The Black Hornet Nano: A Tiny Spy Drone
A Black Hornet Nano helicopter unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Photo: Richard Watt/MoD. The Black Hornet Nano is the US military’s tiniest unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Looking like something the flew…
Pinal County Airpark: A Once Secretive Base for CIA Operations
Overflight of Pinal County Airpark (center) and Silverbell Army Heliport (right) in 2018. Photo: MacGtverGPT. CC BY-SA 4.0 The Airpark, along with much of Arizona aviation history, is very rich.…
Operation Anthropoid: the Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich
Reinhard Heydrich’s car (a Mercedes-Benz 320 Convertible B) after the 1942 SOE Operation Anthropoid assassination attempt in Prague. Heydrich later died from his injuries. Photo: German Federal Archive. Operation Anthropoid…
Operation Mincemeat: How a Corpse Fooled the Nazis
Charles Cholmondeley and Ewen Montagu, two of the British intelligence officers involved in the planning of Operation Mincemeat, shown in front of the vehicle transporting the body of Glyndwr Michael…
Oleg Gordievsky: Cold War Double Agent
Oleg Gordievsky (right) with US President Ronald Reagan in 1987. Photo: Mary Anne Fackelman – Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Oleg Gordievsky was a former colonel of the KGB who became…
The Story of STARS: CIA’s Amazing Airborne Recovery System
Fulton STARS equipped Lockheed MC-130E Combat Talon. Photo: US Air Force. The Fulton surface-to-air recovery system (STARS), also known as the Fulton Skyhook, was a method of retrieving personnel and…
Moe Berg: Baseball Player & Spy
Moe Berg. Photo: Central Intelligence Agency. Berg made himself unique so comparisons were impossible.” ― Nicholas Dawidoff, The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg. Morris (Moe)…
Ten Fascinating Cold War Spy Gadgets
Robot fish “Charlie” Photo: Central Intelligence Agency. Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.” ― Mark Twain, Following the…
Julia Child: Chef & OSS Intelligence Officer
Julia Child gives the KUHT audience a cooking demonstration. Photo: KUHT. Houston Public Broadcasting. Released to public domain. I was never a spy. I was with the OSS…” — Julia…
The Double Agent Who Fooled Hitler: The Story of Juan Pujol García
US troops wading through water and Nazi gunfire on Omaha Beach. MI5 double agent Juan Pujol Garcia. played a critical role in deceiving the Germans as to where the landings…