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The true story of the clandestine British organisation briefed to wage psychological warfare to beat the Nazis

At the beginning of the Second World War, a team of unlikely and ill-assorted characters assembled in their secret country headquarters. They had left their civilian roles as politicians, journalists, novelists and spies, advertisers, artists and even forgers, to work for a covert government organisation preparing to broadcast British propaganda into occupied territory. These men and women would become the Political Warfare Executive.

Many of them were misfits with a questionable relationship to the truth, who were prepared to consider unconventional methods to achieve their goals: weakening enemy morale and sowing confusion. In the ‘hush-hush’ village of Aspley Guise near Woburn Abbey (8 miles from the codebreakers at Bletchley Park), they set up a series of undercover radio stations which would broadcast fake shows to Europe.

This book will reveal how the once top secret wartime efforts of the PWE—from pornographic leaflet drops to rumour campaigns, underground publications and fake French and German radio shows—contributed to the frontline of psychological warfare to break Nazi morale.

© Terry Stiastny 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025