Nazis planned to poison chocolate, coffee and sugar

Sam Marsden,Press Association
Monday 04 April 2011 11:10 BST
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The Nazis plotted to poison chocolate, sugar and Nescafé coffee as part of a Second World War sabotage operation, newly declassified MI5 files reveal.

German spies were equipped with everything from poison pills disguised as aspirin to cigarette lighters that gave off lethal fumes when ignited. Female agents were supplied with "microbe" weapons hidden in handbag mirrors, to be used against top-ranking officials in Allied-occupied Germany.

British commanders were so worried that they recommended banning troops from eating German food and smoking German cigarettes as they advanced through Germany in 1945.

MI5 even arranged for a bar of chocolate and a tin of Nescafé seized from a captured saboteur to be tested for poison, documents released by the National Archives in Kew, west London, show.

The Nazi leadership also planned to plant sleeper agents around the world after the war with the aim of provoking global unrest and creating a "Fourth Reich".

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