SOE forgery of German Soldiers Prayer Book

[arnhem2280]

The attached is an SOE copy of a German army prayer book. The cover and first few pages giving the contents are accurate but the rest of the book is devoted to slightly injuring yourself and or applying common herbs to the wound that would not normally be recognised by a doctor on the front line and would necessitate removal of the soldier from the front line.
The prayer book also shows sample prescriptions for obtaing any chemicals that can be used.

Having seen an original copy of a German soldiers prayer book it seems to me for the front cover and first few pages to be extremely accurate and would easily pass muster as long as no one looked too far into it.

I have never seen one of these before and wondered if anyone else has and how common they are.

Cheers

Arnhem

[arnhem2280]

SOE Forgery of German Soldiers Prayer Book

For some reason I can't upload the front cover of the prayer book at the moment. I will try again later.

Cheers

Arnhem

[arnhem2280]

SOE forgery of German Soldiers Prayer Book

Cover of Prayer Book

Cheers

Arnhem

[FrenchVolunteer]

Hi,

this small booklet is one of dozen of different types (songbook, SS propaganda, cigarette papers, religious & other books etc) that were dropped over Germany during WW2.

The original text was created by the Canadian Doctor McCurdy, and was called "Krankheit Rettet/Illness Saves". The goal was to "help" German citizen to "appear sick", and the text was hidden in various types of documents.

It was then printed for the PWE (Political War Executive) under the supervision of Sefton Delmer, who was in charge of the black propaganda against Germany.

You will find more infos on the highly recommended book of Sefton Delmer called "Black Boomerang".

The book is unfortunately not easy to find for a cheap price in English (it was strangely not reprinted), but a full copy is available for free on the psywar.org website (home of the Sefton Delmer archives) :

https://www.psywar.org/delmer/1005/1001

Additional readings in those two links :

https://www.psywar.org/illnesssaves.php

http://www.psywarrior.com/malingering.html

A German study exist under the name "Krankheit Rettet", it includes a facsimile of one of the PWE booklet.

https://www.zvab.com/servlet/BookDet...bi=30336626855

You will find below :

- two pictures of my original "Krankheit Rettet" booklet (right) with the German facsimile (left),

- the various types of "Krankheit Rettet" prints that were made and dropped over Germany.

Those booklets are not common, but not a lot of people are collecting them.

Sincerely Yours,

Vincent