed.

Looking to break the infamous Enigma machine used by Germany to relay orders around Europe, British Intelligence working at Bletchley Park developed the Bombe machine, a precursor to modern codebreaking and artificial intelligence.

Led by Alan Turing, the secrecy of this mission was portrayed in the 2014 film "The Imitation Game." Historians estimate that his work helped shorten the war by two to four years.

As Italy looked less and less likely to oppose the Allies, it deposed dictator Benito Mussolini and imprisoned him before joining them. Germany wanted to rescue Mussolini, knowing that Italy's joining the Allies would leave its southern border unprotected. It directed paratroopers to the mountaintop hotel where Mussolini was being held and rescued him without firing a single shot.

Looking to strike back against the man who planned the Pearl Harbor attack, President Roosevelt approved a mission to kill Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. President Roosevelt approved the mission when US Navy intelligence finally decoded information about Yamamoto’s travel itinerary to the Solomon Islands.

It required 1,000 miles, perfect timing, and the element of surprise on the morning of April 18, 1943, when American planes shot down Yamamato’s bomber.

Looking to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich, an architect of the Holocaust, two Czechoslovak resistance operatives were trained by British Special Operations to carry out an attack. The two men trained with the British and then spent multiple months preparing an attack with local resistance groups. As Heydrich rode to his office every morning on the same route, the two men were able to toss a grenade near his vehicle, succumbing to his wounds a week later.

In February 1942, in a Hollywood movie moment, nine Norwegian men, specially trained by British Special Operations, parachuted into a location near Vemork, Norway. Their goal was to blow up a German-controlled heavy water plant that was crucial for the Germans in the production of plutonium, or a massive bomb.

The only way to bomb the plan was from the inside, so these nine men did just that, exploding the facility from the inside and halting Germany’s plans for atomic weapons.

Better known as Marie Christine Chilver, “Agent Fifi” was a secret British agent during World War II. After escaping Germany to England, Chilver hoped to return to France, but she was instead hired by British Intelligence to seduce British spy trainees.

If she could approach trainees and extract any secrets from them through her powers of seduction, they would be dropped from the program.

Hoping to prevent the Axis powers from finding out the Allies' plan to invade Sicily in 1943, British Intelligence had to get very creative. It planned to obtain a deceased body, dress it up as an officer of the Royal Marines, place identifying items on the body to have the Germans believe he was a Captain, and attach a chained briefcase with fake invasion plans for Greece to his wrist.

The documents were found in Spain, and the Germans believed they were real and planned for an invasion in the wrong city.