OSS Counterfeit Products - Washington DC

Japanese Banknote                      OSS Counterfeit Note

There is a clear diagnostic on the OSS 5-Rupee banknote all along the top edge. There are ribbons looping up to that edge. On the Japanese product each ribbon has three strong shading lines and one weak one (virtually absent on the first couple of ribbons from the left). The OSS note has four strong shading lines in every ribbon all the way across.

We have no documentation that any 5-Rupee notes were printed in quantity and shipped to the field. But now we know that they were at least prepared to the printing stage. The paper of this sheet has the correct watermark for Japanese Invasion Money.

We conclude with a comment about the whole Burma operation. A British SOE advisor by the name of Woods put the number of counterfeit notes made in the UK at one million ten-rupee Burmese notes supplied by July 1944 and 200,000 one-rupee Burmese notes supplied by July 1944 and another one million ordered. Woods also commented that the Office of Strategic Service printed Burmese notes in the United States and sent 112,000 ten-rupee notes to Burma in May 1944. Formerly classified British documents state that by 18 May 1944, the SOE has printed and dispatched 200,000 Burma 1-rupee notes, and 1 million 10-rupee notes to India. At the same time, the American OSS had sent 112,000 10-rupee notes to India. These numbers will differ sometimes because with all the different clandestine agencies printing and distributing the banknotes, certainly some would not be notified of what the other was doing.

The OSS printing of the Counterfeit Dutch East Indies 10 Guilder Note

There seems to have been a great demand for Netherlands East India Japanese banknotes. One cover letter from Dr. R. E. Smits, the Director of the Javasche Bank dated 5 October 1942 says:

Dear Governor, Commonwealth Bank of Australia:

I am enclosing herewith request from the Netherlands East Indies Government that you would be good enough to print for that government supplies of currency like that issued by Japan for circulation in the Netherland East Indies…

The original request letter says in part:

The need is urgent, and we must request you to arrange for you to supply us as soon as they can be printed the following quantities of notes…

12,800 1/2 gulden pieces.
30,000 10 cents pieces.
10,000 5 cents pieces.
10,000 1 cent pieces.

The forged currency was printed and forwarded and then we see another letter dated 20 January 1943 says in part:

We beg to inform you that our stock of special notes you printed for us is nearly exhausted. This paper has proved to be extremely useful, and we request you to print for us…

13,000 1/2 gulden pieces.
30,000 10 cents pieces.
10,000 5 cents pieces.
10,000 1 cent pieces.

Once again, I asked my friend retired Colonel Joe Boling for the latest information he had on these counterfeits. He said:

At one point the OSS agreed to print NEI 10-guilder notes at the request of the British. On 20 May 1944, the British sent the printing plates to the OSS for additional printing. It was believed that Team 101 had requested counterfeits, but the records we got from the CIA had no mention of any being produced. Several years ago, counterfeit NEI 10 gulden notes started to surface, first among Dutch collectors who had a lot more NEI JIM to look through. But I have found several pieces in dealer junk boxes and on eBay, and about 150 pieces were in one group in the Japanese collection sold at auction about 2015. I also bought that lot. These 10G pieces are on watermarked paper, so were assumed to be OSS products (the SOE, as far as we knew, never used watermarked paper).

The Japanese 10 Yen Note

The front of this banknote was in a frame on the wall of an OSS counterfeiter. Is it a counterfeit? I don’t know but I wonder why he would frame it if he was not proud of it as one of his products. We know that the OSS wanted to counterfeit this currency at one time, and we know that they had samples stored away in their “Treasure Vault.” Notes of this design were issued from 1930 to 1943; they were demonetized in 1946. This is the design that was copied for the four propaganda messages that were dropped by the Allies during the war. Although there was some discussion of OSS counterfeiting of homeland Japanese notes, we have no records indicating that any were made.

The OSS Treasure Vault – Where money to be forged was stored?
Undated document in OSS files. Six pieces of Imperial Japanese currency, RG 226, OSS Washington.
Originals and film negatives in the Military Treasure Vault. The notes are the 50-sen, 5-yen, and 10-yen.

On 30 March 1943, a request to Lovell from Halliwell for one-half ton of 10-unit merchandise and one ton of 5-unit merchandise. Other information from other dispatches implies this is Japanese Imperial yen. "We have referred this matter to Mary [Captain Milton "Mary" Miles, the US Navy's most senior military intelligence officer in Chungking] ordered 1.5 tons of Japanese currency." The designs were changed by the Japanese, so the order was changed to military yen of the bird and dragon designs.

This 14 December 1943 Memorandum for the OSS Chief of Research and Development points out that
American guerrillas have been given various notes including Japanese 5- and 10-Yen banknotes.
It does not say if they were counterfeit or genuine currency.

A 6 May 1943 OSS dispatch asks for: "Send as quick as possible about 100 copies Jap money used in China, 10 had dragon, five has birds. Also need perfect examples of Bank of Japan currency, five- and ten-unit currency. These must be as clean as possible and under no circumstances fold or perforate."

This chart, prepared by the OSS shows the weight of Each Japanese banknote

On 13 August 1943, a warning was received from Captain Miles in Chungking about counterfeiting Japanese yen; “Advise against more duplication Japanese Imperial yen since restrictions of use make it extremely hazardous.” The addition of the word “More” indicates to me that some had already been duplicated or was being duplicated at that time.

The Japanese Banknote as Framed when first Found.

Notice the other items in the frame. There are forged German workbooks, a forged membership card, Counterfeit Nazi Party stamps as shown elsewhere in this article, and items for France and even Japan. It would seem the banknote above must be counterfeit. And yet, experts have told me they believe the note is genuine. One adds:

It looks genuine to me. The main title and counter are supposed to look like they are brush-written, and they do. Every little irregularity in a genuine note is seen on this note, all in intaglio. All three tints are present in good form. The seal is perfect. Every tiny shading line in the chrysanthemum is present (not even visible with the naked eye on a genuine note, and many not visible with 4-5x magnification - you must go to 20x, but they are on this note when I blow up the image). I do not think it is a replica.

So, I must assume the expert is correct. That would seem to indicate that this note was one of the genuine notes used to study like those saved in the OSS treasure vault. I am so disappointed with this result, but we have done our due diligence and the result indicates the banknote is genuine. It does seem to indicate that the OSS was considering counterfeiting it though. Perhaps the warning from Captain Miles in China not to counterfeit the note was followed.

An American parody of the Japanese 10-Yen note
OWI Code Number 2034

From Numismatic News, 17 January 1966, an article by Alfred J. Swails entitled “United States Propaganda Notes for Japan.”

The Military Intelligence Hawaiian Department under Lt. Colonel Richardson was given the assignment to prepare four facsimile notes with different messages to the Japanese people on the back ... Our planes showered the notes over the countryside, knowing that 50 percent would fall and lay face or money side up and entice the greed of the finders.

There are four parodies of the Japanese 10-yen Bank of Japan convertible note of 1930. All the parodies bear the serial number 450941 and the block number 1124 on the front. On the back, the notes are found with four different propaganda messages and the code numbers 2009, 2016, 2017 and 2034. The classified "Confidential" booklet entitled United States Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas - Psychological Warfare - CINCPAC-CINCPOA Bulletin No. 164-15, 15 August 1945 says that, “the purpose of the leaflets is to create resentment against the present government in Japan and create fear of inflation...The note conforms to the size of a Japanese banknote which is carefully reproduced on one side.”

The OWI fact sheet for banknote leaflet 2034 says:

To create resentment against the present government in Japan and create a fear of inflation. The illustration, reproducing a 10 yen note on one side, in calculated to attract attention. The text suited to the illustration, carries an economic message – namely, the rise in prices and the drop in quality brought about by the war.

The text on the back is:

In 1930, when the Gumbatsu had not yet started the war in China, you could buy the following items for 10 yen:

* 25 sho [about 20 Kg] of good rice.
* Or material for 8 summer kimonos.
* Or Four bags [50 Kg. Packages] of charcoal

In 1937, after the start of the China Incident, you could buy the following for about 10 yen.

* 25 sho of low-grade rice.
* Or material for 5 summer kimonos.
* Or 2 bags of charcoal.

Today, after waging three years of hopeless warfare with the world’s greatest powers, you can buy the following with 10 yen:

* ½ sho of good rice on the black market.
* Or a small amount of charcoal if you can get it.
* Cotton material, nothing.

This is what your leaders call co-prosperity.

OSS Counterfeits of Philippine Currency

General Douglas MacArthur had been driven from the Philippine Island but had said repeatedly, “I shall return.” He had a great number of guerrillas on the islands, and he needed ways to pay them and keep them motivated for the fight. He needed counterfeit money.  We know from Intelligence Activities in the Philippines during the Japanese Occupation, Military Intelligence Section, Far East Command, Tokyo, Japan, 10 June 1948, that a shipment of gems and genuine banknotes were smuggled into the PI in December 1942. Major Jesús Antonio Villamor made the first Allied secret landing (code name “Planet Party” because each of the Philippine Islands was to be codenamed with planetary names) with 4,000 Pesos worth of gems and 350 Pesos in Philippine Commonwealth bills.

In January 1943, there was an urgent request for an additional 500,000 Pesos in artificially aged banknotes. That shipment arrived in Australia in February 1943. In August 1943, an additional 1,000,000 Pesos was requested from Washington D. C. These were likely the Japanese occupation notes for the Philippines counterfeited by Major Willis C. Reddick.

In July 1943, Colonel Peralta on Panay Island requested large denomination bills, even American, as they could be sold for small denomination Japanese military notes at a good discount. On 17 July 1943, a request for $500,000 in $100 bills was sent to Washington. The money was sent to Panay through Australia.

American Forgery of the Philippine One Peso Note  

The United States first reprinted Philippines Commonwealth treasury certificates of 1936 and 1941 for use by Philippine guerillas. The 1, 5, and 10 pesos notes of 1941 were delivered to the United States War Department between January and September 1943. These notes were chemically aged to appear used, using a process developed by the Bureau of Standards in 1943; the process involved tumbling the notes in coffee grounds and floor sweepings. The 5, 10, 20, and 100 pesos notes of 1936 were not aged.

Notice that the Fourth and Fifth Leave Veins Touch (Inside Box)

The forgeries are so well done that it is hardly worthwhile showing both a genuine and forged banknote. The differences are very minor. For instance, in the case of the 1 Peso bill the fourth and fifth veins in a decorative leaf do not touch on the genuine but are connected about one-halfway down their length in the counterfeit. A collector stated in Banknote Reporter that his counterfeit 5-peso notes were 72 mm wide while the genuine Japanese occupation notes were 68 mm wide. It is unknown if this is a standard “error” that can be used to identify the counterfeits or just occurred in this case.

A second shipment was requested:

A Sheet of Philippine 5 centavo counterfeits – Note the “PD” on the bills
From the Johnston OSS Estate

The first million Japanese occupation pesos was counterfeited in Washington D. C. and flown to the Philippines on 21 December 1943. They were distributed to six different guerrilla groups. The known block letter codes known on the American forgeries are:

Fifty Centavo bills – PA, PB, PE, PF, PG, PH, and PI.
One Peso bills – PH
Five Peso bills – PD
Ten Peso bills – PA, PB, and PC.

There were some problems with finding the right paper for the counterfeits, but a supply of paper made from plants native to Japan was in the U.S. When that supply was exhausted, the counterfeiting operation was transferred to Australia.

The Japanese occupation banknotes may not be the only ones counterfeited by the U.S.

William B. Breuer mentions in MacArthur’s Undercover War, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1995, that there was a need for currency by the Guerillas as early as March 1943. He adds:

A hurried check with Washington disclosed that a huge shipment of Philippine pesos for the Mindanao operation had been shipped by special air transport. As a security measure to ward of sticky fingers, the small fortune’s container was labeled “Finance Forms.” At the Allied Intelligence Bureau’s headquarters, it required several men fifteen hours to count all the pesos, which totaled the equivalent of a million U.S. dollars.

Since the request for counterfeit Japanese occupation currency was sent late in 1943, we might assume that these were genuine banknotes. However, other declassified documents in my collection show that:

…In January 1943, when plans were being made to send other intelligence parties, an urgent request for $500,000, artificially aged, Philippine currency, was sent to Washington. The request, filled and dispatched by highest air priority, was received in Australia during February.

Since the type of currency is not clearly identified, it is possible that this early forging of Philippine currency was the regular banknotes, issued prior to the Japanese occupation.

Lieutenant Robert Stahl says in: You're No Good to Me Dead: Behind Japanese Lines in the Philippines, Naval Institute Special Warfare:

We also carried thousands of Philippine pesos-real monies newly printed in Washington, D.C…loosely packed with water and sand in sealed, five-gallon metal containers.  The water - and sand mixture was intended to age the money, since Filipinos would be hard pressed to explain to the Japanese where they got crisp, new paper money.  Aging the currency this way was a brilliant idea-until it came time to dry it so that it could be spent.  If we had sunlight, we would spread it on the ground and hope it wouldn’t blow away while it dried.  During the rainy season, which was all the time, we sat beside fires waving wads of currency over the heat to drive out the moisture.  We also had counterfeit Japanese invasion currency (called APA in the islands), American made, to spend freely to inflate the Japanese currency.

Lucien V. Campeau says in an article entitled: My Air Force Weather Mission from April 1944 Through April 1945 With the American Guerrillas of Mindanao:

The sub was loaded and the next day we boarded the Narwhal.  As I was boarding, Chick Parsons handed me a five gallon can with gunny sack sewed around it and soldered shut to waterproof it.  This was 25,000 real pesos made in the U.S. and soaked in salt water to make them look old and used.  I was to use the money as I saw fit for intelligence purposes in case the Filipinos would not accept our emergency money and I needed something done in an emergency…Smith and I each carried a pistol, rifle, machete, jungle hammock, backpack of food, and entrenching shovel…I moved off in another direction and dug a hole about two feet deep and large enough around to take a five-gallon can.This was difficult digging, for the ground was mucky humus threaded with a thick mat of twisted tree and plant roots. Into it went one of our three cans of pesos. I drove a stake close to its heart and marked it with a piece of cloth. Not far away I buried another can, and still another short distance away, a third can.I had just put sixty thousand pesos-thirty thousand American dollars-into an earthen safe-deposit box…We had taken thousands and thousands of pesos with us from Australia, all neatly packed in tin cans full of sand and water, cans like those I had buried on Palapag Mesa. When the Narwhal brought men and more supplies to us on Samar, there were more cans of money included in the cargo. And when airdrops were made to me on Luzon, even more money arrived….

The Aborted Plan to Counterfeit Siamese Money

The British Counterfeit of the Siam 5 Baht banknote
Courtesy of Joe Boling

There is much evidence that the OSS intended to counterfeit Siamese (Thai) currency during the War. Siam had collaborated with Japan and there was a need to get agents inside that country. Some of the OSS documents say in part:

Memo of 20 November 1943: Request for one-half ton of Siamese botts. Either the writer misspelled bahts, or he was using his own code for them. The U.S. did not recognize the collaborationist government of Siam, so the plan was approved. Letter of Special Operations 30 November 1943: 90,000 of the subject items will be available soon. On 1 December 1943, the OSS wonders why the bahts are needed: It will be necessary for us to have additional information before we can determine whether we can reply with this request. The subject heading was "BA," so it appears that the Burma codes had now become a codeword for all counterfeits. A request of 15 December 1943 says: Agents require Thai merchandise. Only small amounts available in proper channels, and that at high rates. LTC Reddick says on 28 March 1944: Thai merchandise of the Bangkok type is about ready for production. What are the units and amounts desired? The answer was: about 3 million units of 1, 5, and 10 bahts.

I want to stop here for a moment and talk about codes. Everything had a code name and I assume for security they were changed often. Some examples of the OSS codes are found in the OSS Society’s Newsletter Summer 2002:

An interesting wartime document turned up in the papers of Col. Richard Heppner, OSS China Theater head. It is a list of code names given to countries and people.

Examples for countries include China – Excelsior, U.S.A. – Stork Club; Ceylon – Manhasset; Thailand – Mohawk; and the people: French – Schizos; Burmese – Pyros: Japanese – Kleptos; Americans – Hepcats. Donovan was Sea Biscuit; Stalin, Unicorn; Churchill, Griffin; and Carl Eifler was Otter! These names were used in sending coded messages from the China Theater to other OSS outposts.

   

Genuine Siam Note                        Counterfeit Siam Note

Above we depict one of the places where changes were made to tell the genuine from the Counterfeit note. There are more such signs. The space between the 2nd and 3rd characters (reading from the right). That open bay dead center shows the genuine shading all the way to the end and stopping about two-thirds of the way in the Counterfeit. This is what is called a naked-eye diagnostic - no magnification needed. Anyone caught carrying one of these would be in jeopardy of beheading on the spot.

On 15 April 1944, the OSS Liaison with Great Britain had a meeting about the counterfeit bahts. They were already producing the fake currency and agreed to supply the Americans with their product: I have just been advised that we have been successful in obtaining the promise of a plentiful supply of the “London Type” Thai merchandise from our cousins who control the original source. They will be delivered soon to our New Delhi office. The last mention of this project in the OSS files is 8 June 1944: The London type Bahts will be shipped from there in the amount of 100,000 units.

A British SOE letter dated 5 September 1944 mentions the counterfeit Thailand currency arriving by sea (edited for brevity and removal of code words, etc., removed):

With reference to my telegram of 27 August 1944, I confirm that 68 cases of Thai notes were shipped on KMF.34, in the personal custody of Lieutenant Richardson.

I enclose the printer’s original schedules giving details of the notes and show out markings on the cases as follows:

36 cases marked D.29 to D.64 inclusive, 1,500,012 1-baht notes.
28 cases marked D.1 to D.28 Inclusive, 1,300,012 5-baht notes.
04 cases marked D.65 to D.68 Inclusive, 126,000 10-baht notes.

The above quantity of notes was ordered after full discussion with OSS and by reference to the amount of original paper which the printers had in stock for each denomination.

As I explained to you, the quantities printed far exceed the original estimates of requirements but as the printing was a most difficult matter to arrange and as yet we have no very clear idea of the amounts which may be ultimately required, we considered in best, having set the machines in motion, to use up the original paper.

All the notes bear serial numbers and signatures exactly corresponding to notes that were in circulation before the war and presumably still are and as they have been printed from the original plates and on the original paper, they will, after they have been subjected to a suitable “aging” process by you, be indistinguishable from the original issue.

You will appreciate that it is only because of the personal and strongly worded request of the O.S.S. that sanction was obtained from the authorities here for this printing to take place and it was only because of the action taken here by the authorities here that the printers consented to do a job which no banknote printer would ever consider except under the urgent stress of war needs and which may easily deprive then from the contracts for printing currency notes after the war for the Siamese government for whom they have now acted for some 50 years.

These notes must therefore be regarded as in an entirely different category to the Japanese occupation notes which we have had printed, and it is essential that the utmost care must be taken as regards any issues which are made.

Full records are kept in a book to be opened specially for the purpose of all the notes received from me in each denomination and giving the serial numbers. Receipts are obtained from those to whose issue are made giving the details, and including the undertaking to certify to you the numbers, denominations and serial numbers of notes put into operational use and to return notes to you not put into operational use…

Some British sources show that the Americans, and especially Willis Reddick, who we mention often in this article, was involved in the Siamese operation. On 26 October 1942, a "most secret" coded telegram to New Delhi states that a project for the dislocation of currency in Japanese controlled China will be called Grenville. This campaign was aimed at the Japanese in China to start, especially the banknotes of the Japanese puppet Federal Reserve Bank, but soon the plan added Burma and Siam. At first the Americans were not notified, the British thinking the Americans were not experienced enough in spy craft. Later, the Americans were brought in, probably since they had the money to pay the expenses of the project and the paper, inks, and machinery to do the work. On 18 May 1944 OSS forger Reddick met with British agents to visit the Bank of England to discuss forged Siam notes. An Order was made for 1,500,000 1 baht's, 1,000,000 5 baht's, 100,000 10 baht's and 100,000 20 baht's from the printers De la Rue.

It appears that sometimes the forgeries and facsimiles were just called Grenville and other times they were called slush. The Bank of England was involved in the operation from the start. The British Treasury and the Government of India seems to have fought this plan of counterfeiting or reproducing banknotes and only came around later after enormous pressure.

The money itself was code-named; The Malaya forgeries were Barbados M1 and M10, the Burmese were Barbados B1 and B10, and the Chinese Central Reserve Bank was Bolivia 10 B. I say forgeries and facsimiles because sometimes the Japanese occupation currency was forged and was 100% fake. Other times, when British printers had previously made the banknotes of countries like Siam, the original plates were used, and copies of the money were made using genuine plates, paper, and inks. The British liked to call these facsimiles or sometimes reproductions.

British Special Operations Executive sometimes printed the money; other times they gave the plates to U.S. Army Major (later Colonel) Reddick of the OSS who ran forgery printing shops in Washington DC and London. The OSS or Reddick seems to have the code name "G40,000" which is the oddest code name I ever saw.

There seems to have been a great demand for Netherlands East India Japanese banknotes. The British asked the Dutch to send images of the Japanese notes and received them. At one point the OSS agreed in theory to print NEI 10-guilder notes at the request of the British.

Joe Boling sent me a comment on this operation:

The Thai notes that OSS was working on were the “Bangkok bahts,” copies of the notes issued under Japanese influence. The agents in the field said that their Thai contacts wanted the “London bahts,” the De La Rue notes issued before the war. The British asked De la Rue Printers to reprint them with serials that matched issued serials, spread across many blocks and many serial ranges. De la Rue said “no,” - their customer was the Thai govt, not the British.

So, the British confiscated the plates, then handed them back and ordered De la Rue to print from them. Which they did - after making modifications that would allow the Thais to repudiate the reprints after the war if desired (some of these were naked-eye diagnostics, a gross security violation that never came back to bite the Allies). Those are now known as the “Free Thai” notes. There were 5- and 10-baht pieces, but the 1-bahts were apparently all used and eventually retired as worn-out notes. They are rare today. With the British sharing their counterfeits with the United States there was no reason for the OSS to produce their own.

British SOE records imply that at the end of the war there was some worry about the number of Thai notes counterfeited. It may have been that the Thai government wanted the notes made good, or the British needed to explain how they were used. We do see requests for the destruction and information on the number of baht produced.

Letter to SOE Delhi dated 3 September 1945 (edited for brevity and removal of code words, etc., removed):

Agree that surplus stocks of Grenville should be returned to Force 136 for destruction.

Before destruction takes place, comprehensive accounts must be prepared to show for each currency and each denomination:

A. Total received from U.K.
B. Issues less returns by each user department supported by certificate.
C. Net totals of above will represent accounts left in circulation by each user who should certify accordingly.
D. Final balances in stock to be destroyed.

For Siamese Grenville’s full details of serial numbers must be included for every item above so that we have precise records of notes left in circulation.

Destruction to be certified by at least two officers of field grade or above.

Letter to SOE Delhi dated 8 September 1945 (edited for brevity and removal of code words, etc., removed):

Agreed that Grenville stores should be destroyed by burning and assume you can assure complete destruction whereby.

While regretting the work which will be involved, I must insist that full records of Siamese Grenville are prepared so that we have precise details of notes still in circulation and notes destroyed and therefore able to answer any inquiries that may arise in the future.

WWII Remembered adds that the notes were reported to have been used by Indian units of the British Army and by anti-Japanese resistance fighters for bribing Thai officials. After the end of WWII, in 1946 and 1947, the Thai Ministry of Finance announced that the fake notes were not legally issued and could not be used for trade, but if someone received the notes by honest means they could be exchanged for real currency.

  

The Maria Theresa Thaler

Long after I wrote this article, in 2023. John Lisle's The Dirty Tricks Department: Stanley Lovell, the OSS, and the Masterminds of World War II Secret Warfare, briefly mentioned Willis Reddick while discussing the Documents Division and forged currency:

Lowell worried that the Treasury Department and Secret Service, originally created to suppress counterfeit currency, would arrest him as soon as the operation got underway. So did General Donovan who originally resisted the idea.

The documents division also counterfeited foreign currency. Stanley Lovell handpicked Willis Reddick, a dapper printer from Illinois with a strong jaw and pencil line mustache, to lead the operation. Reddick in turn hired commercial artists from Collier’s and the Saturday Evening Post, poached workers from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and recruited other artists and printers from army basic training camps.

The documents division was on its own, mostly. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing secretly gave Reddick special machinery for printing bank notes. To account for the missing machines in its inventory, the Bureau listed them as having been sunk on a ship in the Atlantic

One of the more difficult currencies to counterfeit was the Maria Theresa Thaler, a silver Austrian coin depicting a plump Maria Teresa on one side and an elaborate double headed eagle with a coat of arms on the other. The coins had gone out of production in 1870 but we’re still popular throughout Indonesia. Lovell spared no expense. When pouring the molds for the coins, he insisted that the workers use real silver instead of a cheaper alloy. That way, even if someone bit down on the coins or listened to the pitch at which they rang, there would be no difference between them and the real thing. “It was the most honest job we ever did,” Lovell recalled with pride.

[Author’s note]: Stanley P. Lovell said in the July 1963 article "Deadly Gadgets of the OSS" in Popular Science that during the Japanese occupation of Indonesia in World War II, enough people preferred it to the money issued by the occupying forces that the American Office of Strategic Services created counterfeit thalers for use by resistance forces. Lovell adds:

In Java and Sumatra little resistance could be encouraged with bribes of Japanese occupation currency. The money for which Indonesians would do anything was the Maria Theresa thaler, a coin about the size of a 25-cents piece.

Stamps

OSS Counterfeit Nazi Party Dues Stamp

The OSS printed counterfeit Nazi Party stamps for use on Party membership cards. The Party stamps were prepared as part of Operation Sauerkraut, an OSS operation that occurred near the end of the war after the assassination attempt on Hitler's life. The documents, handstamps, Nazi Party dues stamps and identification papers that the agents carried behind the lines had to be perfect. They had to pass inspection by the German military police.

Photograph from the Official Sauerkraut Report
Note the vertical strip of five Nazi Party dues stamps at the upper right

I first discovered these stamps by carefully studying a photograph found in an official OSS wartime presentation booklet entitled The Story of the Sauerkrauts, which reports on Morale Operations Rome's Operation Sauerkraut. In this document is a photograph that shows, much reduced, numerous forged identity documents and a perforated vertical strip of 5 stamps with top, left, and bottom margins. For many years, the Sauerkraut document was the only hint that the OSS had forged Nazi party dues labels, until W. David Ripley discovered an entire imperforate sheet in the estate of a former OSS employee.

The United States OSS forgery of German Nazi Party dues labels was prepared for use on forged identity documents distributed to Germans Prisoners of War in Operation Sauerkraut. The label measures 20 x 17 mm and has a violet background with un-inked design and text featuring the Nazi spread-winged eagle atop an enclosed swastika. The text Partei Betrag ("Party contribution") is above the eagle's wings; "N.S.D.A.P." is at bottom. The denomination "1.-" is at left, and "-.30" is at right, representing 1.30 Reichsmarks. A thin, black overprint "1940" covers the wings of the eagle. Ripley's find is a sheet of 20 (4x5), measuring 123 mm square, imperforate. At a future point, holes will be placed between the counterfeits (perforations) so they can be easily separated.

The Johnston OSS Counterfeit 40-centimes French Fiscal Stamp

My friend and fellow researcher Wolfgang Baldus told me about these stamps being mentioned in a French catalog. The 2000 edition of the French specialized catalogue of fiscal stamps Catalogue des timbres fiscaux et Socio-posteaux de France contains the following paragraph (edited for brevity):

Forgeries for commercial use. During the Second World War forged fiscal stamps were used to provide false papers without alerting the collaborationist regime through the purchase of ostentatious quantities of such stamps. The following values have been noted: 40 centimes, 2 francs, 5 francs and 15 francs. These stamps, which appear to have been made one by one, all have the watermark ‘AT36’ and usually have irregular perforations at one or more corners.

The latter catalogue, which illustrates the forgeries, states that “these values enabled the franking of false identity cards (15f or 3 × 5f), a false birth certificate from prior to 1933 (5f + 40c), a false certificate of residence from before 1939 (2f + 2f + 2f), etc.” The stamps were said to have been produced individually within a tiny sheet.

The Johnston OSS Counterfeit 2-franc French Fiscal Stamp

The United States also prepared fake fiscal stamps for use in France on passports and other documents. I first wrote about this stamp in “The Rarest Forgery of WWII?” The SPA Journal, April 1977. The French fiscal stamp counterfeits had not previously been mentioned in the American philatelic press at that time. Twenty-four years later my friend W. David Ripley III discovered an entire imperforate sheet of the forgeries in the estate of a former OSS employee.

Major Reddick told me about his experience with the French stamps:

I am sure you are familiar with the O.S.S. in World War Two. Our missions were the gathering of intelligence as well as the infiltration of spies and saboteurs behind the enemy lines in France and Northern Italy, usually by drops from aircraft. I was an officer in the O.S.S. and early in 1944 I was sent on a mission to Bari, Italy, from our headquarters in Algiers. On my return I was forced to lay over in Naples and billeted with one of our group who was engaged in supplying all the necessary papers to the agents who were being dropped behind the lines. We produced everything needed, including identification cards and tax stamps for the documents that required them. The forgeries were a marvel of perfection and as far as I know, the Germans never caught on. On seeing the stamps, I asked for some as souvenirs. No dice - but after much wheedling and explaining that I was a collector, he grudgingly gave me just one specimen. I have kept it all these years.

The Johnston OSS Counterfeit 5-franc French Fiscal Stamp

Wolfgang Baldus has researched these stamps in some depth and says about this one:

The 5 Francs fiscal stamp has the same design but “Timbre fiscal” is replaced by “Taxes communales” (local taxes). Virtually nothing is known about the propaganda forgery of this stamp. One mint copy was allegedly in the possession of a former OSS officer who sold it to the American stamp dealer Herman Herst in 1975. The stamp is said to be now in a private collection of a former CIA member who bought it from Herst. Nothing was ever published on this stamp forgery and only a few personal letters referring to it exist. The forgery is perforated 13, fully gummed and printed faintly with a strong red “5 Francs” print making the stamp design look pale. It was allegedly prepared for use on marriage certificates.

The Ripley OSS Counterfeit 13-franc/15-franc French Fiscal Stamp

The United States OSS forgeries of French fiscal stamps were prepared for use by OSS agents and the French underground on various identity papers. The genuine stamps are 35 x 19 mm and depict the head of Ceres in a medallion on the left, and "TIMBRE / FISCAL" in two lines at the right above a denomination in another color. The forgeries are excellent reproductions, are perforated, and watermarked. The printing format is known for the 13 francs and 15 francs forgeries: twenty-eight stamps in a 4 x 7 arrangement, with the left-hand two columns being 13 francs and the right-hand two columns being 15 francs.   

   

Forged Handstamps

The German government seems to have been fueled by various stamps placed on documents to guarantee authenticity. But they also needed those documents to be stamped by official handstamps of the correct shape, wording, and ink. A perfect forged stamp would not pass on the best documents if the handstamps were incorrect. Because of this the OSS spent a great deal of time counterfeiting the handstamps to use on their counterfeit documents. Here is a small collection of them showing many different countries and uses. Among the hand stamps I see Germany, France, Danzig (was Poland, about to become Germany), Costa Rica, and Belgium. I also see a group of forged signatures certainly intended to go on documents. I believe all these signatures are of officers of the administrative authorities who signed identity cards and passports etc. before adding the official seals on the documents.

I want to thank Wolfgang Baldus the German researcher and author who helped with some of the more complex translations below

Some of the French items include Limoges City Hall - Haute-Vienne; City of Marseille Supply (Supplies); City of Boulogne -Central police station; Prefecture of Isère; French Republic - Police Commissioner -Vichy (Allier); Perigueux City Hall - (Dordogne); Prefecture of POLICE - Administrative Department of Traffic and Transport; 1st Police chief; Authorization to reside until...; The holder of the food card number .... issued by the City of Paris; French Consulate – Dantzig; and Office of Foreigners - Prefecture of Police. Some of the statements stamped on documents are: Permitted to stay up to the (date)....(Used on residence permits); Holder of the ration card No... issued on... by the mayor of Paris 9.

Some of the German hand stamps and statements to be placed on documents are: Military Commander Belgium – Safe Conduct Office IV; Police President of Danzig; Administrative Head of the City of Mannheim; Die deutsche Arbeitsfront / AuslandsOrganisation = German Labor Front Foreign Section (used on membership booklets and ID cards; NSDAP cancel (eagle´s beak to the right - used on Nazi party documents); Reich commissioner for the occupied Norwegian territories; “Ticket issued” by Bennett Trondheim (Bennett is the oldest advertising agency of Norway, located in the city of Trondheim).

There is also a Norwegian railway stamp: To pay 100 Öre, and a Swiss embassy in Berlin, department “Schutzmachtangelegenheiten” which is, literally, “affairs of the Protecting Power”. Switzerland acted as diplomatic representative upon request. They were five sections of the “department for foreign interests” (Abteilung fremde Interessen). For Germany it was in Berlin.

OSS Agent Eddie Lindner prepares counterfeit documents for German infiltrators at the front lines
Notice the handstamp to be used on the German documents

This charcoal sketch was prepared by anti-Nazi German “Sauerkraut” agent Willy Haseneier. Haseneier was captured 4 June 1944. An artist and graduate of the Düsseldorf Art Academy, he was used by his OSS handlers to help forge identity papers, passes, credentials and signatures. At the end of the war, he worked for the Allies producing visual aids for the Nurnberg trials. He immigrated to Hollywood after the war and found fame as "Will Williams," illustrating book covers, comic books, movie posters, and portraits of actors. Ironically, some of his drawings were called "the secret agent series," a subject he was remarkably familiar with.

Forged OSS Identity Card

Veritas, the Journal of the Army Special Operations History, Volume 5, Number 1, 2009, depicts a forged ID card bearing the Fake 13-franc stamp. The card was used by Second Lieutenant Herbert R. Bruckner (code name Sacha) using the alias Albert Jean Brugnon.

The known forgeries are 40 centimes (Useful for birth certificates, which required a 5-francs and a 40 centimes stamp); 2 francs; 5 francs (Used on municipal certificates such as marriage licenses); 13 francs (Useful on identity cards issued between 1940 and 21 April 1943, when the rate was raised to 15 francs); and 15 francs (Useful on identity cards issued after 21 April 1943).

  

OSS Counterfeit Card that Allows a Person to Move from one Place to Another in France

This French Identity card says on the front:

French State
French Citizen Identity Card
Change of Domicile of Visa

The back of the card has a box for a photograph at left and says in part: Last name; First name; Profession; Born; at; Department, Home. Below the photograph there is a place for a fiscal stamp, and of course that is the reason that so many fiscal stamps were counterfeited by the OSS. The bottom half of the card has a Report section and asks in part about the person’s hair; general facial form; Mustache; Complexion; and Special features. The final boxes at the bottom of the card ask for the person’s fingerprint; Signature of the owner; and date.

OSS Counterfeit of French Certificate of Residence

This French certificate was printed in both French and German. The French text is larger since it was for France, and the German text is beneath the French so any German Gestapo or police agent could read the certificate even if he could not read French. The document is formal and almost looks like a diploma of some kind. The Mayor of the Town of Saint-Jean-de-Luz signs and attests that the person holding the certificate is a resident of his town. And of course, the document is stamped although we cannot see it well enough to translate it. The text in the two languages is:

CERTIFICATE

The Mayor, undersigned, of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, certifies that Mr., Mrs., Miss
Last name and first name
Profession – Born at – In
Since - his/her place of residence (his/her habitual residence)
Saint Jean-de-Luz - Street/Quarter
Signature and Date

OSS Counterfeit Identity Pass for Foreign Workers in France

Foreign workers in occupied France also needed to carry an ID. The OSS seems to have filed this one as 227. In Rome and Switzerland filed items had a large black or blue handstamp. In Washington they just hand-wrote the number. This one asks all the usual questions; Last name; First name; Date and place of birth; Nationality, Profession, Person to be notified in case of emergency.

DESCRIPTION

Height; eyes; hair; nose; mustache; complexion.

Group Stamp - Signature of Group Leader

The foreigner must always carry this form. If he is called upon to travel alone, he will carry a movement order to be checked by the police on arrival.

German Army Soldbuch or “Soldier’s Personal Identify Book.” 

 

The Soldbuch served as a form of identification and record keeping. It was the standard identity document in the German military, issued to every man. It allowed the owner to draw pay, prove he had permission for leave, recorded what equipment he had been issued, and identified his current and former units. It also included his rank, physical attributes, military awards, and medical history. All serving personnel had to always keep their Soldbuch in their jacket pocket. Only exceptional circumstances would change this, such as certain frontline patrols and activities in which the Soldbuch could reveal critical information to the enemy. From 1944 it was mandatory for a photo to be included inside the front cover.  

 

This forged 24-page soldier’s book would be a necessity should any OSS agent wish to pass behind the German lines in military garb. The pages are: 

Page 1

Page 1 Soldiers Name, Rank, ID Tags details, Blood group.
Page 2 Place and date of Birth, Religion, Civilian job, height, face shape, color of eyes, hair color shoe size.
Page 3 Amendments to records of Soldbuch.
Page 4 Field training and replacement unit details.
Page 6 & 7 Record of issue of equipment.
Page 8 Issue of special kit including weapons.
Page 9 Medical shot records.
Page 10 & 11 Medical records (eye tests, etc.).
Page 12 & 13 Hospital entries and wounds received.
Page 14 & 15 security check and hospital visit stamps.
Page 16 Dental records.
Page 17 Continuation of Field training.
Page 18 & 19 Payments and any extra allowances.
Page 20 to 22 Soldiers awards and medals.
Page 23 & 24 record of leave taken.

Author John Lisle who has studied the OSS told me:

Among the documents that they most often forged were passports, discharge forms, ration tickets, railway passes, driver’s licenses, and travel papers. Each document had to look completely authentic, down to every minute detail, from the hue of an ink to the texture of the paper. Even the photographs had to match specific style of their supposed country of origin. For example, the German Army had a rule that photographs on identity documents couldn’t show a person’s right ear. Arthur Velleman, a Documents Division worker with an exceedingly sharp eye, wrote to someone who submitted pictures in the wrong style, “If you want us to use these pictures we will do so on your responsibility.”

Passports were among the most difficult documents to forge. For the best results, the workers in the Documents Division took an authentic passport—usually obtained from a prisoner of war or scavenged from a dead body—removed the writing and filled in the blanks with fake information. But even that was a cumbersome process. To remove the writing, they first blotted the passport with a mixture of potassium permanganate and sulfuric acid. Once it turned brown, they treated it with a solution of weak oxalic acid until the writing disappeared. The blank passport was now ready for new writing. If the workers used an ink that was too opaque, they would have to repeat the entire process.

Since John Lisle mentions railway passes above, perhaps I should show the readers one. An OSS document titled “FAKED JAPANESE RAILROAD PASS” says that the severe bombing of Japanese cities leaves in their wake wide-scale disruption of the means of communication and transportation in addition to confusion and panic. An excellent opportunity arises for the use of Morale Operations tactics and techniques to augment this confusion and aggravate the transportation problem. The OSS has produced fake railway passes to which stickers are attached explaining that these passes must be used for transportation purposes during an emergency. These passes will be dropped on a bombed area after air raids. A notice attached to the pass will explain that they have been dropped by planes of the Japanese air force.

A second OSS document titled “THE RAILWAY PASS PROJECT” explains that 300,000 counterfeit passes have been printed. Whoever picks them up will want to leave the area they are in for a safer place. All available transportation will be cluttered and production in factories should slow down due to absenteeism. The text on the front of the pass is:

SPECIAL FREE RAILWAY PASS
FOR AIR RAID EVACUEES

Good for three months           Issued under emergency decree

SPECIAL
Good for any government or non-government railroad

Air Defense General Headquarters Ministry
Ministry of Railways

The back of the pass has six lines of text, the most interesting the last one that warns the user that any attempt to counterfeit this pass will be met by severe punishment according to the National Mobilization Act, 11th Year of Showa.

Italian Social Republic Ministry of the Armed Forces Army Personnel Booklet

The Italian Social Republic (Repubblica Sociale Italiana - RSI), was a German puppet state with limited recognition that was created during the latter part of World War II, existing from the beginning of German occupation of Italy in September 1943 until the surrender of German troops in Italy in May 1945. The Italian Social Republic was the second and last incarnation of the Italian Fascist state and was led by Duce Benito Mussolini and his reformed anti-monarchist Republican Fascist Party. The Italian Social Republic exercised nominal sovereignty in Northern and Central Italy but was largely dependent on German troops to maintain control.

This 63-page booklet has pages for all the information that a soldier could possibly need: his name, rank, ID number, unit, skills, and of course all his accomplishes and areas served in during the war. An American spy wanting to pass for an Italian soldier in Northern Italy would need such a counterfeit booklet to safely pass through the German and Italian lines. On page 4 the soldier finds his oath”

OATH

I swear to serve and defend the Italian Social Republic in his or her honor and territory, in peace and in war, up to the supreme sacrifice. I swear before God and the fallen, for unity, independence, and the future of the homeland.

Safe Conduct Pass from Spain to France

Spain was a Fascist country, friendly to Germany. Many of the documents in this archive are for Spain. Rather than parachute agents into France, it might be safer to just sneak them into Spain and then let them cross over into France. This document is titled General Directorate of Security. Special Safe Conduct in Favor of…The agent would write his name. birthdate, citizenship, current address, and profession. The pass then asks where he wants to go, and this has been pre-stamped: Circulate through the border area with France. A second identical pass (except the color is yellow) states: Circulate through the border area with Portugal. At the bottom of the form there is a statement: Valid for three months or for a single trip. This safe conduct has no value if the interested party is not provided with official identity documents. It seems the OSS would need more documents to get this agent across the border. I also have a blank sheet with no text that seems to be the base design to be printed on.

OSS Counterfeit Identification Card for Greece

The Battle of Greece (Unternehmen Marita) started with an Italian attack in April 1941. The Greeks fought the Italians to a standstill, and this forced Hitler to help his ally Mussolini and join the attack in October 1940. The Germans later staged an airborne attack on Crete in May 1941. Hitler later blamed the failure of his invasion of the Soviet Union, which was delayed, on Mussolini's failed conquest of Greece. the Greek OSS group was founded in 1943, comprised of volunteers for hazardous duty with the OSS. The men had trained together in the Greek Battalion in Camp Carson, Colorado, with a few more weeks of additional training in OSS camps in Maryland. In July 1944, the first OSS groups parachuted into Greece from two C-47 aircraft. They were met by British agents who were already leading Greek fighters.

A Photograph from the OSS files of a Completed Greek ID Card

In October 1944, the German Wehrmacht was forced to withdraw from Greece. As in every nation they conquered and occupied the German used ID cards to keep track of the Greeks. This identification card is in two languages, Greek and German. The card had to be filled out in both languages. At the left are two boxes for a photograph and a fiscal stamp.  This card was to be used in the city of Pagason. Some of the text is: 

Identification card.

Family name; First name; Father's or man's name; Mother; Birthday; Place of birth; Job; Place of residence; Street and number; nationality; Religion; Parishioner; Registration number; Date…..1944.

The Parteianwärterkarte - (an application form for an NSDAP party membership).

The NSDAP had an own organization for Nazi members living outside the Reich. This was the “NSDAP/AO”, the “Auslands-Organisation” (branch for members abroad) of the party. The card above is for German citizens living abroad who wanted to become party members. Note that is the photograph of OSS forged Nazi documents in this article this item is depicted.

A Genuine NSDAP Card

After Hitler’s rise to power in January 1933 there was an enormous rush for NSDAP party membership. Other parties lost many thousands of members within days. The NSDAP had 850,000 members in January 1933, rising to 2.5 million in January 1935. To meet the unexpected rush for membership and to avoid the participation of free loaders the NSDAP introduced an admission limit for new members on 19 April 1933. It was no longer possible to become an NSDAP party member by simply filling in an application for membership (of course there were exceptions). By decree 18/37 of 20 April 1937 all individuals who were members of one or several of the many national-socialist organizations in the past years (proving their “correct attitude and conviction”), and who wanted to become NSDAP party members received a Parteianwärterkarte indicating that the bearers were waiting for being accepted as regular party members (note the date of 1937 in the card above). After acceptance they got an ordinary NSDAP member card and the Parteianwärterkarte lost validity. The admission restriction was abolished by decree 34/39 of 10 May 1939.

The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party, Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945, that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor, the German Workers' Party, Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, existed from 1919 to 1920. The Nazi Party emerged from the German nationalist, racist and populist Freikorps paramilitary culture, which fought against the communist uprisings in post-World War I Germany. The party was created to draw workers away from communism and into nationalism. Initially, Nazi political strategy focused on anti-big business, anti-bourgeois, and anti-capitalist rhetoric, although this was later downplayed to gain the support of business leaders, and in the 1930s the party's focus shifted to antisemitic and anti-Marxist themes. If the OSS needed to send a man behind the lines and give him some protection it was important that the agent be a Party Member. The produced an excellent forgery of the Membership card and had the stamps and hand stamps to make it look genuine.

 

Southeast Border Crossing Permit

Another document to allow the agents to cross borders. This one in the Southeast. As usual, there is a place for occupation; First and Last Name; where you are leaving from; why you are entitled to leave; etc. The individual can leave Via the approved transition points once and back. The document is signed by the Quartermaster General.

An Example of a Properly filled-out Card

Attached to the counterfeit is a photo of the card properly filled out by Doctor Ladislaus Richter, Director, leaving from Budapest on a trip to Serbia could cross the border from 22 February to 20 March 1944. Notice the “225” at the left. The OSS normally filed their products by number so this was apparently where it was placed in a file cabinet.

OSS Counterfeit Border Crossing (Transition) Permit

This Border Crossing Permit was valid on the Western Front. It permitted trips between Germany, France, and Belgium. You could not cross the border wherever you wanted. The transition points permitted for use had to be specified, as well as the period of validity and the fact if the bearer intended to cross the border once or several times within the permitted time. The passport number was entered because the document was valid when also the passport was presented. Much of the text is in both German and French. Some of the text is:

Passport Ticket West Number
German Empire - France – Belgium
First name, Surname, Occupation,
Permanent place of residence, Street, House number.
Is entitled to present this passport substitute – An official photo ID - An identification card.
This pass is to be given at the last border crossing.
Issued by ..... on the date of ….. 194_, from ….. 194_ to ..... 194_.
Out and back once, via the officially approved transition offices.

 

A Completed Border Crossing (Transition) Permit

As usual, The OSS filed a completed border crossing permit for their official files. In this case machinist Jan de Jong of Marseille (B.d.R. = Bouches-du-Rhone, the district), was visiting Rotterdam. He had from September 30 to October 2 to leave. Since the document was filled out on 29 September, he probably went onboard a ship leaving Marseille the next day destined to Rotterdam. The cancel is "Examining office III of …., branch 5."

DEUTSCHES REICH ARBEITSBUCH FUR AUSLANDERS

This is a counterfeit German Employment book for foreigners, a record book and an official personal document recording the employment status of its owner over time. Since many OSS agents could not pass as Germans but could pass as Czech or French workers sent to Germany as laborers, the books were needed. The regulation for Arbeitsbuchs required the obligatory identification data required by regulation included: the full name of the owner; the date and location of his birth; the name and the last residence of the owner's father or guardian; and the owner's signature. Foreigners who worked in Germany carried an Arbeitsbuch fur Auslander which had a picture of the owner. All this data should be registered with a local police office, thus turning an Arbeitsbuch into an internal passport identity document.

Organization Todt Counterfeit Workbook  

Organisation Todt was a civil and military engineering organization in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, named for its founder, Fritz Todt, an engineer and senior Nazi. The organization was responsible for a huge range of engineering projects both in Nazi Germany and in occupied territories from France to the Soviet Union during World War II. It became notorious for using forced labor. From 1943 until 1945 during the late phase of the Third Reich, Organisation Todt administered all constructions of concentration camps to supply forced labor to industry.

Two pages from the Counterfeit Workbook

The image above depicts two pages of a workbook/service book of the Todt Organization. These are page numbers 8 and 33. The Todt organization was created as a construction organization for military facilities, which carried out construction projects that were important to the war effort both in Germany and in the areas occupied by German troops. Being a member of this organization might have been useful for an OSS agent by enabling him to plan and carry out sabotage missions. The left page of the spread (page 8) is for entries corresponding illness or stay in hospital of the bearer (address of hospital, time of stay in hospital, reason for being there) to be continued on page 9. The right page (page 33) is for entries as to the kind of leaves (family, special, ordinary leave) and the dates (from – to). The page is good for four leaves.

An Interesting page from the OSS Archives

Just a few of the hundreds of satirical anti-Fascist gummed stickers to be placed on walls and tables wherever the enemy congregated. The numbers are the official OSS file numbers.

Booklets and Brochures

How to derail a locomotive

The above pages are certainly from a sabotage manual printed by the OSS for their agents or partisans in occupied countries and tells the agent how to derail a locomotive. In some cases, these pages were large and folded twice to make four pages. It could be carried innocently and just appear to be a blank piece of paper but when opened depicted sabotage instructions.

 

The 4.5 Rocket Launcher

This two-page description explains how to set up and aim a rocket launcher at the enemy. The Viet Cong used such devices against the stronger United States military because they could be set up ahead of time and the fighters could flee the area immediately after firing leaving everything behind and escaping retaliation. Here we see that in WWII the partisans were taught to do the same thing against the stronger German Wehrmacht or Japanese Army. The second page depicts a soldier carrying the system on his back.

     

The Limpet Mine

A limpet mine is a type of naval mine attached to a target by magnets. It is so named because of its superficial similarity to the limpet, a type of sea snail that clings tightly to rocks or other hard surfaces. A swimmer or diver may attach the mine, which is usually designed with hollow compartments to give the mine just slight negative buoyancy, making it easier to handle underwater. Usually, limpet mines are set off by a time fuse. They may also have an anti-handling device.

Limpet mines were extensively used in naval warfare during World War II by special operations commandos. In 1943, the Royal Australian Navy conducted Operation Jaywick, which relied on the use of limpet mines. Using a confiscated motor sampan, a commando of fourteen Australians sailors disguised as local fisherman were able to enter the port of Singapore, which was then under Japanese control. Once in the port, the commandos were able to attach limpet mines to the ships by covertly sneaking up to the hull at night. The operation resulted in the damage or sinking of at least six Japanese ships.

This set of instructions was folded and opened to show four pages explaining the way to prepare and use the OSS limpet mine.

Stationery

A Wesermünde Employment Agency Letterhead

You might wonder why the OSS would have a need for stationery. The OSS in Switzerland was making counterfeit envelopes with printed return addresses as well as fake airletters and stationery. What better way to send mail behind the lines that looked legitimate? This Washington counterfeit stationery is even more important for agents going behind the lines. We have seen the counterfeit workbooks, but suppose you are stopped before you get to your destination None of that would work. But suppose you had a nice letter in your pocket from an employment agency saying that you were offered a job and you were on your way to that job. Or maybe you were just looking for a job there. What a smart idea.

The letterhead above is the stationery of the employment agency in the town of Wesermünde. If you are looking for a job the agency will try to find one for you by writing a request to potential employers. The OSS could also have provided an “official” recommendation for an agent who intended to infiltrate a certain firm or office by pretending to look for a job.

Labels

San Koh Flour Mills

Best Bakers Flour

These are interesting forged labels, or perhaps decals to be placed on a flour bag. Why would the OSS make such a counterfeit? Perhaps they wanted to move weapons or cash behind enemy lines disguised in Flour bags. Or perhaps there were explosives that might sink the ship or blow up a train carrying the bag. The possibilities are endless.

On 21 February 1943, The OSS requested that agents in Chungking send them: "generous samples of textiles and flour bags." An undated memo asks: "Do you want standard 48-pound flour bags, if so, what brands?" On 2 March 1943, Chungking replied: "Expect to send clothes and bags next mail." On 25 May 1943 we find "Bags, clothes, rice, salt, sugar, flour, not received." Another undated message asks: "Your 10 July not any flour sacks received. Must trace. Who carried the pouch?" A 13 August 1943 note says: "The sacks arrived."

Speaking of weapons as we do above, the OSS in London worked closely with their British counterparts. Although we mostly study documents in these articles, OSS agents also needed weapons to protect themselves, and a Special Weapons Section was formed. Every report on weaponry that the British Special Operations Executive prepared was also sent to the Americans. OSS agents were invited to all British meetings, demonstrations, trials, and were allowed to study the files. The Americans returned the favor. It was truly a partnership. In the picture above. Lieutenant Crocker displays some of the weapons from his section. In his right hand he holds an automobile piston rod destroyed by a chemical that was added to German lubrication oil. We show only half this picture because a slip of paper with a caption was stapled to the bottom of it, but I can see an American M3 suppressed "Grease Gun" inspired by the British suppressed Sten gun, [notice the regular barrel of the weapon is directly below the suppressed barrel], a silenced High-Standard .22 (long) caliber pistol, to the left of the .22 is a FP-45 Liberator pistol, a cheaply made stamped metal weapon that cost $2 to produce at the time and fired a .45 round. The partisans were supposed to shoot a German soldier in the back of the head with that pistol and then take the German’s rifle to fight on. And finally, a grenade, and at the right the handle of a British Sykes-Fairbairn knife and a bolo knife.

Cartoon Directions for the use of the Liberator Pistol
These were to be issued to Partisans, not Americans who read English

Unidentified papers and documents

 

Hungary

During World War II, the Kingdom of Hungary was a member of the Axis powers. In the 1930s, the Kingdom of Hungary relied on increased trade with Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany to pull itself out of the Great Depression. Hungarian politics and foreign policy had become more stridently nationalistic by 1938, and Hungary adopted a policy like Germany's, attempting to incorporate ethnic Hungarian areas in neighboring countries into Hungary. Hungary benefited territorially from its relationship with the Axis. Settlements were negotiated regarding territorial disputes with the Czechoslovak Republic, the Slovak Republic, and the Kingdom of Romania. In 1940, Hungary joined the Axis powers. The following year, Hungarian forces participated in the invasion of Yugoslavia and the invasion of the Soviet Union. Their participation was noted by German observers for its cruelty, with occupied peoples subjected to arbitrary violence. Hungarian volunteers were sometimes referred to as engaging in "murder tourism.”

We do not know exactly what the item above was used for. It bears the heraldic symbol of Hungary. It appears to have a fold at the center so it could have been a booklet for working papers, identification or whatever. At present we do not know why the OSS counterfeited it, but we assume that Allied agents needed it to move around in Fascist Hungary.

 

A Kingdom of Hungary Forged Passport

It seems I might have put the cart before the horse on the Hungarian entry. As you can see above, I was guessing at how that strange page with the crown was used. As I obtained some more of the collection, I found a complete forged Hungarian passport. When I opened it, the first thing I saw was a page like the one above but with some minor changes, and much reduced since the passport is just 3.5 x 6.25-inches in size. There are then 9 pages with text for personal data and then pages 9 to 43 are blank with an image much like the one above where they can be stamped as you travel from place to place. So, although I am still guessing, this seems to be a blank page to be used in Hungarian official booklets and documents to separate different areas. The text is in both Hungarian and French, and I note on the last page at back the number "1939."

Special Envoy to India

Many of these items are a complete mystery and since the man who printed them is deceased, we will never know why they were counterfeited. This item is a small paper in Japanese. It might have been placed on another document, or there might be something important on the back like a safe conduct pass. Hopefully, we will see the back of the paper in the not-too-distant future. The text says on the front:

Japanese Army Special Envoy to India.
Attached to the Consulate.
14 December 1941

Elite and other combat units that are often in life-threatening situations seem to have songs and poems that either tell of their bravery or make fun of the possibility of death. For instance, the paratroopers like to sing, “Gory, Gory, what a Hell of a way to die,” telling of a young trooper whose chute did not open. During the Vietnam War at Christmas, some troopers sang, “Jingle bells, mortar shells, Charley’s in the grass. Take you Merry Christmas Cheer and shove it up your ass.” There are parody songs for the Green Berets and even the PSYOP troops. The OSS Society Newsletter of Summer 2004 mentions this unsigned OSS poem that turned up in 1944 in Cairo. Curiously, the author must have thought it was overly sexual because he only wanted men to see the poem. I find it to be rather mild.

Oh, the OSS, Oh yes, yes, yes.
They make all the Axis partners guess.
They disguise themselves in a beard or a dress.
They pal around with kings and popes,
and pay baksheesh in scented soaps.

This has been a short look at, and discussion of, the forgeries created by the OSS in Washington D.C. There were thousands more. Any reader having an interesting OSS story or comment is encouraged to write the author at sgmbert@hotmail.com